A memorial for Stanley Francis Rother, the first Catholic martyr from the United States, is being built in Oklahoma City. The shrine is expected to cost $50 million.
OKLAHOMA CITY — The birth of Stanley Francis Rother was by all accounts ordinary, aside from the weather. The Catholic farm boy came into the world during an Oklahoma dust storm. But in life — and in death — he was extraordinary. The 46-year-old priest, shot to death in Guatemala
The 46-year-old priest who was shot to death in 1981, became the first person born in the United States to be declared a martyr by the Catholic Church.
A $50 million shrine in Oklahoma built to honor the slain missionary killed by three masked assassins who entered his rectory during Guatemala’s civil war is expected to draw thousands of pilgrims to his home state.