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[00:01]
A
Hi, I'm James Prothero, Associate professor at the Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology. We hope you've enjoyed listening to and learning from our professors on this and all our podcasts. The Augustine Institute Graduate School exists to make Christ and his church better known and loved through the exercise of academic study. With St. Augustine as our guide, we focus on the narrative of Scripture and the evangelization of the culture. Faculty and students alike immerse themselves in the rich sources of the Catholic faith, drawing upon sacred Scripture, the catechism of the Catholic Church, and the writings of the fathers and doctors of the church. We have 550 students and over a thousand alumni serving the church in parishes, dioceses, schools, the academy apostolates, the domestic church, and even the secular world. With master's degrees in theology, Pastoral Theology, Catholic Education, and Biblical Studies, our programs are for anyone looking to go deeper in their faith. Are you interested in studying theology with the professors of this podcast? Earn your degree online or on campus in St. Louis, Missouri. Apply now for the coming term of study. Learn more at augustine. Edu.
[01:15]
B
You're listening to a podcast on Catholic Saints. This podcast is produced by the Augustine Institute, an apostolate helping Catholics understand, live and share their faith.
[01:33]
C
Hello and welcome to Catholic Saints, the podcast about the lives of the saints and their legacy for the church and for us. I'm Dr. Elizabeth Klein and I'm joined today by Dr. David Moser to talk about Blessed Stanley Rother. Thanks so much for joining me.
[01:46]
D
Thanks for having me.
[01:48]
C
Dr. Moser is a brand new faculty member at the August Institute who I immediately asked to do this podcast before he got too busy and decided to say no. I thought I would ask him since he's a new colleague. Do you have a favorite course to teach or a favorite subject, Theological subject to teach?
[02:01]
D
That's a great question. Yeah, I did say yes, maybe a little bit prematurely. No, I'm kidding. It was. I'm glad to be here. Yeah. I'm really looking forward to teaching on Aquinas and Christology. I really find his way of meditating on scripture and the Father's fascinating and compelling. It's the subject of my first book, which began as a dissertation too, which I think it's gonna be fun to teach that. So. Haven't taught it yet though, so I'll let you know after the student reviews come in, I guess.
[02:28]
C
Yeah, Thomas, he's. He can be hard to read, but I usually find that once you understand him, it was. It was worth every moment.
[02:35]
D
That's right. You gotta help Students get used to it. So scholastic method.
[02:39]
C
So blessed Stanley Rother is an American saint. He's a more modern saint, and he's got a pretty great story. So you go ahead and start telling us about this saint.
[02:47]
D
Yeah. So blessed Stanley Rother's feast day is July 28th. That's the day he was martyred. So he's a martyr. He died in Guatemala in 1981, so fairly recently. He was born in 1935 in a small town in Oklahoma called Okarche. This was about 500 people. There's a lot of people of German Catholic heritage there. That is his background as well. He had four siblings. He grew up on the farm, milking cows, caring for the animals. Someone you might get along with.
[03:12]
C
Yeah, I know.
[03:13]
D
I don't know. If he had chickens, why did he ever leave Oklahoma? Right, exactly. Beautiful out there. So, yeah, a lot of these practical skills would help him later on because he'll eventually serve as a missionary to Guatemala and very agrarian lifestyle there, too. So anyway, he attends Catholic school and discerns a call to the priesthood after high school. Enrolls at Assumption Seminary in San Antonio, Texas. While he's there, though, he struggles with academics quite a bit. He wasn't the best student. He really struggled with Latin. I mean, don't we all kind of. You know, we all kind of struggle with Latin sometimes, though, right? But anyway, the seminary advised him to withdraw. He was flunking out. But his bishop recognized his character at the time and believed that God had called Stanley to the priesthood.
[03:58]
C
Love before Latin, man.
[03:59]
D
Yeah, that's right. Yes. Love for Jesus before Latin. And Stanley, too, was undeterred by the setbacks he faced. He was determined to become a priest. He really believed God was calling him. And so the bishop sent him to Mount St. Mary Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where he graduated. He was ordained in May 1963 for the diocese of Oklahoma City and Tulsa. So he was sent back to. So he perseveres, Right? He's trust the Lord throughout this early life.
[04:25]
C
This is similar to Jean Vianney, Right. Jean Vianney almost flunked out a seminary
[04:28]
D
and then made it through. He made it through. I guess this is kind of a version of C's get degrees or C's get vocations. I don't know. That doesn't sound right.
[04:39]
C
C for charity.
[04:39]
D
Yeah, There we go. There we go. There we go.
[04:42]
C
And so how does he. So he's a diocesan priest who struggled in school so far, you know, not. Maybe super inspiring story, but how does He. So how does he go from that to ending up as a missionary?
[04:51]
D
