What’s next on road to sainthood for Blessed Stanley Rother?

Blessed Stanley Rother Feast Day July 28


In 2007, the cause for canonization for Blessed Stanley Rother was opened by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. It was a massive undertaking led by Archbishop Emeritus Eusebius Beltran and a commission charged with gathering thousands of documents, photographs and testimonies about Blessed Stanley from his family, brother priests and laypeople who he served in Guatemala.

The story of Blessed Stanley and the “evidence” of his worthy life was compiled into a 1,126-page “positio,” which Archbishop Coakley presented to the Vatican commission charged with reviewing and recommending beatification and sainthood. It didn’t take long – in Catholic Church standards – for the Vatican to recommend Father Stanley Rother become a Blessed, and be held up as an example of faithful Christian witness. 

He was beatified on Sept. 23, 2017, at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City in a Beatification Mass celebrated by Cardinal Angelo Amato, S.D.B, the then-Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and attended by more than 20,000 people from across the country. It was carried live by KWTV-Ch. 9 in Oklahoma City and nationally by EWTN. Those who couldn’t fit into the packed arena, watched from conference rooms, hallways, hotel lobbies and on a large screen outside of a downtown building.

Blessed Stanley was the first U.S.-born priest to be beatified and the first declared martyr for the United States. 

“It took less than 10 years from the start of his cause to Pope Francis’s declaration in December 2016 that Father Stan was a martyr for the faith. Now, we need everyone’s help in getting to the next step of sainthood! In order to get there, Blessed Stanley needs a verified miracle and that can only happen if the faithful pray for his intercession,” said George Rigazzi, archivist for the archdiocese and a member of the cause commission. 

Canonization is the highest honor the Catholic Church can bestow upon a Christian.

For all those beatified, both martyrs and confessors, to be canonized a miracle is required. It must be proven that this event took place through the intercession of the Blessed and after the date of his or her beatification. In Blessed Stanley’s case, it is any time after he was declared a martyr – Dec. 1, 2016. 

When the miracle has been proven, the pope proceeds to the ceremony of canonization, which is an act of the infallible teaching authority of the pope. By this act, the Church declares that he or she is a saint in heaven with God. It also means that the saint is worthy of public veneration by the universal Church and held up as a model for imitation and a powerful intercessor for all, according to Deacon Norm Mejstrik, the head of the Rother Cause for the archdiocese.

Catholics do not “worship” saints but venerate them. United in the communion of saints, the faithful on earth ask the faithful in heaven, who are their brothers and sisters in Christ, to join them in presenting their needs humbly and prayerfully to God.

“I am grateful to God and to all those who work to promote the cause of Blessed Stanley,” Archbishop Coakley said. “The Church needs heroic witnesses to advance the mission of Christ, and Blessed Stanley Rother was truly a heroic witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He gave his life in pastoral service to his people. I encourage the faithful to seek his intercession and to pray for his canonization.”

In the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, the Diocese of Tulsa and the Diocese of Little Rock, Blessed Stanley’s feast day is celebrated each year on the date of his martyrdom, July 28. After five years, the archdiocese can petition to have his feast day celebrated by all dioceses in the United States.

To provide information on a possible miracle with Blessed Stanley’s intercession, visit archokc.org/rothermiracle or contact Deacon Norm Mejstrik at (405) 709-2710 or [email protected].

To learn more about Blessed Stanley’s life and witness, visit stanleyrother.org.

Diane Clay is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.



Devotions to Blessed Stanley Rother

Imelda Pena Ayala
“I pray this daily: Blessed Stanley Rother, pray for us. Oh God, fount of all holiness, makes us each walk worthy in our vocation through the intercession of your saint on whom you bestowed a great variety of graces on Earth, having graced your Church with the life of your priest and martyr Blessed Stanley Rother, grant that by his intercession this humble flock may reach where the brave shepherd has gone, grant that your Church may proclaim him a saint living in your presence and interceding for us all. Through Christ our Lord, Amen. Blessed Stanley Rother, intercede for us!”

Melinda Herman
“I pray daily to him.”

Charelle McCool
“Blessed Stanley Rother is such an inspiration, especially to me as a Catholic Oklahoman. He adhered to the will of God unto death. You can’t be a better example than that.”

Katie Cawley
“My dad was introduced to Blessed Stanley’s story by the mother of a baby who Father Stanley baptized in Oklahoma. That ‘baby’ grew up, moved to Colorado and became a close family friend of my parents. Since that day where he heard about Blessed Stanley from those friends, my dad has loved Blessed Stanley and kept his prayer card next to his desk. Last February, when my dad was diagnosed with a rare and incurable muscle disease, there is zero treatment or cure, so we began praying for Blessed Stanley’s intercession for my father’s miraculous healing. 

Thousands of people across the world are praying for my dad. We have videos of people in Santiago Atitlan praying for my dad, friends who have taken Blessed Stanley’s prayer card as far as Antarctica and so many other beautiful and powerful stories. We were able to complete the El Camino de Apla’s last July and we hope to visit again in November for the opening of the shrine.” 

Becky Holder
“In March 2021, I was diagnosed with a medical condition that required a heart transplant. From the beginning, I knew I needed to ask Blessed Stanley Rother for his intercession. So many of us have been prayerfully waiting since his Beatification and I prayed I could be part of his story. In reading “The Shepherd Who Didn’t Run” I was inspired by his humble faith and his strength in accepting God’s will. My prayer was for him to help me do the same, and live with that same courage. I was convinced, and still am, that the world needs to know this faithful servant the way the people of Oklahoma and Guatemala know and love him. During my hospital stay, a faithful group of friends joined me every night over Zoom to pray and ask Blessed Stanley’s intercession for my healing. … 
The medical staff who cared for me was in awe that I was not more symptomatic, saying often ‘you are not having the normal medical issues that go along with this disease.’ I finally received the gift of a heart transplant. Today, I am living a complication free, post-transplant life. Now as I pray the ‘Prayer for the Cause of Canonization of Blessed Stanley,’ I have great peace when I say the words ‘Grant that your Church may proclaim him a saint living in your presence and interceding for us.’ Blessed Stanley Rother, pray for us!”