State of Missouri nun’s body is ‘highly atypical,’ experts say. But is it saint-worthy?

A small team of experts have found no natural causes for the apparent preservation of a Missouri nun whose body was exhumed last year around 40 miles north of Kansas City.

Its conclusions found the lack of decomposition “highly atypical,” according to a statement published Thursday by the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.

Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster was the founder of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles , a monastery in the small town of Gower, Missouri. She died in 2019 — but when monastery members exhumed her body in April 2023 to relocate it inside the chapel, they found that it had not undergone the typical stages of decay.

While the fabric lining of Lancaster’s coffin was largely decayed, her body and religious attire appeared to be mostly intact.

The discovery brought Catholics from around the Midwest to visit the body, which some thought to be “incorrupt” — a designation marked by a lack of decomposition after death and associated with holiness in the Catholic faith. There are more than 100 Catholic saints whose bodies have been found in states of partial or total preservation with no known natural causes.

Shortly after Lancaster’s body was exhumed, the local diocese assembled its team of experts to search for natural causes of preservation. The experts included a pathologist, two other medical doctors and a former coroner.

Their investigation, which lasted more than a year, found no evidence in soil samples or interviews with those involved in the burial that explain why the body appears so well-preserved.

Lancaster’s body is now on display in the abbey church . The monastery’s website notes that there are usually no lines to see Lancaster’s body except at the end of Mass services around 12:30 p.m. A photo first published by Fox News Digital also shows that visitors are permitted to take a small amount of dirt from Lancaster’s gravesite outside the church.

Monastery leader Mother Cecilia noted last year that Lancaster is thought to be the first African American woman found incorrupt after being exhumed. There are currently no officially canonized African American female saints in the Catholic faith.

However, Kansas City area bishop James Johnston noted that this unusual preservation alone is not a fast pass to sainthood in the church.

“The Catholic Church does not have an official protocol for determining if a deceased person’s body is incorrupt, and incorruptibility is not considered to be an indication of sainthood,” he wrote in Thursday’s statement. “There is no current plan to initiate a cause for sainthood for Sister Wilhelmina.”

The first step toward sainthood after a person has died is being declared “Venerable” by the pope, meaning they have lived a “heroically virtuous” life or were a martyr for the Catholic faith. Then, two miracles are necessary to elevate them up the ranks to full sainthood.

These miracles require the candidate to intervene on a living person’s behalf — meaning that incorruptibility alone is generally not considered a miracle that qualifies someone for sainthood. However, the pope is allowed to waive certain sainthood requirements if he chooses to.

A photo archive of Lancaster’s life on the monastery’s website shows her teaching schoolchildren, meeting Pope John Paul II in Rome, performing in a skit at the abbey, and enjoying cupcakes and ice cream with the other nuns.

Do you have more questions about the role of religion in the Kansas City area? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com .