His parents, Salvador Grande and Cristina García, divorced when he was young and he was raised by his older brother and grandmother, a devout and strong Catholic woman.

At the age of 12, Rutilio was noticed by Archbishop Luis Chavez y Gonzalez during his annual visit to their village and was invited to attend the high school seminary in San Salvador, the capital of the country.

[3] Grande continued his studies for the priesthood at the major seminary of San José de la Montaña, where he became friends with Romero, a fellow student.

Shortly after this falling out with church leadership, and reconciliation over his criticism of the seminary system, Grande would attend the Latin American Pastoral Institute (IPLA) in Quito, Ecuador beginning in 1972.

There he learned the method of conscientization of Paulo Freire and combined it with the pastoral theology of the Medellín Conference (a meeting of Latin American bishops in 1968).

Attendance at this Institute was a turning point for Grande, for he was finally able to integrate Vatican II, the teaching of the Latin American bishops, and his own reality in Salvador in a ministry that had explosive consequences.

Deeply engaged in the lives of the people he served, Grande led with the Gospel but did not shy away from speaking on social and political issues, which had profound consequences for the church.

He could be credited with promoting a "pastoral" liberation ministry that began in scripture and allowed lay people in El Salvador to work for social transformation without resorting to Marxist analysis.

[9] Grande spoke against the injustices at the hands of an oppressive government and dedicated his life's work to organizing the impoverished, marginalized rural farmers of El Salvador as they demanded respect for their rights.

As the local church in the town’s central plaza tolled its bell to gather people, Grande and the others were still driving along the narrow, dusty road.

The bullets from the front hit Grande's jaw and neck and penetrated his skull; from the rear and left, he was shot through the lower back and pelvis.

Immediately, news of the murders was transmitted to Óscar Romero, the reigning Archbishop of San Salvador, as well as to the local Provincial of the Society of Jesus, who also lived in the capital.

The next morning, responding to a radio announcement by Romero, streams of peasants began walking to El Paisnal for a 9:00 am memorial Mass and to mourn the death of their beloved priest and his friends.

This drew criticism from other Church officials, but more than 150 priests concelebrated the Mass as over 100,000 people came to the cathedral to hear Romero speak, wherein he called for an end to the violence.

After the Mass on 12 March, Romero had spent hours listening to stories of suffering local peasant farmers, and the rest of his time in prayer.

Romero's sermon said, in part: The canonization process for Grande, opened in March 2014 by the Archbishop of San Salvador, José Luis Escobar, was ceremonially closed on Aug. 16, 2016.

[17] In March 2018, the Salvadoran Ambassador to the Holy See noted that Pope Francis was a strong advocate of the canonization of Rutilio Grande, whose path to sainthood had been delayed by "misunderstandings and slander.

"[19] The Holy See announced on 21 February 2020, that Pope Francis, having met with the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, formally approved the beatification of Father Grande and his two lay companions, though the rite was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, hence a tentative date of August 2020 was scrapped.

[15] The life and ministry of Grande is depicted in "Monsenor: The Last Journey of Oscar Romero", produced by the Kellogg Institute at the University of Notre Dame in 2011.