Sister Wilhelmina, the first American to be declared incorruptible, was the beloved founder of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, an order she started in 1995 after facing challenges in the original order she joined.
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Sister Wilhelmina was born Mary Elizabeth Lancaster on April 13, 1924, and received her First Holy Communion on April 2, 1934. She mentioned that she had an unforgettable experience in which Our Lord asked her to be His and meet Him at Holy Communion every Sunday. After this experience, she pursued becoming a nun and eventually joined the Oblate Sisters of Providence after finishing high school.
Sister Wilhelmina held various roles with the Oblate Sisters, such as cooking, cleaning, teaching, and assisting an elderly nun named Sister Beninga. She also shared her observations about the changes in her order, including allowing individual Sisters to experiment with the headdress and the absence of traditional practices like the rule of silence and monthly chapter.
Her encounter with the Priestly Fraternity Of St. Peter (FSSP) and St. John Paul II’s motu proprio Ecclesia Dei, which permitted all Catholic priests to celebrate the Latin Mass without special permission, revived her hope and led her to embrace the traditional habit.
In 1994, she joined the FSSP and renewed her vows as a Benedictine sister. One year later she started The Benedictines of Mary. Soon after the order relocated to the diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri, as per the invitation of Bishop Robert W. Finn. Sister Wilhelmina's last words were “O Maria,” and she passed away on May 29, 2019, with the Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima present in her room. In preparation for the construction of a shrine, the Benedictine sisters completed an exhumation of Sister Wilhemina on April 28th, 2023, having been told to expect to see only bones in the highly moist clay of Missouri, as she was buried in a simple wooden coffin without any embalming whatsoever at her death on May 29th, 2019. However, the sisters discovered what appeared to be an intact body and a perfectly preserved religious habit, instead of bones.
Those wanting to pay their respects and see her incorrupt body can visit Sister Wilhelmina's grave at the Benedictines of Mary’s convent in Gower, Missouri. Or go to https://benedictinesofmary.org/srwilhelmina/ for more information.
