Blessed Stanley Rother
Oklahoma farm-raised priest killed in his mission parish in Guatemala
- Rank
- Blessed
- Kind
- Priest, Martyr, Missionary
- Life
- 1935 – 1981
- Era
- 20th century
- Feast
- 28 July
- Countries
- United States, Guatemala
Life story
Stanley Francis Rother was born on 27 March 1935 in Okarche, Oklahoma, United States, into a farming family. He was ordained for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and served in parishes there from 1963 to 1968. In 1968 he went to Guatemala to work in the mission parish run by the Oklahoma City archdiocese at Santiago Atitlán, in the Sololá department.
The local people were mostly Tz'utujil, a Maya community. According to the accounts, he learned their language and translated the New Testament into Tz'utujil, and set up a school, a clinic and a parish radio. By the late 1970s violence from the Guatemalan civil war had reached the area, and many parishioners were disappeared or killed. In early 1981 he briefly returned to the United States because his name was on a list of threatened people, and then went back to his parish.
In the early hours of 28 July 1981, masked men broke into the rectory in Santiago Atitlán and shot him dead. The perpetrators have never been clearly identified. He was recognised as a martyr and beatified on 23 September 2017 in Oklahoma City, with Cardinal Angelo Amato presiding on behalf of Pope Francis. He is the first United States-born person beatified by the Church as a martyr. His feast day is 28 July.
Works and witness
- Served Oklahoma parishes from 1963 to 1968
- Lived and worked among the Tz'utujil at Santiago Atitlán from 1968
- Translated the New Testament into Tz'utujil
- Returned to his parish after a threat in early 1981
- Shot dead on 28 July 1981; beatified in 2017
Saints from the same country
References
- Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda, The Shepherd Who Didn't Run: Father Stanley Rother, Martyr from Oklahoma (Our Sunday Visitor, 2015)
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints: decree on martyrdom and beatification records, 2017
- Martyrologium Romanum (28 July)
Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.