Blessed Stanley Rother relics venerated in Lead

St. Patrick Church, Lead, hosted a Blessed Stanley Rother Evening of Prayer and Veneration, July 28. The theme for the evening was, “What Can Separate us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus.” The Eucharist was exposed on the altar for adoration and relics were available for veneration. Prayers for healing, peace in families and in the world, for vocations to priesthood and consecrated life, and personal renewal and sanctification were offered. Two priests heard confessions throughout the Holy Hour and the evening ended with Benediction. 

The relic was given to Father Kerry Prendiville, pastor of St. Patrick Church, by the Archbishop of Oklahoma City, Paul Coakley. “Blessed Stanley Rother was martyred in 1981 in Guatemala and had attended the same theologate I attended from 1980-84,” Fr. Prendiville explained. “I promised to encourage devotion to the blessed and pray for his canonization.” 

On May 25, 1963, Stanley Rother was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Oklahoma City-Tulsa. Five years later, he joined other priests, religious sisters, and laypersons to staff a Guatemalan mission in Santiago Atitlán serving the Tz’utujil people where he remained for 13 years. In 1980, the Guatemalan Civil War neared his village. On July 28, 1981, he was killed in the rectory of the church. He was declared a martyr on December 2, 2016 and was beatified in Oklahoma City on September 23, 2017.

“My personal devotion to Blessed Stanley and admiration of his courage to go back and serve his people despite death threats, gave me reason to desire an increase in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, including courage,” explained Father Kerry Prendiville, pastor of St. Patrick parish. “He has been a role model of radical availability, and in the words of the Apostle Paul, all things to all people. He reminds us that real peace doesn’t always come through strength, but through love.”

Venerating relics began when early Christians immediately began to revere the bodies of their brothers and sisters who shed their blood to remain faithful to the risen Christ. Their tombs in the catacombs became places that attracted them as they sought to remain faithful.

“The courage and the blood of the martyrs became the seed of Christians. Unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies it remains just a grain of wheat, but if it dies it produces a great harvest,” said Fr. Prendiville. “Veneration of relics are mementos of the saints that encourage us.” 

The scriptures also relate how a woman touching the hem of Jesus’ cloak was healed, how people brought the sick to the streets that the shadow of St. Peter might fall on them and they were healed, and how St. Paul’s handkerchief or aprons from his body were touched to the sick and they were healed. 

“Veneration is an act of faith, hope, and love on our part to honor the dead without any hope of reward,” explained Fr. Prendiville. “Veneration helps us express our faith and grow in virtue and holiness. I am willing to lend the relic of Blessed Stanley to any pastor willing to have an event for the veneration of relics.”