- The sisters found Lancaster's body intact, despite a crack down the middle of the wooden casket, that would have let in moisture and dirt.
- "We think she is the first African American woman to be found incorrupt," the current abbess of the community, Mother Cecilia, OSB, told EWTN’s ACI Group on Saturday.
Hundreds of people have been travelling to the small rural town of Gower in Missouri, US, to view the well-preserved body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster.
According to the Catholic News Agency (CNA), Lancaster's body, which lies at the Benedictine monastery for religious sisters, shows no signs of decomposition four years after burial.
The late nun founded the Benedictine Sisters of Mary, Queen of the Apostles in 1995, at 70 years of age.
"The recently exhumed remains of the contemplative order’s African American foundress appear to be incorrupt, four years after her death and burial in a simple wooden coffin," CNA said.
She died on May 29, 2019, at 95.
The condition of her body was discovered after the sisters decided to move her body inside their monastery chapel as a final resting place.
This is a long-standing custom for Catholic founders and foundresses.
The sisters found Lancaster's body intact, despite a crack down the middle of the wooden casket, that would have let in moisture and dirt.
Her body was not embalmed.
"We think she is the first African American woman to be found incorrupt," the current abbess of the community, Mother Cecilia, OSB, told EWTN’s ACI Group on Saturday.
The late foundress's body was covered in a layer of mould. It had grown due to levels of condensation within the cracked coffin.
This had however not led to decomposition.
"I thought I saw a completely full, intact foot and I said, "I didn't just see that", So I looked again more carefully," Mother Cecilia said.
She said after looking again, she screamed, "I see her foot!" and the community "just cheered".
"I mean there was just this sense that the Lord was doing this. Right now we need hope. We need it. Our Lord knows that. And she was such a testament to hope. And faith. And trust," she added.
The sisters added that even the flowers placed on her body were intact.
"Not only was her body in a remarkably preserved condition, but her crown and bouquet of flowers were also dried in place; the profession candle with the ribbon, her crucifix, and rosary were all intact," the sisters reported.
"Even more remarkable was the complete preservation of her holy habit, made from natural fibers, for which she fought so vigorously throughout her religious life. The synthetic veil was perfectly intact, while the lining of the coffin, made of similar material, was completely deteriorated and gone."
The Catholic traditions believe in "incorruptible saints", more than a hundred of whom have been beatified or canonized.
They are referred to as incorruptible because years after their death parts of or even all of their bodies are immune to the natural process of decay.
The Catholic church also believes that these saints are a testimony to the truth of the resurrection of the body and life after death.