An excerpt from the biography "The Shepherd Who Didn't Run: Fr. Stanley Rother, Martyr from Oklahoma"
by Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda:
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Monsignor Hugh J. Phillips, the college librarian and director of the Grotto, remembered Stanley's frequent visits on his own to the Marian shrine: "He had a tender devotion to the Blessed Mother." When Stanley asked the monsignor for his prayers, the older priest assured him: Stan, don't worry; love is going to pull you through."

Many of his classmates (at Mount St. Mary's Seminary) noted seeing Stanley frequently at the Grotto, remembering that he helped to make the Grotto's rock wall. "The seminarians would go there to rake leaves. Stan was there all the time.," said his classmate Father William La Fratta of Virginia. 

Pope Francis has recognized the martyrdom of Father Stanley Rother, a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and alumnus of Mount St. Mary's Seminary who served in Guatemala, making him the first martyr to have been born in the United States. 

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