Yeah. So he serves as a pastor for five years in the Diocese of Oklahoma City in Tulsa. And John XXIII actually calls for more international missions from priests. So in the diocese, they start to invite people to go to Guatemala to serve as missionaries there. So he volunteers himself to serve at a diocesan mission in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala. And now that area, as you might tell from the title or the name of the place, it had a strong Spanish Catholic presence. It was settled and cultivated by Franciscan missionaries in the 16th century, but had undergone a lot of change since then. And he served the Sothujil people. So this is a. I can't spell it for you. It's kind of a long, confusing name, at least for me as an English speaker. But the Tsojujils were descendants of the ancient Mayans, and they lived in the highlands in Guatemala. And so he goes there to serve them, and he learns their native language, which, again, there's, I think, 100,000 Chujiils today.
[05:52]
C
So that's amazing. So not good at Latin.
[05:54]
D
He's not good at Latin, but he learns this language and he learns Spanish.
[05:58]
C
Wow.
[05:58]
D
So he learns how to speak both of these languages.
[06:01]
C
Persevere students of languages everywhere.
[06:03]
D
For an English. Yeah. Right. Latin's a lot easier for an English speaker to learn than to Jil. But he doesn't give up. And he learns it. And I think that shows his dedication to those that Christ have called him
[06:14]
C
to serve, and also the graces that God pours out on those who persevere. And that's amazing.
[06:18]
D
And even. And he even helped translate the New Testament into their language, so he was able to do a lot for them. It's just kind of amazing.
[06:26]
C
That's amazing. As someone, myself, who struggled with languages, this brings me great consolation. If you persevere, maybe you too can even be a translator.
[06:33]
D
Yeah. And speak these other languages fluently. Who knows? So, yeah. So while he's a priest, he just does the daily work. Right. He's says mass, goes and hears confessions, visits the sick, but he goes beyond that. He actually supports agricultural renewal projects among the people there. He works with people in the fields. He gets out there and gets his hands dirty. He establishes a health care clinic and organizes catechesis and catechism training. He tries to establish a school for lay catechists. He also founds a Catholic radio station. Wow. Yeah. So he's incredibly productive. This radio station would broadcast the news in the Tutujil language. Brief reflections on the faith, brief catechesis and then community information, health information. And so he's incredibly productive and able to contribute a lot to their life
[07:24]
C
holistically, not just spiritual homesteader and media. Sounds like somebody that we can get on board with.
[07:30]
D
Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yep, yep, we can get him on board, at least praying for us, I guess.
[07:34]
C
Okay, but how does he go from sort of this great missionary who's helping all these different areas to suffering death for the faith in this context?
[07:43]
D
Yeah, that's a good question. So the Catholic radio station would actually later on be destroyed by the government. Okay, so we'll start with how that's. I won't talk about the radio station per se, but I'll. I'll talk about what leads up to this. So in order to know a little bit about blessed st. Life, you need a little. Know a little bit about the history of Guatemala. So Guatemala was in a civil war which raged in different phases from 1960 to 1996. So over 30 years. Long time.
[08:10]
C
Yeah.
[08:11]
D
Governments came and went. They were sometimes supported by different foreign governments. Then there were leftist Marxist groups that would resist the government and civil war would break out. There had been long standing ownership of land and property by colonists or descendants of Spanish colonists and natives, by and large had less of the land. And so there's a lot of resentment there, a lot of fighting that broke out. The government generally viewed indigenous groups like the citrus as being kind of seditionist and harboring groups that they should not be. And they. The government also saw the church as a threat because they often worked in the indigenous.
[08:55]
C
Some of these like dissident groups, so called, or in areas that were considered to be unstable or something like that.
[09:01]
D
Right, yeah.
[09:01]
C
So.
[09:01]
D
So the church was seen by the government as a source of instability and division. So several catechists that Rother trained were abducted, tortured and killed. And eventually Rother's own name appears on a death list. So he knows his.
[09:15]
C
From the government?
[09:15]
D
Yeah, from the government. So they're out to get him. And people around him were dropping like flies, right, left and right. He was losing friends. And the violence in his area escalated so much that in early 1981, his bishop in Oklahoma called and said, look, I need you to get out of there because I don't want to lose you. And so he goes home for a time and he leaves, goes back to the United States. But when he did that, he recognized, I think, that something was wrong with him going back. Not long after he left to go back home, he Decided he needed to go back to the people. There's a letter that he would write every Christmas to Oklahoma Catholics about his mission. And his final one in 1980, I guess. Christmas letter of 1980, he wrote to Oklahoma Catholics, update them on his mission. So this is what he said. And he indicates to them his desire to go back. This is what he wrote. 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. So Father Stanley knows that if he goes back, he's probably going to be killed, and that's a very good shot of that. But he says, again, this is a line I want to highlight. A lot of people remember this in Blessed Stanley's writing. He says the shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger. So he realizes that he's a bad priest if he leaves. Even when the going gets tough, he can't leave them to suffer under the oppressive.
