{"id":22097,"date":"2017-09-20T09:23:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T09:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/what-its-like-to-gather-relics-of-fr-stanley-rother-12648\/"},"modified":"2017-09-20T09:23:00","modified_gmt":"2017-09-20T09:23:00","slug":"what-its-like-to-gather-relics-of-fr-stanley-rother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/09\/what-its-like-to-gather-relics-of-fr-stanley-rother\/","title":{"rendered":"What it’s like to gather relics of Fr. Stanley Rother"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Oklahoma City, Okla., Sep 20, 2017 \/ 03:23 am (CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- When Fr. Stanley Rother, a missionary priest from Okarche, Oklahoma, was killed by rebels<\/a><\/strong> in Guatemala, his body was transferred back to the United States to be buried by his family.<\/p>\n

But his heart remained in Guatemala.<\/p>\n

Literally.<\/p>\n

The native Guatemalans loved their pastor so much that they enshrined his heart at the mission parish in Santiago Atitlan.<\/p>\n

On Sept. 23, that heart will go from being a disembodied remain to a first-class relic, a sacred artifact of someone who has been beatified by the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

The keeping and venerating of relics is perhaps one of the more bizarre Catholic practices, but it\u2019s a scripturally-backed practice of the Church<\/a><\/strong> since its beginning.<\/p>\n

There are three classes of relics recognized by the Church. First-class relics are bodily remains of a saint, such as bones or flesh or hair. Second-class relics are belongings of the saint, such as clothes or other personal items. Third-class relics are items that have been touched to a first- or second-class relic of that saint.<\/p>\n

When Archbishop Paul Coakley was installed as head of the Oklahoma City Archdiocese in 2011, he inherited the task of the cause of canonization for Fr. Stanley Rother. As part of this undertaking, he also inherited the task of his gathering relics, a process that officially commenced once it was clear that the martyred priest\u2019s beatification was imminent.<\/p>\n

The second-class relics were easy. Over the years, the archdiocese had collected a handful of personal items of Fr. Stanley, donated by friends and family, including some of his clothes, and a pipe that he smoked. Once he is beatified, these things become second-class relics.<\/p>\n

But when it came to exhuming the body to collect first-class relics, Archbishop Coakley admits he was a little lost.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to do a lot of research,\u201d the archbishop told CNA. \u201cThis happens so rarely, we didn\u2019t know how to go about preparing for this.\u201d<\/p>\n

First, he obtained permission and rights to Fr. Stanley Rother\u2019s remains from the priest\u2019s two surviving siblings.<\/p>\n

Then, according to Vatican protocol, he gathered the proscribed team of witnesses and medical experts who would help with the canonical exhumation and examination of Fr. Stanley\u2019s body.<\/p>\n

The medical team consisted of a pathologist and an orthopedic surgeon, both local Catholics. They helped examine and describe the remains, and compile a report sent to the Holy See. Among other things, the Church looks for signs of incorruptibility, when a body does not decompose. The condition has been found among some saints, although by itself, it is not enough to prove sanctity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had expertise that would be helpful in describing what would be found when his tomb was opened, because we didn\u2019t know what we could find,\u201d Archbishop Coakley said.<\/p>\n

Both the exhumation and examination are done \u201cwith great dignity and reverence, and there is a process by which we exhumed his body from the family plot at the parish cemetery in Okarche,\u201d the archbishop added.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in that process we took one of his ribs, and that\u2019s what we used for preparing first class relics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His body was then transferred to a temporary resting place in Resurrection Cemetery, a Catholic cemetery next to the pastoral center in Oklahoma City, while his rib was sent to Rome.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an Augustinian monastery of St. Lucia in Rome, and they are custodians of relics and have experience in preparing relics, so we sent our relic of Fr. Rother to them,\u201d Archbishop Coakley said.<\/p>\n

The sisters there will divide the rib into many tiny fragments, which will be encased in reliquaries, available to bishops who wish to obtain relics of Fr. Rother for public veneration. First-class relics are no longer distributed to lay persons, in order to protect the relics from negligence or abuse.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the task of preparing the third-class relics (sometimes referred to as \u201ctouched relics\u201d) of Fr. Stanley fell to the Carmelite Monastery of Rochester, New York, a congregation of 11 discalced, cloistered Carmelite nuns.<\/p>\n

Mother Therese, the prioress of the convent, told CNA that while the sisters had done smaller \u201ctouched relic\u201d projects for Carmelite saints, this was the first major relic project the convent has undertaken.<\/p>\n

\u201cA sister from Oklahoma City mentioned to me that the archdiocese was looking for someone to put together relic cards for Fr. Stanley\u2019s beatification,\u201d she said. \u201cI said, \u2018Well we\u2019ve not done this on a huge scale but we are familiar with this process\u2019\u2026so that\u2019s how it came about, a simple question from one of our Carmelite nuns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Often, third-class relics distributed at beatifications come in the form of a little piece of cloth embedded in a holy card.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the body was exhumed, the bones were wrapped in a very large and special cloth,\u201d Mother Therese said.<\/p>\n

This cloth was signed and dated by Archbishop Coakley during the exhumation in May and then sent to the nuns, who are punching small holes in the holy cards of Fr. Stanley and affixing the pieces of cloth \u2013 which will become relics once Fr. Stanley is beatified \u2013 to the cards.<\/p>\n

The holy cards also have a picture of Fr. Stanley on the front, and a prayer for his canonization on the back \u2013 some in English and some in Spanish. The sisters have already made 10,000 and are expecting to make several thousand more.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very great privilege for us,\u201d Mother Therese said. \u201cIt has brought us very close to Fr. Stanley\u2026we feel that he will intercede for us and that he will bless our community and the Church in the U.S. as well, because he\u2019s the first American-born martyr.\u201d<\/p>\n

Archbishop Coakley said working on Father Stanley\u2019s cause has been an honor, especially as someone who graduated from the same seminary as Fr. Stanley (though years later) and has been interested in his story for quite some time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took that as a great privilege to be coming into the Oklahoma City Archdiocese at such a time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2026entrusted my ministry to him and prayed for his assistance and intercession as I undertook this ministry, I\u2019ve felt a very near kinship with him since I was a seminarian and a priest and as the archbishop now.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Oklahoma City, Okla., Sep 20, 2017 \/ 03:23 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- When Fr. Stanley Rother, a missionary priest from Okarche, Oklahoma, was killed by rebels in Guatemala, his body was transferred back to the United States to be buried by his family.<\/p>\n

But …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat it's like to gather relics of Fr. Stanley Rother<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Oklahoma City, Okla., Sep 20, 2017 \/ 03:23 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- When Fr. Stanley Rother, a missionary priest from Okarche, Oklahoma, was killed by rebels in Guatemala, his body was transferred back to the United States to be buried by his family. 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