Stanley Rother To Be Laid To Rest At OKC Shrine

The body of murdered Okarche Catholic priest Stanley Rother has been moved to its final resting place.

A Guatemalan death squad allegedly killed Rother, known as the Blessed Stanley Rother, while in his church's rectory in Guatemala in 1981.

He's been on a path to possible sainthood ever since, and is the Catholic Church's first martyr from the United States.

Rother's body was moved early Monday morning to a shrine built in his honor in southeast Oklahoma City.

Rother’s body will be be laid to rest in Oklahoma, but his heart remains in Guatemala, as part of a deal between the state and Guatemala.

The archbishop of Oklahoma City, Paul Coakley, said the shrine seats around 2,000 people, and they will be prepared for an overflow when the main church opens on Friday.