[10:53]
C
This is what Christ himself says. Right. The hired man flees at the side of danger, but the good shepherd stays. Yeah. And that's the theme you find also in other times of persecution in the church. You can find the same kind of thing in the life of Cyprian, who flees persecution for a time but then returns his flock to suffer. Or St. Augustine wrote a letter to his clergy while he was dying about the need for them to stay as long as any of the members of the flock were still there in sort of the face of oncoming invasion, rather. That's really amazing. I mean, it's amazing because it's a modern saint, so we can really understand even more deeply the sort of psychology of it. It's like so much more relatable in such a close time place. That's really amazing.
[11:36]
D
Yeah. It's easy for us to escape situations like that because of modern travel. Like we can say, oh yeah, I'm gonn, I'm gonna get out of this before it gets too bad. I'm gonna hop on a plane.
[11:44]
C
Absolutely. And also his bishop asked him to.
[11:46]
D
Right.
[11:47]
C
You know, but the connection he had and his real pastor's heart meant that he had to pastor his sheep, like the good shepherd himself, right to death, if that's what we're required. That's really amazing. I mean, I remember hearing some of these, the parts of the story, because he's such a modern saint, he's American and found it really inspiring. But this is so much more deep than what I had before. So obviously we've already talked about things that we can take away from his life, certainly his sort of willingness to be all things for his people and his willingness to suffer for his people right to the end. But is there any other things we might take away for prayer or sort of for our own spiritual lives? From Blessed Stanley?
[12:25]
D
Yeah, I think it's important to remember he was faithful to the people like Christ. He wanted to be always and ever present. So parishioners who remember him recall that after he came back from the United States in 1981, he was offering the Mass, hearing confessions, and consoling the bereaved people who had lost loved ones right up until the end. And on July 28, his feast day in 1981, about 1 in the morning, three men broke into the rectory and demanded that they come with him, that he reuther and this man with him come with them. And he fought them physically, trying to protect the young man who was staying with him. And the attackers shot him and murdered him. And he never gave up all the way to the end. This was a shock to the people so much so that. And because they loved him so much, they actually asked that his heart be buried under the altar of the church where he served in Santiago, Tijuana, which actually has happened. And his body, that was returned to Oklahoma for burial. I think you see just that steadfast faithfulness again all the way to the end.
[13:32]
C
That's so amazing. And that's such, again, such a powerful resonance with martyrs, historical martyrs of times past. That martyrs are usually recognized right away as especially having died for the love of Christ. And that his people would have recognized that and venerated him right away is a really beautiful thing.
[13:51]
D
He was actually recognized as a martyr by Pope Francis in 2016. So he was saying he was killed in hatred of the faith, but his cause for canonization opened in 2007 and he was. So 10 years later, though, 2017, a year after he was declared martyr by Francis, he was beatified in a Mass in Oklahoma city. So about 20,000 people attended the event. It's seen to. I think it's determined to be the largest Catholic event that's ever happened in Oklahoma. You know, I don't know what the step bar for that is, but yeah, it was a very large event. And other fun facts about him. He is the first US Born priest officially declared a martyr and he's also the first US Born priest that's been beatified. So.
[14:33]
C
Well, let's hope for his his canonization.
[14:35]
D
Yeah, that would come along. That'd be one thing to pray for. You can also go to Oklahoma City and visit the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine. It was dedicated a couple years ago, 2023 as of this recording. By all the pictures I saw of it, it looks quite lovely.
[14:47]
C
So great. Well, thanks so much for sharing about about this scene. Blessed Stanley Rother. Yeah, Pray for us.
[14:53]
D
Pray for us.
[14:56]
B
Thank you for being a dedicated listener to the Catholic Saints Podcast. Your support truly uplifts us. For those seeking additional thought provoking content, go to formed.org It's a platform brimming with resources, including insightful videos that align seamlessly with our podcast themes. If you're finding value in our podcast, please consider taking a moment to leave us a review. Your feedback serves as a cornerstone for our growth and outreach.

