A Saint for Oklahoma?

The Archdiocese of Oklahoma city has concluded the diocesan phase of the canonization cause of Father Stanley Rother (1935-81), a missionary slain in Guatemala. Father Rother translated the Bible into the Tzutuhil language and built a hospital.

“When the Servant of God, Father Stanley Rother, was brutally attacked, beaten, and shot dead, the natives of Santiago Atitlan and the Catholic people of Oklahoma were shocked and saddened,” Archbishop Eusebius Beltran preached in a July 20 homily. “But immediately the Tzutihil people enshrined his heart in the parish church because they believed Father Rother was a holy man. They believed he was a saint with God who would now be their intercessor … From that time on, people began to pray and popular devotion arose. In Okarche, Holy Trinity Church and cemetery have become pilgrim stops for people from Oklahoma and beyond.”

Sources:

News Source: Catholic Culture
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Comments

  1. cathmom57/25/10, 5:05 PM

    Jean,
    Thanks for posting this. I belong to Catholic War Veterans Post 168 in Del City, OK. Fr. Rother is our patron. We've been on a pilgrimage to Okarche with the blessing of the family members there. Also, one of the deacons in my parish worked on his cause. So, it is a cause close to my heart. We pray for his soul. I understand that martyrs do go straight to heaven, whether they are declared saints or not. So...

    Fr. Rother, pray for us.

    ReplyDelete

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