Morticians Mystified by Sister Wilhelmina’s Body: ‘Something Special Going on There’

Jack Klein, owner of Hixson-Klein Funeral Home in Gower, Missouri, confirmed that the religious sister’s body was not embalmed and that the wood coffin was not placed into any outer burial container.

Shannon Mullen/Joseph Bukuras/CNANationMay 26, 2023

Editor’s note: This story was updated on May 28 after diocesan spokesman said she was mistaken when she told CNA that Bishop Vann Johnston had ‘been in touch with someone in Rome’ about the condition of Sister Wilhelmina’s body.

Expert morticians are scratching their heads at the recently exhumed body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, a Benedictine nun who died in 2019 and now appears to be in an unexpected state of preservation.

The reactions come a week after the abbess and sisters of the community that she founded, the Benedictine Sisters of Mary, Queen of the Apostles, unearthed the 95-year-old African American religious sister’s simple wooden coffin on May 18 from the cemetery on the monastery grounds in rural Gower, Missouri, to relocate her remains to a final resting place inside their chapel.

Rest of the story here.https://www.ncregister.com/cna/morticians-mystified-by-sister-wilhelmina-s-body-something-special-going-on-there