(OSV News) ─ Mother Abbess Cecilia Snell puts the number of pilgrims who in the past six weeks have flocked to her Benedictine abbey in rural Missouri between 10,000 and 15,000.
It's a conservative estimate, she said, of the droves of people who, at times, have waited hours in line to see the body of the community's foundress, Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster. The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles disinterred her remains April 28, four years after her death at age 95, and discovered a surprising lack of decay, leading to claims of her incorruptibility and potential for canonization.
Now encased in glass, with a thin layer of wax protecting her hands, Sister Wilhelmina's body continues to draw both the faithful and the curious to their monastery outside of Gower, Missouri, a half-hour drive east from St. Joseph and the state's Kansas border.
Most visitors are locals, or from Kansas City or St. Louis. Some, however, have traveled from Washington state, Maine, California and Florida, but also from as far as Canada, Colombia and India to see and venerate Sister Wilhelmina's body, Mother Cecilia told OSV News.
"Catholics have predominated amongst the crowds, but nevertheless we have had a great many of the curious and unbelievers as well," she said via email June 5. "I don't believe anyone leaves the same way they came. So many times we have heard the phrase, 'This is not possible.' It is true. It is not possible, naturally speaking. But with God all things are possible. Everyone comes away with this sense."
In 2006, Sister Wilhelmina led her fledgling community of sisters from Pennsylvania to the bucolic Missouri countryside where they built their monastery in a place where they could live out the Rule of St. Benedict through obedience, stability and conversion of life. They make vestments and altar linens, tend gardens and welcome priests on retreat.
They also have received acclaim for their dozen sacred music albums, with "Angels and Saints at Ephesus" just re-released in February. Sister Wilhelmina is visible, near the center in a wheelchair, in a group photo on the sisters' Amazon artist page.
With the help of about 100 volunteers, the monastery's 44 sisters have been "able to carry on our daily monastic schedule without interruption" in the midst of thousands of visitors, Mother Cecilia said.
"The experience has changed our life in the sense that there is more exposure, but we are well equipped to deal with it spiritually, knowing that our anchor is in the silent observance of life within the cloister. It is a beautiful thing we think to be able to carry on in peace, while allowing so many people to share in our prayer," she said.
The sisters have heard accounts of miraculous healings from some pilgrims, including three children reportedly healed of severe food allergies, an autoimmune disorder and persistent irregular blood pressure.
"There is also a priest who has been suffering congestive heart failure who experienced complete relief of his symptoms while here. He is awaiting medical test results as proof. Lastly, there was a FOCUS missionary with chronic neck pain who was instantly cured upon approaching Sister Wilhelmina," Mother Cecilia said. "There are possibly others, but these are the most outstanding right now."
But, while some pilgrims are seeking physical miracles, "there have been many more miracles of spiritual healing, of souls being reconciled to Christ," she said. "Most just want a sign of hope, a confirmation of their belief in Christ as the resurrection and the life."
Sister Wilhelmina is drawing thousands to the Abbey of Our Lady of Ephesus at a time when "more Americans than ever" have disaffiliated from organized religion, according to a May survey from the Public Religion Research Institute.
"It is very easy to turn away from God, to give up the effort in moving toward him on the path of virtue, but it is certainly not the right thing to do," Mother Cecilia said of the contrast between the faith drawing pilgrims to her abbey and its decline in broader American culture. "The culture of death likes to pull us into the eddy of its whirlpool. It takes a sign like this, a little Black nun in her duel with death, to show the world that yes, there is life after death, it is a happy ending for those who love him, because even death loses its power and its sting.
"It shows us Christ is alive and well, still willing and able to grant miracles in our day," she continued. "It is a matter of standing with him in faith, and to not be afraid, as we owe him our trust as our maker and victor over life and death."
The sisters and visitors have marveled over not only the condition of Sister Wilhelmina's body -- which, Mother Cecilia said, has shown "no major change" since it was exhumed -- but also that of her habit, which the mother abbess described as "absolutely perfect."
"This was what made experts, be they coroner, chemist, mortician or physician, all scratch their heads," she said. "There was no explanation for the preservation of the fabric whatsoever, especially as the lining of her coffin was gone. It seems that the habit, as a sign of her being a bride of Christ, is what speaks through the world almost even more than her body. It was her relationship with Christ on the path (to) holiness that led her to greatness before him. She sends a message of the value of vocation, of charity and forgiveness, even through racial barriers, and that holiness is possible in our day. Quite a few people have said, 'I knew her. This makes me realize that I can be holy too!'"
The sisters initially disinterred their foundress' body to move it inside their abbey church, not because her grave was damaged by flooding, as a circulating rumor suggested, Mother Cecilia said. Because the church has traditionally considered incorruptibility a sign of the deceased's holiness, the sisters are now praying about whether to open a cause into canonization for Sister Wilhelmina.
"We were not (initially) thinking along the lines of a cause for sainthood, but as there is another year left before we can legally do so, we will be praying about whether or not to move forward on this with the diocese and proper authorities," Mother Cecilia said. "There is at present a five-year minimum time lapse between the death and the opening of a cause (for that person), and it has only been four years. We will see if the interest in Sister Wilhlemina's life shrinks or grows, and observe the timeliness of this presentation, if indeed we make it."
Mother Cecilia encouraged Catholics interested in the nun's sainthood cause "to be very patient, as the church moves very slowly in the recognition of holiness."
"While we all knew and loved Sister Wilhelmina, and acknowledged her deep sanctity, it is another matter to have an official recognition by the church at large," she said. "So I would invite everyone to continue to pray that we do God's will in all things, even in presenting our dear mother foundress to the world, and all her good works. I am sure she is likewise praying for us all."
Asked what she thought Sister Wilhelmina would have thought about the attention, Mother Cecilia said her community's foundress "absolutely loved people" and "was a missionary at heart even to the end."
"She
would always encourage devotion to the rosary amongst everyone she met, and
this is what she said she wanted to pass on to the community: 'devotion to our
Blessed Mother, true devotion to our Blessed Mother,'" Mother Cecilia
said. "I think she would jump at the chance to spread this devotion far
afield, and even all over the world. If people saw her incorrupt body with her
rosary still in her hands, she would be pleased as anything and know she had
accomplished her life work."
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Maria Wiering is senior writer for OSV News.
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