Fr. Stanley Rother is both the first recognized martyr and the first priest in the United States to be beatified. "Yesterday in Oklahoma City, Stanley Francis Rother, a missionary priest, was killed in hatred of the faith for his evangelizing work and human advancement in favor of the poorest in Guatemala. May his heroic example help us to be brave witnesses of the Gospel, committing ourselves to uphold the dignity of mankind." (Pope Francis, Angelus, Sunday, September 24, 2017).
Stanley Rother felt called to the priesthood at an early age, but difficulties with Latin initially made him think of leaving the seminary. However, he persevered and was ordained in May 1963. For one of the sacred images commemorating his ordination, Fr. Stanley Rother chose the words of Saint Augustine: "For my own good I am a Christian, for the good of others, I am a priest."
In June 1968, he joined the Oklahoma mission in Guatemala and was assigned to a local Church in the diocese of Sololá. In Santiago Atitlan parish, he was called Fr. Aplas (the Tzutujil word for "Francis"). Stanley learned both Spanish and Tzutujil, one of the 21 Mayan dialects spoken in Guatemala, to the point of being able to celebrate mass in the Tzutujil language and even translate the New Testament into the local language.
His work as a parish priest also involved a lot of physical labor. Taking advantage of his agricultural experience from Oklahoma, he helped develop agricultural projects by participating in the creation of a farmer’s co-op. In addition, Fr. Stanley helped found a weaver’s co-op and a credit union. He also helped build a school, a hospital in nearby Panabaj, and the first Catholic radio station in the region.
Cardinal Amato, who presided over the beatification of Fr. Stanley Rother, said in his homily: "From 1971 until 1981, numerous killings of journalists, farmers, catechists, and priests, all falsely accused of communism, took place in Guatemala. This was a real and true time of bloody persecution for the Church. In this situation, Father Rother, aware of the imminent danger to his life, prepared himself for martyrdom, asking the Lord for the strength to face it without fear. He continued, however, to preach the Gospel of love and nonviolence."
Fr. Stanley's name appeared on a list of people sentenced to death, and due to danger, he and a confrere left Guatemala in 1981 and returned to Oklahoma, but only for about three months. His heart had remained with the Guatemalan people, and in a December 1980 letter to the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, Fr. Stanley wrote: "This is one of the reasons why I must stand up to violence: the pastor cannot escape at the first sign of danger.”
Shortly after his return to Guatemala, Fr. Stanley Rother was killed at the age of 46 at 1 a.m. on July 28th, 1981, in the Church's rectory in Santiago Atitlán. The perpetrators of the crime, three masked men, were never identified. Although Rother's body is buried in Resurrection Memorial Cemetery in Oklahoma City, his heart will always be with the people he loved, and in fact, it is kept in St. James the Apostle Church in Santiago Atitlan.