Blessed Stanley Rother shrine will draw people to OKC from across the globe

Construction continues on the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine in southeast Oklahoma City. (Photo courtesy Archdiocese of Oklahoma City)

In the middle of the night on July 28, 1981, Father Stanley Rother was shot and killed in his rectory at Saint James the Apostle Catholic Church in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala, by a group of four men during a violent civil war. A farm kid raised in Okarche, Okla., Father Rother (pronounced ROW-ther) became a priest in 1963 and was serving as a missionary in that Guatemalan village at the time of his murder.

Prior to his death, Father Rother’s family and friends had talked him into returning to his hometown for his own safety; however, he decided to return to Guatamala shortly thereafter stating that, “A shepherd cannot abandon his flock at the first sign of danger.”

Twenty-five years after his death, Pope Francis declared Father Rother a martyr for the faith, the first recognized Catholic martyr from the U.S. Father Rother was subsequently beatified one year later in Oklahoma City in a ceremony attended by approximately 20,000 people. Officials were expecting 10,000.

Now, a shrine being built off S.E. 89th St. in Oklahoma City, just west of Interstate 35, to honor Blessed Stanley Rother will be dedicated on Nov. 4, 2022, during a public Mass. The shrine will serve as a place of pilgrimage, prayer and reflection for people all over the world, said Most Rev. Paul S. Coakley, archbishop of Oklahoma City, in a February press release announcing the November dedication ceremony.

“The dedication of the shrine will be a significant moment in the life of the Catholic Church in Oklahoma and for the broader community. Built to honor Blessed Stanley Rother, the first U.S.-born priest and martyr ever beatified, the shrine will be his final resting place. It will be a place of welcome, serving all people,” said Rev. Coakley.

The Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau, a division of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber, is already gearing up to help promote the shrine to people here and abroad. Sandy Price, the CVB’s vice president for tourism, said shrine officials reached out to the CVB for help to promote the site as an attraction for people all over the world.

“The shrine is going to be a significant site for us from a tourism standpoint, but also from the convention side,” Price said. “A wonderful museum will be part of the shrine, which will display various artifacts from each stage of Blessed Stanley’s life, as well as a video and information about his beatification and his martyrdom. Currently, there’s not another shrine like it in the U.S.”

The OKC CVB is working with the shrine staff to promote the site to national and international visitors, including creating group tour itineraries of religious and spiritually significant sites across the Sooner State.

“We would incorporate other sites across Oklahoma, such as St. Gregory’s Abbey in Shawnee, the cathedral in Pawhuska and certainly sacred sites in Oklahoma City like the Oklahoma City National Memorial,” she said. “Motorcoach groups bring in thousands of visitors to OKC each year and we expect the significance of this shrine to be of great interest.”

During the February meeting of the Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Commission, the shrine’s executive director, Leif Arvidson, told commissioners he anticipates tens of thousands of people will come to the shrine to pray and learn about Blessed Stanley.

“These people will stay in local hotels, will eat in local restaurants and also visit other local sites and attractions in our beautiful city,” Arvidson said.

In addition to the shrine, a 2,000-seat church is also under construction on the site. Once completed, the church, which is being built in Spanish colonial-style architecture, will be the largest Catholic church in Oklahoma and will include a pipe organ with 3,600 pipes, ranging from extremely large to as small as an eraser on the end of a pencil. The church will hold religious services every day to accommodate the growing Hispanic population in Oklahoma City.

“In the southside of Oklahoma City and throughout the city are various churches, and they are operating a number of Masses every weekend and may have anywhere from seven to 10 masses. Often times, they are jam-packed and standing room only,” Arvidson said. “One of the reasons the shrine is being built is to serve the Hispanic community since we can hold about 2,000 people at one time.”

A pilgrimage center and museum, where visitors can learn about Blessed Stanley Rother’s life, as well as Guatemalan culture and the church where Blessed Stanley served in Santiago Atitlán, are being built at the site. Workers have even constructed a replica of Mexico City’s Tepeyac Hill on the shrine grounds where tradition holds that the Virgin Mary, also known by Hispanics as “Our Lady of Guadalupe,” appeared to Saint Juan Diego in 1531.

“In the Bible, it says, ‘Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.’ Following in Jesus’ footsteps, that is exactly what Blessed Stanley did, this farm kid from rural Oklahoma, who all Oklahomans can be very proud of,” said Arvidson.

This story originally appeared in the March 2022 edition of the VeloCity newsletter.