Feast of Blessed Stanley Rother, Martyr

Monday, July 28, 2025

Location: All Parishes - Diocese of Little Rock

Each year, on July 28, the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, Diocese of Tulsa, Diocese of Little Rock and parishes in the Diocese of Sololá in Guatemala celebrate the feast day of Blessed Stanley Rother. This optional memorial may be celebrated unless impeded by a celebration of higher precedence on the liturgical calendar. 

Father Stanley Rother, the first American-born martyr, was beatified in 2017, the final stage before canonization to sainthood. The Oklahoma native, was ordained a priest in 1963 for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. Five years later he was sent to serve in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala. While stationed there, he helped build a small hospital, a school and its first Catholic radio station. 

This feast day marks the anniversary of Blessed Rother's murder in his rectory in Guatemala during a bloody civil war in the country in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He was killed July 28, 1981. 

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor concelebrated the beatification Mass. He served as episcopal delegate for Father Rother's sainthood cause from 2007 until he was named the bishop of Little Rock in 2008. From this experiences, he later published, “Blessed Stanley Francis Rother: The First American Martyr,” a bilingual book that details the life and death Blessed Rother adapted from an extensive audio-visual presentation he had created. The 88-page book includes eight pages of color photographs from Father Rother’s life and his beatification Mass in Oklahoma City. 

In 2017 Bishop Taylor dedicated the Catholic mission in Decatur (Benton County) Blessed Stanley Rother Catholic Church, making it the first in the world to carry the patronage of the Oklahoma priest and martyr.

Blessed Rother’s story is the subject of various books, documentaries and an upcoming feature film. In 2023, the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City dedicated the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine in south Oklahoma City. To learn more about Blessed Rother, visit the archdiocese's website.