An Oklahoma miracle

In Saint Ann Retirement Center’s grand theater, a crowd of more than 75 gathered on Aug. 13 to hear the story of a modern miracle.
 
Father Marvin Leven, an Oklahoma retired priest, and Sandra Rother McGougan, related the 1992 story of Father Stanley Rother’s healing intercession. McGougan said on that July 3, she was stricken by a mysterious brain ailment; her mother, Kay Rother, received a call that Sandra had suddenly fallen ill and was taken to a nearby hospital.
 
When Kay Rother arrived, the situation was dire – Sandra had suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke. Medical personnel had pronounced her daughter brain dead, placed her on life support and were discussing organ donation.
 
McGougan’s family had her transferred to Saint Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City, where an internist found brain activity. The doctors agreed to do surgery with only a 10 percent chance of survival and, if she survived, the family said, she would be unable to talk or walk or have children. As the family gathered for a final farewell, her father phoned the family’s parish priest, Father Marvin Leven.
 
When Father Leven arrived, McGougan was in a dark corner with a nun supervisor. Father Leven anointed McGougan and said to her father: "It is time to turn this over to Father Rother – it’s time for a miracle!”
 
Father Leven drove to Holy Trinity Catholic Cemetery where Father Rother was buried. He prayed and prayed and wept. When he returned to Saint Anthony, Dr. Stanley Pelofsky , the neurosurgeon, told Father Leven it was a miracle when Sandra opened her eyes on the third day.
 
Sandra was in therapy with the same nun supervisor, who asked: "What is the name of that saint you prayed to?" Father Leven answered, "It is Stanley Rother.” Father Rother wasn’t yet a blessed. He was killed in July 1981 in Guatemala, declared a martyr on Dec. 1, 2016, and was beatified on Sept. 23, 2017.
 
“I had a stroke 26 years ago,” McGougan said, “and so it’s an honor to finally be talking about this miracle. I want people to know “Father Stan was a selfless man, he would give the shirt off his back. Nothing about himself – no me, me, me. It was always ‘what can I do for you?’ I also need to thank Father Leven. If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be here.”
 
Father Leven told the group he was with Father Rother when Stan said he was dropped from the seminary and going home. Father Leven urged him to immediately phone Bishop Victor Reed. Father Rother and Father Leven gathered change for the telephone call and called Bishop Reed, who advised him to come to see him immediately. When Father Rother and his father, Franz, visited, the bishop asked, "Do you want to be a priest, Stanley?" Rother said, "Yes, but it's all over for me, isn't it?" The bishop said, "No, it isn't; we'll send you to another seminary."
 
Bishop Reed kept his word and arranged for Rother to go to Mount Saint Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md. Father Stanley Rother was ordained to the priesthood on May 25, 1963.
 
Today, Sandra is a wife and mother with a fulfilling career and a heart brimming with gratefulness. She attributes her healing to God and the intercession of Blessed Stanley Rother. Father Leven resides in the independent living at Saint Ann Retirement Center and still celebrates Mass two days a week.
 
Even though McGougan’s miracle can’t be used as the verified miracle for sainthood since it occurred prior to Dec. 1, 2016, she and her family have no doubt that Blessed Stanley eventually will be declared a saint by the Catholic Church.
 
Judy Hilovsky is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.