“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, that our presence among them will fortify them to endure these sufferings in preparation for the coming of the Kingdom.” Bl. Fr. Stanley Rother in a letter to loves ones just before he was killed.
Today we remember Blessed Father Stanley Rother on the anniversary of his martyrdom.
He was born in 1935, the son of Franz and Gertrude Rother, and grew up on a farm in Okarche, Oklahoma. Franz fostered the family’s love of Christ, making it the center and natural part of their everyday life.
Blessed Father Rother and his siblings attended Holy Trinity Catholic Church and School, where he was an altar server and played sports. After high school he wanted to enter the seminary. His father joked that he should have concentrated more on Latin than Future Farmers of America. He entered Assumption Seminary in San Antonio but failed to finish due to the intense theology and Latin workload. His desire to serve others as a priest did not faulter. The young aspiring priest and Franz along with their pastor in Okarche, Father Edmund Von Elm, approached Bishop Victor Reed, who arranged for him to go to Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland. He succeeded there and Bishop Reed ordained him on May 25, 1963. He served as a parish priest and a missionary for Mexicans and Guatemalans.
He served Guatemala during civil unrest there. He would return to Oklahoma for visits, but not for long, because he felt he needed to return to his Guatemalan people he loved and cared for as his own family.
As he wrote in what would be his final letter to his church back in Oklahoma in 1980, “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, that our presence among them will fortify them to endure these sufferings in preparation for the coming of the Kingdom.”
Seven months later on July 28th he was murdered by three unknown assassins.
In 2016, Pope Francis recognized Blessed Father Rother as the first martyr of the faith from the United States. The Rite of Beautification took place in 2017 in front of 20,000 people in Oklahoma City.
