America is not a land of shrines. A historically Protestant country, our nation is not filled with beloved, ancient pilgrimage sites. Of course, we have the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Maryland, and the National Shrine of St. John Neumann in Philadelphia. There are others, but they don’t hold the imagination in the same way that the medieval sites of Italy, France or Spain do.
So when a new shrine is dedicated, as the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine was on Feb. 17 in Oklahoma City, it’s an event worth noting.
Visible from Interstate 35, the shrine to Blessed Stanley Rother boasts a towering Spanish mission facade, imposing central dome and 2,000 seats for Mass-goers. The style replicates the church of St. James the Apostle in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala, where Blessed Stanley served as a missionary. Designed by Franck & Lohsen Architects, the $40 million shrine and pilgrimage center occupies a 60-acre property that was formerly a golf course.
But the story here really isn’t the dedication of a pilgrimage site. The story of the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine is not actually the story of a building — even a stunningly gorgeous church. The real story is one of holiness, the tale of an American missionary who was martyred abroad.
Born on a farm in Okarche, Oklahoma, Stanley Rother had a sister, who entered religious life, and two brothers. After completing high school, he pursued ordination, attending several seminaries, until he completed his studies at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg. After serving at various parishes in the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, Blessed Stanley was assigned, by his own request, to the missions in southwest Guatemala. It was there that he was murdered on July 28, 1981. He was one of 10 priests killed in Guatemala that year.
As our Catholic faith continues to put down deep roots in the United States, the number of American saints continues to grow. Blessed Stanley is one of the more recent, and the fact that he was a missionary abroad points to the vibrancy of the faith that nurtured him in his home diocese. Alongside Blessed Stanley, we should think of Blessed James Miller, the Christian Brother who was martyred in Guatemala seven months after Blessed Stanley was killed.
And there are still others who laid down their lives in the course of their service to the Gospel. Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, Ursuline Dorothy Kazel, and lay missionary Jean Donovan were raped and murdered on Dec. 2, 1980, in El Salvador by members of the national guard.
Missionaries from the United States have shed their blood further abroad than Central America. In 1992, five American religious — Sisters Barbara Ann Muttra, Shirley Kolmer, Kathleen McGuire, Agnes Mueller and Mary Joel Kolmer — were killed in Liberia. They were members of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, a congregation based in southern Illinois. Their time in Liberia had been spent teaching youth, caring for the sick and evangelizing. Their murders are still unsolved.
But martyrdoms happened in the United States from the outset. In fact, one could say that ours is a Church built on missionaries and martyrs.
Throughout the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, numerous Catholics were martyred in Florida. Today, they are collectively called “the Martyrs of La Florida.” The first among them was a group of three Dominican friars, including Father Diego de Tolosa, OP, Brother Fuentes, OP and Father Luis de Cáncer, OP, who were martyred in June 1549, near present-day Safety Harbor, Florida.
Subsequently, a group of eight Jesuit missionaries, including priests and brothers, were martyred in February 1571 in present-day Virginia. They were betrayed by a native man who had previously converted to the Faith but then returned to his village. All told, this group of 86 martyrs includes more than 60 Native Americans, 17 religious (from the Franciscan, Dominican and Jesuit orders), and seven Spanish laity.
Perhaps the most famous American martyrs are those collectively called the North American martyrs. These eight Jesuit missionaries were killed in the 1640s as they worked among the Huron in what today is upstate New York and Ontario.
Blessed Stanley Rother is but one great holy person from our country who has forfeited his life for the Gospel. Martyrdom may often seem far from our experience, given the comforts of day to day life in our country. But heroic Americans, men and women alike, have fearlessly sacrificed their lives for our Catholic faith. We should know, honor and embrace their legacy. They are all deserving of shrines as worthy as that of the marvelous monument just dedicated to the memory of Blessed Stanley Rother.
Our Sunday Visitor Editorial Board: Father Patrick Briscoe, Gretchen R. Crowe, Scott P. Richert, Scott Warden, York Young
