A new documentary on the life and death of Blessed Stanley Rother, an Oklahoma-born priest killed for his ministry to the poor in Guatemala, will debut in theaters nationwide starting August 25, 2026. The film, titled “American Martyr: The Stanley Rother Story,” directed by Derek Watson of Lampstand Story Company and narrated by actor Martin Sheen, traces Rother’s journey from a farm boy in rural Oklahoma to a martyr whose cause the Church recognized nearly four decades after his death.

Rother was born and raised in Okarche, Oklahoma, a small community roughly an hour northwest of Oklahoma City. After struggling through his first seminary attempt due to difficulty learning Latin, he was accepted to Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where he eventually prepared for ordination. The Diocese of Oklahoma City-Tulsa ordained him to the priesthood in 1963.

In 1968, Rother joined the diocese’s mission staff in Santiago Atítlan, Guatemala, where he would spend the next thirteen years serving an indigenous Maya community. On the morning of July 28, 1981, three gunmen killed him in his rectory—an act widely understood as retaliation for his advocacy on behalf of the poor during Guatemala’s civil conflict.

From Martyrdom to Beatification

Rother’s cause for canonization opened in 2007. Pope Francis officially recognized his martyrdom in 2016, clearing the way for beatification. The Church declared him Blessed in 2017, a designation that acknowledges both his holy life and his death in witness to the faith. The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City honored his memory by constructing a shrine dedicated to Blessed Rother, which was formally opened in 2023.

A personal connection links Rother’s legacy to current Church leadership in Oklahoma. Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City was himself a seminarian at Mount St. Mary’s when Rother’s parents and sister visited the seminary following his death. The family placed a memorial plaque in the seminary garden, a mark of their faith and their son’s enduring witness. Coakley has noted that Rother’s path to sainthood requires one more miracle: “It will take a miracle,” he said, referring to the final step toward canonization.

Expanding His Witness

The Lampstand Story Company, which produced the documentary, previously created another film on Rother’s life, “An Ordinary Martyr: The Life and Death of Blessed Stanley Rother,” which premiered at his beatification in 2017. The new nationwide theatrical release aims to bring Rother’s story—and the virtue it exemplifies—to a broader American audience at a moment when witness to Catholic faith often carries personal cost.

Rother’s life embodies the Church’s preferential option for the poor, a cornerstone of Catholic social teaching rooted in the Gospel and developed through papal encyclicals from Pope Leo XIII forward. His choice to remain in Guatemala despite danger, to learn the local language and culture, and to speak for those without voice reflects a fidelity to both priesthood and human dignity that resonates across generations.

The documentary’s release comes as the Church continues to lift up examples of American Catholics whose lives witness to the demands of faith lived without compromise. Al Smith, New York’s Four-Term Governor, Battled Poverty and Anti-Catholic Bias on the Road to the White House, and Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini Built Orphanages and Hospitals for New York’s Italian Immigrants, represent other American Catholics whose work for justice and charity shaped their era.

“American Martyr: The Stanley Rother Story” will open in theaters August 25–27, 2026.

CATEGORY: Church