Summary4 min read

Catholic Saints Podcast: Blessed Stanley Rother (July 28, 2026), Augustine Institute

Episode Overview

In this episode of the Catholic Saints podcast, Dr. Elizabeth Klein sits down with new Augustine Institute faculty member Dr. David Moser to discuss the life, witness, and enduring legacy of Blessed Stanley Rother, a modern American martyr. The conversation explores Rother’s humble beginnings, perseverance through challenges, missionary zeal in Guatemala, and ultimate sacrifice. Together, the hosts reflect on what contemporary Catholics can learn from his example of fidelity, courage, and pastoral love.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

Introduction to Blessed Stanley Rother

Background: Born in Okarche, Oklahoma, in 1935, into a farming family of German Catholic heritage. (04:46)
Practical skills from farm life later aided his missionary work in agrarian Guatemala.
Attended Assumption Seminary in Texas but struggled academically, especially with Latin—was advised to leave. (03:13-03:58)
Despite this, his bishop recognized his virtue and redirected him to Mount St. Mary Seminary, where he persevered and was ordained in 1963. (03:59-04:25)

“Love for Jesus before Latin.”
— Dr. David Moser (03:59)

Journey to the Missions in Guatemala

Served five years as a pastor in Oklahoma before volunteering for mission work in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala, inspired by Pope John XXIII’s call for increased missionary outreach. (04:50-05:52)
Served the Tz’utujil people—descendants of the Mayans—learning both Spanish and their indigenous language, despite his earlier struggle with Latin. (05:54-06:13)
Helped translate the New Testament into Tz’utujil. (06:18)

“He learns this [Mayan] language and he learns Spanish.”
— Dr. David Moser (05:57)

Went beyond spiritual duties: organized agricultural projects, founded a health clinic, initiated catechetical programs, and started a Catholic radio station broadcasting in Tz’utujil. (06:33-07:23)

Persecution and Martyrdom

Historical Context: Guatemala was embroiled in civil war (1960-96), with government suspicion toward indigenous communities and the church, associating them with anti-government sentiment. (07:42-09:00)
Violence increased—lay catechists he trained were abducted and killed; eventually, Rother’s name appeared on a government death list. His bishop asked him to return to the US for safety. (09:01-09:15)
Despite the danger, Rother felt compelled to return:

“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.”
— Blessed Stanley Rother, Christmas Letter 1980 (09:37-10:53)

