Dead body tourism: nun’s cadaver attracts thousands to Gower, Missouri (pop 1,533)

  1. matilddaa's avatar
  2. Broga's avatar
  3. Vanity Unfair's avatar
  4. Broga's avatar
  5. matilddaa's avatar

CATHOLICS. as we all know, have a ghoulish fascination with matters pertaining to death.

Their taste for all things creepy has now created a tourist boom in Gower, with thousands queuing for hours to goggle at the corpse of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, who died four years ago aged 95.

The invasion of the town began almost immediately after international news coverage of the “miraculous” discovery that the African-American sister’s corpse hadn’t succumbed to the normal rotting process.

Neither had her clothes. Even her socks still bore a Hanes tag, according to Sister Scholastica Radel, prioress at the Benedictine Sisters of Mary, Queen of the Apostles in Gower.

OSV News reported Sister Scholastica as saying:

All of her features were there. I mean she had hair on her face, the eyebrows were there, the eyelashes were there, her nose, her mouth—her mouth was even curved up in a smile, so you could see a little bit of the tooth underneath.

The reason for Lancaster disinterment was simple. The sisters decided to move the stiff to the community’s main chapel, with plans to place them in an altar dedicated to St Joseph behind the main altar.

When they discovered that the body was “incorrupt”, Radel said:

All the sisters screamed at that point, we couldn’t hold it in.

They are now hoping that the dead nun will be declared a saint, although that not guaranteed.

According to the Catholic News Agency, the late Catholic author Joan Carroll Cruz, who died in 2012, investigated the phenomena of incorruptibility in her 1977 book The Incorruptibles.

She wrote that, at one time, the Church would accept a candidate for sainthood’s incorruptibility as one of the miracles required for canonisation.

This practice, she said, fell out of use because being incorrupt after death is not one of the requirements to be declared a saint in the Catholic Church, nor is it a definitive sign of having lived “a heroic life of virtue.”

Rocked by the influx of thousands of pilgrims—an estimated 20,000—Gower has been compelled to introduce special measures to deal with the crowds. Police have even set up a mobile command post.

Image via YouTube

According to The Guardian, among the those who travelled to Gower was Royce Hood, who hosts a Catholic radio show. He arrived from Peoria, Illinois, with his wife and six kids in tow. The drive from their home took over five hours.

I feel like people are like, ‘Wow, we need this right now.’ There’s so much chaos and darkness in the world. I think God is giving us little graces to remind us of what is to come and what’s waiting for us.

And Catholics have the gall to call gay people “sick” and “intrinsically disordered“.

Lancaster’s body will be moved on 29 May and encased in glass in the chapel, where visitors can continue to view it, according to the monastery website, which is flogging God’s Will: The Life and Works of Sr. Mary Wilhelmina for $20.00.

Hat tip: AgentCormac.

You can also support my work via a one-off donation via PayPal, Buy Me a Coffee or GofundMe.

Recent posts

Off the hook. Serial evangelical abuser Jonathan Fletcher won’t stand trial.

IN 30 years as vicar of Emmanuel Church Wimbledon, London, the Rev. Jonathan Fletcher, above, is alleged to have engaged in naked beatings, nude swimming and massages, as well as other sexual misconduct, and bullying and “spiritual abuse.” Then, in July 2024 he was charged with eight counts of indecent assault and one of grievous…

3 responses to “Dead body tourism: nun’s cadaver attracts thousands to Gower, Missouri (pop 1,533)”

  1. stephenharvie Avatar
    stephenharvie

    She must be the only thing to to with the RCC (or any religion for that matter) that isn’t corrupt.

    Liked by 2 people

  2. “I feel like people are like, ‘Wow, we need this right now.’ There’s so much chaos and darkness in the world. I think God is giving us little graces to remind us of what is to come and what’s waiting for us.”

    Is that the very best that their fucking “almighty, all-powerful” deity can do for them then? Pathetic!

    Liked by 1 person

  3. I will bet that the tat shops were established before the announcement.

    Like

Leave a reply to stephenharvie Cancel reply