Stanley Rother

Stanley Francis Rother (March 27, 1935 – July 28, 1981) was an American Roman Catholic priest from Oklahoma who was murdered in Guatemala in 1981.

Stanley Francis Rother was born on March 27, 1935, in Okarche, one of four children of Franz Rother and Gertrude Smith, who farmed near that Oklahoma town.

He was baptized on March 29, 1935, in Okarche's Holy Trinity Church by Father Zenon Steber.

His sister Betty Mae adopted the religious name Sister Marita upon taking her vows, and they had two brothers, Tom and Jim.

Rother was strong and adept at farm tasks.

He decided to become a priest after completing high school at Holy Trinity School.

He studied at Saint John Seminary and then Assumption Seminary in San Antonio, Texas.

He served as a sacristan, groundskeeper, bookbinder, plumber, and gardener.

After almost six years, seminary staff advised him to withdraw due to academic struggles, particularly with Latin.

In the late 1960s, Rother founded in Panabaj a small hospital, dubbed the "Hospitalito"; Father Carlín was a collaborator in this project.

He held several parish assignments as a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City from 1963 to 1968 before being assigned to Guatemala.

Following consultation with Bishop Victor Reed of Oklahoma City, Rother attended Mount Saint Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, from which he graduated in 1963.

Bishop Reed ordained him to the priesthood on May 25, 1963.

Rother served as a parochial vicar in various parishes around Oklahoma: Saint William in Durant, Saint Francis Xavier and the Holy Family Cathedral in Tulsa, and Corpus Christi in Oklahoma City.

He had worked as a missionary priest there since 1968.

In 1968, at his own request, Reed assigned him to the diocese's mission to the Tz'utujil people (also spelled “Tz'utuhil”) of Santiago Atitlán in the rural highlands of southwest Guatemala.

To better connect with his congregation, he learned Spanish and the Tz’utujil language which was an unwritten mayan language first recorded by the missionary Ramón Carlín.

He served in Santiago Atitlán from 1968 until his death.

He supported a radio station located on the mission property, which transmitted daily lessons in language and mathematics.

In 1973 he noted in a letter: "I am now preaching in Tz'utuhil."

During that time, in addition to his pastoral duties, he translated the New Testament into Tz'utujil and began regular Masses in Tz'utujil.

By 1975, Rother had become the de facto leader of the Oklahoma-sponsored mission effort in Guatemala as other religious and lay supporters rotated out of the program.

He was a prominent figure in the community, owing to his light complexion as well as his habit of smoking tobacco in a pipe.

Since there was no Tz'utujil equivalent for "Stanley," the people of Rother's mission affectionately called him "Padre Apla's” ("Father Francis”), a nod to his other given name.

Within the last year of his life, Rother saw the radio station destroyed and its director murdered.

In December 1980, he had written a letter to the faithful in Oklahoma describing the violent situation: "This is one of the reasons I have for staying in the face of physical harm. The shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger."

Some of his catechists and parishioners would disappear and later be found dead, their corpses showing signs of beating and torture; Rother knew all this upon returning to Guatemala in May 1981.

In the beginning of 1981, Rother was warned that his name was eighth on a hit list of right-wing death squads, and that he should immediately leave Guatemala to stay alive.

Rother reluctantly returned to Oklahoma in January, and while home in Okarche, said Mass served by Daniel Henry Mueggenborg, a college student who became inspired by Rother to pursue the priesthood, though he later asked the archbishop for permission to return.

Another reason for returning was that he wanted to celebrate Easter with them.

Rother returned to Santiago Atitlán in April, aware that he was being watched.

On the morning of July 28, 1981, just after midnight, gunmen broke into Rother's rectory.

The assassins forced a teenager named Francisco Bocel (who was in the church) to show them Rother's bedroom.

The men threatened to kill Bocel if he did not lead them to Rother, so he led them down a flight of stairs and knocked on a nearby door.

Rother opened the door, and a struggle ensued as Bocel fled; he was shot twice in the head.

Rother was one of 10 priests murdered in Guatemala that year.

His remains were flown back to Oklahoma and buried in Holy Trinity Cemetery in his hometown on August 3, 1981.

At the request of his former Tz'utujil parishioners, his heart was removed and buried under the altar of the church in Santiago Atitlán.

He is the first U.S.-born priest and martyr to be beatified by the Catholic Church, and the second person to be beatified on American soil after the New Jersey-born nun Miriam Teresa Demjanovich in 2014.

On December 1, 2016, Pope Francis confirmed that Rother had died a martyr, murdered for his faith, and Rother was beatified on September 23, 2017, in Oklahoma City.