This echoes Christ’s own teaching on the Good Shepherd who does not flee. (10:53)

Final Witness and Death

Rother continued his duties—offering Mass, hearing confessions, consoling parishioners—despite the threats. (12:25)
On July 28, 1981, he was attacked in his rectory by armed men, struggled to protect a fellow parishioner, and was shot dead. (12:25-13:31)
So beloved by locals that his heart was buried under the church altar in Santiago Atitlán; his body was returned to Oklahoma for burial. (13:31)

Recognition and Legacy

Recognized as a martyr “in hatred of the faith” by Pope Francis in 2016. (13:51)
Beatified in 2017 in Oklahoma City before an estimated 20,000 people—the largest Catholic event in Oklahoma’s history. (13:51-14:32)
First U.S.-born priest declared a martyr and beatified.
Shrine dedicated in Oklahoma City in 2023 (14:34)

Spiritual Lessons and Takeaways

Fidelity and presence: Rother’s steadfastness in remaining with his people, even in the face of death, serves as a model of pastoral love.
Perseverance in adversity: His struggles in seminary underscore how perseverance and faith can bear fruit in surprising ways.
Contemporary witness: As a modern martyr, his life feels relatable and immediate—making sainthood accessible and actionable for today’s Catholics.

“He wanted to be always and ever present…just that steadfast faithfulness again all the way to the end.”
— Dr. David Moser (12:25-13:31)

Memorable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

03:59 – Dr. Moser: “Love for Jesus before Latin.”
05:57 – Dr. Moser (on Rother learning languages): “He learns this [Mayan] language and he learns Spanish.”
06:33 – Dr. Klein: “This brings me great consolation. If you persevere, maybe you too can even be a translator.”
09:37 – Quoting Rother’s final Christmas letter: “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.”
10:53 – Dr. Klein: “This is what Christ himself says: The hired man flees at the side of danger, but the good shepherd stays.”
12:25–13:31 – Dr. Moser narrates Rother’s martyrdom and the Guatemalan faithful’s veneration.

Important Segment Timestamps

04:46–07:23 - Rother’s background, language struggles, and his missionary activities in Guatemala.
07:42–09:37 - Historical context of civil war and growing persecution.
09:37–10:53 - Rother’s motives for returning and his “good shepherd” conviction.
12:25–13:31 - His martyrdom and its immediate impact on the local community and the Church.

Conclusion

Blessed Stanley Rother’s story is one of simple origins, deep faith, and extraordinary courage—an American priest who became a modern-day martyr by living and laying down his life for his flock. His legacy invites all to fidelity, perseverance, and sacrificial love, resonating with Catholics both in the U.S. and worldwide.

“Blessed Stanley Rother, pray for us.”
— Dr. Elizabeth Klein & Dr. David Moser (14:52)

