Blessed Stanley Rother: Priest, Missionary, Martyr

Located a three-hour drive from Guatemala City and surrounded by volcanoes, the mountainous region encompassing the Diocese of Sololá-Chimaltenango, Guatemala, is rich in beauty and ancient culture. St. James the Apostle Church, built in 1547 by Franciscan missionaries in the colonial village of Santigo Atitlán, had never produced a single priestly vocation. Father Stanley Francis Rother arrived in this village in 1968 and his ministry, martyrdom and legacy of love changed everything.

Born in 1935 in Okarche, Oklahoma, Fr. Rother was the eldest child of Franz and Gertrude Rother. While attending Catholic school, he worked the family farm, developing perseverance, ingenuity and a keen mechanical aptitude. Faith centered the family and formed Fr. Rother’s call to a vocation.

As a young seminarian, he struggled with Latin, flunked theology and was expelled. Failure seemed imminent. Fr. Rother’s bishop, recognizing his potential, sent him to summer school and arranged admission to Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland. There, under the watchful eye of the rector and the Blessed Virgin, to whom he prayed during frequent visits to the adjacent Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, Fr. Rother found success. He was ordained a priest on May 25, 1963.

For the Sake of Others I am a Priest

In 1964, “Micatokla” (Misión Católica de Oklahoma) was established in Santiago Atitlán and soon flourished. The Mayan Tz’utujil dialect was spoken locally. Without a written language, missionaries learned it through conversation. A weaver’s cooperative and agriculture projects were started, and an extensive program of religious formation began.

This was the landscape 33-year-old Fr. Rother encountered when he arrived in Santiago Atitlán in 1968. His easygoing warmth and humble authenticity drew him into the community. In time, he became fluent in both Tz’utujil and Spanish. The region’s conversion to Catholicism by early missionaries was attributed to the promotion of confradías (brotherhoods). Tz’utujil elders continued serving their people as community leaders while embracing the Church and Fr. Rother became known for his ability to work with the confradías to build common bonds.

His work with the community would serve Fr. Rother well as he ministered in challenging political climates. Guatemala’s political system had experienced war between the Church and State for centuries. After a 20-year lull, the conflict violently erupted in the 1970s. By 1975, as political tensions increased and missionaries fled, he found himself alone, ministering to 22,000 people and preaching in their language. To help, an assistant was recruited to assist Fr. Rother in translating the Bible into Tz’utujil.

This collaboration with community leaders was seen as a threat by the government and they began eliminating community leaders. If intimidation didn’t drive the leaders out, placing them on a Death List usually worked. In May 1979, Father Rother’s name appeared on a list for the first time.

Undeterred, catechetical formation and sacramental life continued. Known as “Padre Apla’s” (Father Francis, since there was no Tz’utujil equivalent of Stanley), he worked tirelessly and trained catechists to assist him. In a July 1981 letter. Fr. Rothers wrote, “…we prepared a group of 149 to receive Confirmation on Pentecost Sunday… We have 90+ couples for marriage and over 200 for Communion.” He wryly added, “We aren’t actually sitting on our hands.”

Continuing, he described the carnage – “That makes eight priests killed or kidnapped since May 1 of 1980. When does it stop?” Fr. Rother frequently mentioned his trust in God’s will, as seen in a 1980 Christmas letter reflected his resolve – “…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…”

The ORPA, a local militia, became active in Santiago Atitlán that year and the army responded with violence; the parish farm was commandeered; the director of a radio station, the Voice of Atitlán, was kidnapped; and after being named on several Death Lists, Fr. Rother reluctantly returned to Oklahoma.

During his just over two months back in the United States, Fr. Rother visited Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, spending days in the chapel and visiting his beloved Grotto. At the week’s end, he told a confidant, “I know what I have to do.” To another priest friend he said, “I promised the people I would be back for Holy Week and I’m going to be there.”

Light the Paschal Candle

With 600 soldiers camped nearby, Fr. Rother celebrated Palm Sunday on his first day back, followed by Holy Week and Easter in Santiago Atitlán.

While working with Carmelite Sisters to prepare for the Feast of St. James, he said, “When they kill me, don’t cry for me. Light the paschal candle and put up the Easter banner.”

After midnight on July 28, 1981, three masked men stormed the rectory and murdered the beloved shepherd with two bullets to his head. He was also severely beaten and stabbed. Badly bruised knuckles showed that Fr. Rother had put up a fight. The good Padre had promised never to be taken alive so that he wouldn’t weaken and possibly endanger the lives of anyone else. Until the end, he protected his flock.

A U.S. Embassy official arriving in Santiago Atitlán later that day reported that “at least a thousand” Tz’utujil people stood silently in the plaza, looking towards the church.

Fr. Stanley Francis Rother’s Cause for Canonization was opened in 2007. On December 1, 2016, Pope Francis officially recognized him as a martyr, the first from the United States and the first U.S.-born priest to be beatified. The Beatification ceremony was held on September 23, 2017, in Oklahoma City. His Feast Day is July 28.

Today, Blessed Stanley Rother’s heart remains with his people in Santiago Atitlán, interred in St. James the Apostle Church. His remains are interred at the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine in Oklahoma City.

In 2000, the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City returned Santiago Atitlán to the care of the Diocese of Sololá-Chimaltenango. Today, 26 diocesan priests serve there, a testament to the vocation seeds planted by Father Rother.

On Saturday, October 18, 2025, during the BEHOLD conference for the Diocese of Harrisburg and in collaboration with the National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes and the Harrisburg Serra Club, a relic of Blessed Stanley Rother will be available for private veneration and to request intercessory prayers for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. More information on the conference can be found at www.hbgdiocese.org/behold. Learn more about Blessed Stanley Rother at https://rothershrine.org/about-blessed-stanley-rother.

(Donna Giberti is a member of Holy Name of Jesus Church, served as a missionary in Guatemala, represents the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City as an Ambassador for the Cause of Canonization for Blessed Stanley Rother and volunteers at the National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, Emmitsburg, MD. Contact her at dmgspiritualdirection@gmail.com for more information. Photos courtesy of Donna Giberti and Deacon Norm Mejstrik, Director for the Cause of Canonization of Blessed Stanley Rother, Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.)

By Donna Giberti, Special to The Catholic Witness