The Life of Sr. Mary Wilhelmina
9781505132687
152 pages
St. Benedict Press LLC
Overview
Sister Mary Wilhelmina Lancaster, OSB, founded the Benedictine Sisters of Mary, Queen of Apostles in 1995 at the age of seventy. Four years after her death, in May 2023, the sisters were preparing for the reinterment of the remains of their beloved foundress after the completion of a St. Joseph Shrine. Upon seeing Sister Mary's remains, they discovered something incredible, something miraculous— her body appeared to be incorrupt! In The Life of Sr. Mary Wilhelmina, you will become acquainted with this most humble sister, who, after fifty years of religious life, was called to establish the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, to remain faithful to the traditional religious life and the Latin Mass. This biography includes stories of her life, her experience as a Black Catholic during racial tensions, the founding of a community, and her original poetry. Her entire life is a testament to fidelity, devotion, and surrender to God's will.
Author Bio
Our community first began under the aegis of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter
in 1995, in the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania. We were originally called
the Oblates of Mary, Queen of Apostles to indicate the offering of ourselves
to the Benedictine family and we had consecrated ourselves to Our Lady, and
offered ourselves to her service. We began following a monastic horarium as
laid out by St. Benedict in his Rule, chanting the traditional Divine Office
in Latin as prescribed. In March 2006, we accepted the invitation of Bishop Robert W. Finn to
transfer to his diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri. We were
established as a Public Association of the Faithful with the new name,
“Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles”. By the grace of God and through
the fatherly solicitude of Bishop Finn, we were raised to the status of
Religious Institute of Diocesan Right on November 25, 2014. September 9th and
10th of 2018 saw the erection of our priory to an Abbey, the consecration of
our Abbey Church, and the consecration of Mother Abbess Cecilia as our first
abbess. On April 28th of 2019, seven intrepid sisters left the Abbey to
establish the our first daughter house, the Monastery of St. Joseph in Ava,
Missouri where they have extended our order and mission.