Loading summary

Transcript55 lines

[00:01]
A
Hi, I'm James Prothero, Associate professor at the Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology. We hope you've enjoyed listening to and learning from our professors on this and all our podcasts. The Augustine Institute Graduate School exists to make Christ and his church better known and loved through the exercise of academic study. With St. Augustine as our guide, we focus on the narrative of Scripture and the evangelization of the culture. Faculty and students alike immerse themselves in the rich sources of the Catholic faith, drawing upon sacred Scripture, the catechism of the Catholic Church, and the writings of the fathers and doctors of the church. We have 550 students and over a thousand alumni serving the church in parishes, dioceses, schools, the academy apostolates, the domestic church, and even the secular world. With master's degrees in theology, Pastoral Theology, Catholic Education, and Biblical Studies, our programs are for anyone looking to go deeper in their faith. Are you interested in studying theology with the professors of this podcast? Earn your degree online or on campus in St. Louis, Missouri. Apply now for the coming term of study. Learn more at augustine. Edu.
[01:15]
B
You're listening to a podcast on Catholic Saints. This podcast is produced by the Augustine Institute, an apostolate helping Catholics understand, live and share their faith.
[01:33]
C
Hello and welcome to Catholic Saints, the podcast about the lives of the saints and their legacy for the church and for us. I'm Dr. Elizabeth Klein and I'm joined today by Dr. David Moser to talk about Blessed Stanley Rother. Thanks so much for joining me.
[01:46]
D
Thanks for having me.
[01:48]
C
Dr. Moser is a brand new faculty member at the August Institute who I immediately asked to do this podcast before he got too busy and decided to say no. I thought I would ask him since he's a new colleague. Do you have a favorite course to teach or a favorite subject, Theological subject to teach?
[02:01]
D
That's a great question. Yeah, I did say yes, maybe a little bit prematurely. No, I'm kidding. It was. I'm glad to be here. Yeah. I'm really looking forward to teaching on Aquinas and Christology. I really find his way of meditating on scripture and the Father's fascinating and compelling. It's the subject of my first book, which began as a dissertation too, which I think it's gonna be fun to teach that. So. Haven't taught it yet though, so I'll let you know after the student reviews come in, I guess.
[02:28]
C
Yeah, Thomas, he's. He can be hard to read, but I usually find that once you understand him, it was. It was worth every moment.
[02:35]
D
That's right. You gotta help Students get used to it. So scholastic method.
[02:39]
C
So blessed Stanley Rother is an American saint. He's a more modern saint, and he's got a pretty great story. So you go ahead and start telling us about this saint.
[02:47]
D
Yeah. So blessed Stanley Rother's feast day is July 28th. That's the day he was martyred. So he's a martyr. He died in Guatemala in 1981, so fairly recently. He was born in 1935 in a small town in Oklahoma called Okarche. This was about 500 people. There's a lot of people of German Catholic heritage there. That is his background as well. He had four siblings. He grew up on the farm, milking cows, caring for the animals. Someone you might get along with.
[03:12]
C
Yeah, I know.
[03:13]
D
I don't know. If he had chickens, why did he ever leave Oklahoma? Right, exactly. Beautiful out there. So, yeah, a lot of these practical skills would help him later on because he'll eventually serve as a missionary to Guatemala and very agrarian lifestyle there, too. So anyway, he attends Catholic school and discerns a call to the priesthood after high school. Enrolls at Assumption Seminary in San Antonio, Texas. While he's there, though, he struggles with academics quite a bit. He wasn't the best student. He really struggled with Latin. I mean, don't we all kind of. You know, we all kind of struggle with Latin sometimes, though, right? But anyway, the seminary advised him to withdraw. He was flunking out. But his bishop recognized his character at the time and believed that God had called Stanley to the priesthood.
[03:58]
C
Love before Latin, man.
[03:59]
D
Yeah, that's right. Yes. Love for Jesus before Latin. And Stanley, too, was undeterred by the setbacks he faced. He was determined to become a priest. He really believed God was calling him. And so the bishop sent him to Mount St. Mary Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where he graduated. He was ordained in May 1963 for the diocese of Oklahoma City and Tulsa. So he was sent back to. So he perseveres, Right? He's trust the Lord throughout this early life.
[04:25]
C
This is similar to Jean Vianney, Right. Jean Vianney almost flunked out a seminary
[04:28]
D
and then made it through. He made it through. I guess this is kind of a version of C's get degrees or C's get vocations. I don't know. That doesn't sound right.
[04:39]
C
C for charity.
[04:39]
D
Yeah, There we go. There we go. There we go.
[04:42]
C
And so how does he. So he's a diocesan priest who struggled in school so far, you know, not. Maybe super inspiring story, but how does He. So how does he go from that to ending up as a missionary?
