For the first time since his death in 1981, Blessed Stanley Rother will lie in state at a public overnight vigil before being interred in the chapel at the new Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine in Oklahoma City.
The vigil will begin with vespers (evening prayer) at 5 p.m. led by Archbishop Coakley and priests of the archdiocese. Following vespers, Blessed Stanley’s casket will be available for public veneration until 5 a.m. Feb. 13 at The Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, 3214 N. Lake Ave. in Oklahoma City. It is the same church where he was ordained a priest in 1963.
Doors open at 4 p.m. Security and an honor guard will be on site.
“This is the last time the public will have access to his casket, so I encourage everyone to take advantage of this opportunity to venerate Oklahoma’s future saint,” Archbishop Coakley said. “During the vigil, I ask the faithful to pray for Blessed Stanley’s canonization and to ask for his intercession since a verified miracle will be necessary for his canonization.”
Blessed Stanley is currently interred at Resurrection Memorial Cemetery where he was placed in a vault following his exhumation from the Okarche cemetery where he was buried in 1981. As required by the Vatican, Blessed Stanley’s body was exhumed and inspected prior to his beatification in 2017 in downtown Oklahoma City. Archbishop Coakley, Archbishop Emeritus Beltran and Blessed Stanley’s brother, sister and sister-in-law were present. His heart is enshrined in Saint James the Apostle Catholic Church in Santiago Atitlan.
Following the vigil, Blessed Stanley will be moved to his final resting place in the chapel of the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine at S.E. 89 and I-35 in Oklahoma City.
Along with the shrine church, the shrine will include a 6,000-square-foot museum and pilgrim center to welcome visitors and a replica of Tepeyac Hill in Mexico City with statues of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego. Masses will be held every day at the shrine in English and Spanish, and confession will be available.
The museum will showcase the life, witness and martyrdom of Blessed Stanley from his childhood in Okarche to his work as a missionary priest in Guatemala and his murder on July 28, 1981. Blessed Stanley is the first recognized martyr from the United States and the first U.S.-born priest to be beatified.
Diane Clay is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.
Rother Vespers & Vigil 5 p.m. Feb. 12 – 5 a.m. Feb. 13
The Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, 3214 N. Lake Ave.
Open to the public
Doors open at 4 p.m.
Enter through south door
Find more information at rothershrine.org/vespers-vigil