Deepertruth: Blessed Stanley Rother

Blessed Stanley Rother 7/28/2023

Rother was serving as a missionary priest with the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City when he was killed by unknown assailants on July 28, 1981, in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala. He had volunteered to serve the diocesan mission in Guatemala at a time when the Central American country was in the midst of a civil war.

On May 25, 1963, Stanley Francis Rother, a farmer’s son from Okarche, Oklahoma, was ordained for his home diocese of Oklahoma City-Tulsa. Having flunked out of the area seminary due to his difficulty with Latin, Fr. Rother finally accepted an invitation to attend Mount St. Mary Seminary in Maryland, where he finished his studies and was approved for ordination.

After serving in his local diocese for five years, Fr. Rother joined five priests, three religious' sisters, and three laypersons to staff a Guatemalan mission in Santiago Atitlán serving the Tz’utujil people. The Oklahoma City diocese heard the call of Pope John XXIII to send missionaries to foreign lands, especially Central America. These twelve individuals felt the call, and with their bishop’s approval, left the comforts of the United States to live and work in Guatemala.