About Fr. Stanley Francis Rother
Stanley Francis Rother was born in Okarche, Oklahoma in 1935. Feeling an intense vocation to the Catholic priesthood, he left Oklahoma to attended Assumption Seminary in San Antonio. After struggling academically, in Latin and Philosophy, he was asked to leave! But he persisted in his faith and in his efforts. After tutoring with Oklahoma priests, he was accepted to a second Seminary, Mount St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
Stanley Rother was ordained a Catholic priest of the Oklahoma City Diocese in 1963. He served in a variety of parishes in Oklahoma, and 1968, was posted to Guatemala. Beloved by the Tz’utujil people of the Lake Atitlán region, Fr. Stan ministered to them amidst extreme poverty. Despite having failed Latin, he not only learned a passable Spanish, he mastered Tz’utujil, becoming perhaps the first priest to preach directly to the people in their own language. A compassionate and steadfast leader, he energetically helped improve their community with a small hospital, new farming techniques, a weaving co-operative, and a radio station. During landslides in 1975 he heroically cared for widows, orphans, and those left destitute by the tragedy.
The Tz’utujil came to trust and revere Fr. Rother, whom they called “Padre A’Plas,” and awarded him the status of a community elder, as symbolized by the colored “checkerboard” scarf he wears in this picture. Fr. Stan had found his place.
By 1980 Guatemala’s long-running civil war reached Santiago Atitlán, where Fr. Stan was pastor of St. James the Apostle Church. The Army occupied part of the town; parishioners began to disappear. Fr. Stan recovered their bodies and helped the families bury their dead; he witnessed kidnappings and occasionally gave refuge to those chased by the Army.
Eventually Fr. Stan’s name appeared on a death list. Evidently someone didn’t like his work amongst the Tz’utjil. His efforts to create self-reliance among his parishioners were incorrectly and unjustly associated with the leftist guerillas waging war against the state.
He returned to Oklahoma city, where nobody in the church or in his community would have faulted him for remaining. But Fr. Stan chose to return to Guatemala, knowing that he was risking his own death. When requesting permission to return, he told the Bishop: “The shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger!” He could not abandon his flock.
Stan was resolved that if they came for him, he would not allow himself to be kidnapped and “disappeared” to an unknown fate. They would have to kill him on the spot. Stan Rother returned to Guatemala in March of 1981.
On July 28th, 1981, Fr. Stan was killed. Three men came to the church in the middle of the night.
He fought with the assailants to avoid being taken; but, he did so silently, so that the Nuns sheltering elsewhere in the building would not attempt to come to his aid and themselves be harmed. His only words were “kill me here!”. They did not succeed in pulling Fr. Stan from his church.
He was shot twice and quickly bled to death. His fists were bloody and mangled. The next day, the Tz’utujil removed their beloved priest’s heart and buried it beneath the church as was their custom. Fr. Rother’s body was then buried in his home parish of Holy Trinity, in Okarche Oklahoma.
In 2016, the Vatican judged his death a result of a “hatred for his faith,” and declared Fr. Stanley Rother a Martyr of the Church. In 2017, during a special mass in Oklahoma City, Fr. Rother was Beatified, the final step before Canonization as a Saint.
Stanley Francis Rother is the only native-born American to be Beatified as a Martyr of the Faith (there have been other Americans Beatified, but none as Martyrs). His story is a powerful reminder that each of us has a place and a role in the world. From his first moments in wanting to be a priest, till his last moment, he did not abandon his faith or his duty; in his sacrifice, like that of Christ, we can find inspiration for our own search.
Blessed Stanley Rother, Pray for us.