[04:51]
D
Yeah. So he serves as a pastor for five years in the Diocese of Oklahoma City in Tulsa. And John XXIII actually calls for more international missions from priests. So in the diocese, they start to invite people to go to Guatemala to serve as missionaries there. So he volunteers himself to serve at a diocesan mission in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala. And now that area, as you might tell from the title or the name of the place, it had a strong Spanish Catholic presence. It was settled and cultivated by Franciscan missionaries in the 16th century, but had undergone a lot of change since then. And he served the Sothujil people. So this is a. I can't spell it for you. It's kind of a long, confusing name, at least for me as an English speaker. But the Tsojujils were descendants of the ancient Mayans, and they lived in the highlands in Guatemala. And so he goes there to serve them, and he learns their native language, which, again, there's, I think, 100,000 Chujiils today.
[05:52]
C
So that's amazing. So not good at Latin.
[05:54]
D
He's not good at Latin, but he learns this language and he learns Spanish.
[05:58]
C
Wow.
[05:58]
D
So he learns how to speak both of these languages.
[06:01]
C
Persevere students of languages everywhere.
[06:03]
D
For an English. Yeah. Right. Latin's a lot easier for an English speaker to learn than to Jil. But he doesn't give up. And he learns it. And I think that shows his dedication to those that Christ have called him
[06:14]
C
to serve, and also the graces that God pours out on those who persevere. And that's amazing.
[06:18]
D
And even. And he even helped translate the New Testament into their language, so he was able to do a lot for them. It's just kind of amazing.
[06:26]
C
That's amazing. As someone, myself, who struggled with languages, this brings me great consolation. If you persevere, maybe you too can even be a translator.
[06:33]
D
Yeah. And speak these other languages fluently. Who knows? So, yeah. So while he's a priest, he just does the daily work. Right. He's says mass, goes and hears confessions, visits the sick, but he goes beyond that. He actually supports agricultural renewal projects among the people there. He works with people in the fields. He gets out there and gets his hands dirty. He establishes a health care clinic and organizes catechesis and catechism training. He tries to establish a school for lay catechists. He also founds a Catholic radio station. Wow. Yeah. So he's incredibly productive. This radio station would broadcast the news in the Tutujil language. Brief reflections on the faith, brief catechesis and then community information, health information. And so he's incredibly productive and able to contribute a lot to their life
[07:24]
C
holistically, not just spiritual homesteader and media. Sounds like somebody that we can get on board with.
[07:30]
D
Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yep, yep, we can get him on board, at least praying for us, I guess.
[07:34]
C
Okay, but how does he go from sort of this great missionary who's helping all these different areas to suffering death for the faith in this context?
[07:43]
D
Yeah, that's a good question. So the Catholic radio station would actually later on be destroyed by the government. Okay, so we'll start with how that's. I won't talk about the radio station per se, but I'll. I'll talk about what leads up to this. So in order to know a little bit about blessed st. Life, you need a little. Know a little bit about the history of Guatemala. So Guatemala was in a civil war which raged in different phases from 1960 to 1996. So over 30 years. Long time.
[08:10]
C
Yeah.
[08:11]
D
Governments came and went. They were sometimes supported by different foreign governments. Then there were leftist Marxist groups that would resist the government and civil war would break out. There had been long standing ownership of land and property by colonists or descendants of Spanish colonists and natives, by and large had less of the land. And so there's a lot of resentment there, a lot of fighting that broke out. The government generally viewed indigenous groups like the citrus as being kind of seditionist and harboring groups that they should not be. And they. The government also saw the church as a threat because they often worked in the indigenous.
[08:55]
C
Some of these like dissident groups, so called, or in areas that were considered to be unstable or something like that.
[09:01]
D
Right, yeah.
[09:01]
C
So.
[09:01]
D
So the church was seen by the government as a source of instability and division. So several catechists that Rother trained were abducted, tortured and killed. And eventually Rother's own name appears on a death list. So he knows his.
[09:15]
C
From the government?
[09:15]
D
