Stanley Francis Rother was born on March 27, 1935, in Okarche, Oklahoma to farmers. The eldest of four siblings, he discerned the call to priesthood while in high school and, upon graduating, studied locally at the St. John Seminary. Due to his trouble with learning Latin, though, he struggled academically and had to transfer to Assumption Seminary in San Antonio and then to Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary in Maryland before he finally was able to complete his studies and graduate. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1963 in the diocese of Oklahoma City.

Following his ordination, Rother served as an associate parish priest at four different parishes in the area before requesting to be sent on mission to Guatemala. He started his service at the diocese’s mission to the Tz’utujil people of Santiago Atitlán in Southwest Guatemala in 1968.

Despite his difficulties with learning Latin, Father Rother committed to learning both Spanish and the Tz’utujil native language. While living among the Tz’utujil people, he supported a local radio station that transmitted language and math lessons, preached in both Spanish and Tz’utujil, and even founded a local hospital. He was well loved by those he lived among due to his ability to connect and his habit of smoking tobacco pipes with his neighbors. His community lived in abject poverty, and he made no concessions for himself, living alongside those he served in the same manner as they lived. His friends and community in Santiago Atitlán called him by his middle name, Francis, or in their native language, Apla, as Stanly didn’t have a native analogue.  

Violence in Guatemala became prevalent and escalated significantly in the 1980’s. Before his death, Fr. Rother experienced the destruction of his radio station, and friends going missing, being tortured, and murdered by right-wing guerilla forces. His own life was threatened by those perpetuating the violence and he became accustomed to constantly being watched and targeted. Despite all of this, he continued to serve and live alongside his community of Tz’utujil people stating, “The shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger.”

On July 28, 1981, just after midnight, three Spanish-speaking non-indigenous men snuck into the rectory of the mission looking for blood. After seizing the teenaged brother of the associate pastor, they threatened to kill him if he didn’t take them to Fr. Rother, the senior pastor. Once at his room’s door, the young captive called out a warning and, despite this, Fr. Rother decided to let his would-be assailants into the room in an effort to save the teenager. They quickly let the youth go and apprehended Fr. Rother instead. In an effort to protect everyone else on the premises, including the nine sisters in the convent across the patio, he chose to fight the men instead of to allow them to simply take him captive and, possibly, also have an opportunity to hurt or kidnap any of the others. During the altercation, the men shot him in the head, murdering him, and then ran from the premises. 

His community greatly mourned his loss and requested that his heart remain enshrined in Guatemala, where it can be found to this day. He was officially recognized as a martyr for the faith by Pope Francis in 2016 — the first U.S.-born priest to be martyred and, as of 2017, the first to be beatified.