Blessed Fr. Stanley Rother baptizes a child in the Guatemalan village where he ministered.
"The shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger. Pray for us that we may be a sign of the love of Christ for our people, that our presence among them will fortify them to endure these sufferings in preparation for the coming of the kingdom."
Welcome to "North American Sanctity," a series on holy men and women, boys and girls, saints and those on the road to sainthood, from Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Some will be familiar, others less so; but all are inspiring!
By Kimberly Bruce
“If it is my destiny that I should give my life here, then so be it. … The shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger.”
So spoke Blessed Fr. Stanley Rother (feast day: July 28), the first priest born in the United States to be martyred and beatified. Blessed Stanley was murdered in Guatemala in 1981 while serving as a missionary to the Tx’utujil people.
Farming famiiy
Born on March 27, 1935, in Okarche, Oklahoma, Stanley was the oldest child in his rural farming family. He attended Holy Trinity Catholic Church and School, and was an athlete and altar server.
Wanting to be a priest, Stanley had to leave the first seminary he attended because of his poor grades. His classes were all in Latin, a language he did not understand. He persevered and later entered Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, and was ordained on May 25, 1963 for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.
At his ordination, Fr. Stanley chose St. Augustine’s motto as his own: “For my benefit I am a Christian, for the benefit of others I am a priest.”
A priest forever
During his first five years as a priest, Fr. Stanley was an associate pastor in Oklahoma. Then, in answer to Pope St. John XXIII’s call for missionaries to foreign lands, particularly within Central America, Fr. Stanley asked to join the archdiocese’s mission in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala, serving the indigenous Tz’utujil people, who are descendants of the Mayans.
The Santiago Atitlán mission had 11 other missionaries on staff. Over the next few years, however, all the priests, sisters, and lay missionaries returned to their respective homes, leaving Fr. Stanley alone after 1975.
Serving in Guatemala during this time was dangerous and uncertain. From 1971-1981, numerous priests, journalists, farmers, and catechists were killed, wrongly accused of being Communists because they were trying to help the poor. The Guatemalan people were in immense poverty. They suffered malnutrition and half of all their children died before the age of 6.
Fruitful ministry
Father Stanley and the missionaries helped by establishing co-ops so farmers could earn more profits; a radio station; a school; and a hospital. Father Stanley mastered Spanish as well as the local language, into which he translated the New Testament. The people loved him and affectionately called him “Father Francisco,” as Francis was his middle name and easier for them to pronounce.
The Church was the only institution that seemed to be helping these people, and the government took notice. Father Stanley wrote the bishops of Tulsa and Oklahoma City in September 1980, stating:
The reality is that we are in danger. But we don’t know when or what form the government will use to further repress the Church … . Given the situation, I am not ready to leave here just yet. There is a chance that the government will back off. If I get a direct threat or am told to leave, then I will go. But if it is my destiny that I should give my life here, then so be it … . I don’t want to desert these people. There is still a lot of good that can be done under the circumstances.
In another letter a few months later, he said:
The shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger. Pray for us that we may be a sign of the love of Christ for our people, that our presence among them will fortify them to endure these sufferings in preparation for the coming of the kingdom.
Shortly thereafter, Fr. Stanley found his and his associate pastor’s names on a death list. The two priests made the decision to return to their homes.
Back to the valley of the shadow of death
Only home for three months, Father Stanely chose to return to Guatemala, saying, “I promised them I’d be back before Holy Week.” He told others, “If I’m ever kidnapped, they’ll never get me out of the rectory alive.”
Even though St. Faustina was not a missionary, she had the heart of a missionary. In one of her Diary passages, she wrote:
I would like to be a missionary and carry the light of faith to savage nations in order to make You known to souls, and to be completely consumed for them and to die a martyr’s death, just as You died for them and for me. O Jesus, I know only too well that I can be a priest, a missionary, a preacher, and that I can die a martyr’s death by completely emptying myself and denying myself for love of You, O Jesus, and of immortal souls (Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 302).
Her words are a call for us to seek to empty and deny ourselves for the love of Christ and others, which is exactly what Fr. Stanley did.
On the night of July 28, 1981, three masked men entered the rectory looking for Fr. Stanley. He was shot in the head and died instantly.
His body was returned to Oklahoma, but his heart was given to the Guatemalan people and entombed in the church in Santiago Atitlán. Thirty-six years after his death, his heart was examined, and his blood was found to be as fresh as if he had just been buried!
Beatification
Pope Francis declared Fr. Stanley a martyr on Dec. 2, 2016, and he was beatified Sept. 23, 2017, in Oklahoma City before a crowd of 20,000. The Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine opened in Oklahoma City in 2023.
May the example of Bl. Stanley inspire us all to sanctity. As the archbishop of Oklahoma City, the Most Rev. Eusebius J. Beltran, said, “Pray that the Church will experience a new Pentecost and abundant vocations, aided by the intercession of Bl. Stanley Rother.”
Blessed Stanley Rother, pray for us!
Next in the series: Blessed Solanus Casey, OFM Cap, July 30.
Photograph: CNS
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