Yeah, from the government. So they're out to get him. And people around him were dropping like flies, right, left and right. He was losing friends. And the violence in his area escalated so much that in early 1981, his bishop in Oklahoma called and said, look, I need you to get out of there because I don't want to lose you. And so he goes home for a time and he leaves, goes back to the United States. But when he did that, he recognized, I think, that something was wrong with him going back. Not long after he left to go back home, he Decided he needed to go back to the people. There's a letter that he would write every Christmas to Oklahoma Catholics about his mission. And his final one in 1980, I guess. Christmas letter of 1980, he wrote to Oklahoma Catholics, update them on his mission. So this is what he said. And he indicates to them his desire to go back. This is what he wrote. 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. So Father Stanley knows that if he goes back, he's probably going to be killed, and that's a very good shot of that. But he says, again, this is a line I want to highlight. A lot of people remember this in Blessed Stanley's writing. He says the shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger. So he realizes that he's a bad priest if he leaves. Even when the going gets tough, he can't leave them to suffer under the oppressive.
[10:53]
C
This is what Christ himself says. Right. The hired man flees at the side of danger, but the good shepherd stays. Yeah. And that's the theme you find also in other times of persecution in the church. You can find the same kind of thing in the life of Cyprian, who flees persecution for a time but then returns his flock to suffer. Or St. Augustine wrote a letter to his clergy while he was dying about the need for them to stay as long as any of the members of the flock were still there in sort of the face of oncoming invasion, rather. That's really amazing. I mean, it's amazing because it's a modern saint, so we can really understand even more deeply the sort of psychology of it. It's like so much more relatable in such a close time place. That's really amazing.
[11:36]
D
Yeah. It's easy for us to escape situations like that because of modern travel. Like we can say, oh yeah, I'm gonn, I'm gonna get out of this before it gets too bad. I'm gonna hop on a plane.
[11:44]
C
Absolutely. And also his bishop asked him to.
[11:46]
D
Right.
[11:47]
C
You know, but the connection he had and his real pastor's heart meant that he had to pastor his sheep, like the good shepherd himself, right to death, if that's what we're required. That's really amazing. I mean, I remember hearing some of these, the parts of the story, because he's such a modern saint, he's American and found it really inspiring. But this is so much more deep than what I had before. So obviously we've already talked about things that we can take away from his life, certainly his sort of willingness to be all things for his people and his willingness to suffer for his people right to the end. But is there any other things we might take away for prayer or sort of for our own spiritual lives? From Blessed Stanley?
[12:25]
D
Yeah, I think it's important to remember he was faithful to the people like Christ. He wanted to be always and ever present. So parishioners who remember him recall that after he came back from the United States in 1981, he was offering the Mass, hearing confessions, and consoling the bereaved people who had lost loved ones right up until the end. And on July 28, his feast day in 1981, about 1 in the morning, three men broke into the rectory and demanded that they come with him, that he reuther and this man with him come with them. And he fought them physically, trying to protect the young man who was staying with him. And the attackers shot him and murdered him. And he never gave up all the way to the end. This was a shock to the people so much so that. And because they loved him so much, they actually asked that his heart be buried under the altar of the church where he served in Santiago, Tijuana, which actually has happened. And his body, that was returned to Oklahoma for burial. I think you see just that steadfast faithfulness again all the way to the end.
[13:32]
C
That's so amazing. And that's such, again, such a powerful resonance with martyrs, historical martyrs of times past. That martyrs are usually recognized right away as especially having died for the love of Christ. And that his people would have recognized that and venerated him right away is a really beautiful thing.
[13:51]
D
He was actually recognized as a martyr by Pope Francis in 2016. So he was saying he was killed in hatred of the faith, but his cause for canonization opened in 2007 and he was. So 10 years later, though, 2017, a year after he was declared martyr by Francis, he was beatified in a Mass in Oklahoma city. So about 20,000 people attended the event. It's seen to. I think it's determined to be the largest Catholic event that's ever happened in Oklahoma. You know, I don't know what the step bar for that is, but yeah, it was a very large event. And other fun facts about him. He is the first US Born priest officially declared a martyr and he's also the first US Born priest that's been beatified. So.
[14:33]
C
Well, let's hope for his his canonization.
[14:35]
D
Yeah, that would come along. That'd be one thing to pray for. You can also go to Oklahoma City and visit the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine. It was dedicated a couple years ago, 2023 as of this recording. By all the pictures I saw of it, it looks quite lovely.
[14:47]
C
So great. Well, thanks so much for sharing about about this scene. Blessed Stanley Rother. Yeah, Pray for us.
[14:53]
D
Pray for us.
[14:56]
B
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