Hundreds of people flock to a convent in a small town in the US state of Missouri to see the body of a nun who appears to show no signs of decomposition four years after her death, The Guardian reports.

The body of nun Wilhelmina Lancaster was exhumed on May 18 and found to be “intact,” a sign of sanctity

She was the founder of the Benedictine Sisters of Our Lady Queen of Apostles, a convent in Gower, Missouri, about an hour’s drive from Kansas City.

The lifeless body of Wilhelmina Lancaster was exhumed to be transferred to a convent chapel four years after her death in 2019, the Catholic News Agency reported.

The media reported that the nun’s body was never embalmed and was buried in a cracked wooden coffin, which exposed her body to moisture.

The body is “immortal”

“The cemetery staff told us to expect only bones because Sister Wilhelmina was buried without embalming and in a simple wooden coffin,” one of the nuns told Newsweek on condition of anonymity.

Instead, only a layer of mold was found on Wilhelmina Lancaster’s body, possibly due to condensation from a cracked coffin, the Catholic News Agency reported.

In Catholicism, bodies that do not undergo the process of decomposition are known as “incorruptible,” a sign of holiness, and later a justification for holiness.

The canonization process for Lancaster has not begun, Bishop Johnston of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph said in a statement.

More than 100 bodies were mutilated, according to the Catholic News Agency. But Lancaster is probably the first black person in the United States to be found unharmed.

The anthropologist is not surprised by the condition of the body

Some experts say that bodies remain well preserved for the first few years after death, even if they are not exhumed.

“In general, when we bury a body, we expect it to take about five years for it to turn into a skeleton,” Nicholas Passalacqua, director of Western Carolina University’s forensic anthropology department, told Newsweek.

“It is without a coffin or any other container or covering to surround the remains. So for this body that was buried in a coffin, I personally don’t think it’s too surprising that the remains are well preserved after only four years,” Passalacqua added.

However, news of the exhumation spread through social media and hundreds of people traveled to Missouri to see the nun’s body.

According to the convent’s website, Wilhelmina Lancaster’s body will be moved on Monday and put on display under glass in the chapel where visitors can continue to see it.