Born in Oklahoma in 1935, he was one of four children, and his parents, Franz and Gertrude, were farmers. 

After finishing high school Stanley discerned his calling as a priest and entered the seminary, initially at St. John’s and then Assumption in San Antonio, where he also worked as a Sacristan, gardener, groundskeeper, plumber, and even bookbinder. 

But eventually, his advisors told him it was time to withdraw. 

After a conversation with Bishop Victor Reed in Oklahoma City, Stanley made his way to St. Mary’s Seminary in Maryland where he was ordained in 1963. 

Fr. Stanley then returned to Oklahoma, where he was a parish priest through much of the 1960s but, in 1968, he asked for and was given permission to minister to those living in Guatemala. 

Joining four other priests, religious sisters and three lay people, Fr. Stanley went to the Mission of Santiago Atitlan in Guatemala. 

Over the next decade, Fr. Stanley built a ministry among the local people but, by 1975, those who had gone with him had all returned to the United States. 

Using his skills as a priest but also as a farmer, he helped the community immensely and it grew. Eventually, Fr. Stanley was Baptizing one thousand babies a year. 

However, the Guatemalan Civil War worked its way into his mountain community in the late 1970s, and in 1980 he personally witnessed the assassination of several of his own parishioners and a Deacon. 

Warned of threats to his own life, Fr. Stanley returned to Oklahoma in 1981 but, against the wishes of his family and his local Bishop, he made the decision to return to his parishioners in Guatemala. 

On this day in 1981, three masked men entered the Rectory and shot Fr. Stanley to death. 

On December 1st, 2016, Pope Francis issued a decree confirming that Fr. Stanley Rother had been killed
“In Odium Fidei”, in hatred of the faith, he was beatified on September 23, 2017, at a ceremony in Oklahoma City. 

He is the first U.S.-born priest and martyr to be beatified.

Blessed Stanley Rother, please pray for us.