Fr Patrick Peyton was born on January 9,1909 in County Mayo, Ireland. He was the sixth among a family of nine children. At age 19 he and his brother, Tom, emigrated to the United States. He wanted to become a priest but his family in Ireland could not financially afford the required education.He moved in with his sister Nellie and obtained a job working as a janitor at St. Stanislaus Cathedral in Pennsylvania. With help from Monsignor Paul Kelley, Patrick was able to pursue his schooling to become a priest. He entered the seminary at the Congregation of Holy Cross in Notre Dame, Indiana in 1932.
In October, 1938, he started coughing blood and doctors discovered he had advanced stages of Tuberculosis, which was incurable in those days. His sister Nellie encouraged him to ask our Holy Mother for help. Patrick consecrated himself completely to Mary and devoted himself to praying the rosary. The doctors discovered that the patches on his lungs had disappeared with no scientific explanation. With this miraculous cure through the rosary of our Holy Mother, Father Peyton vowed to Mary that he would promote the rosary all his life.
On June 15, 1941, Father Patrick Peyton was ordained a priest.
Father Peyton was one of the first evangelizers to use the electronic media to spread the word of God, in particular, that families pray the rosary together. Father Peyton coined the phrase, “The family that prays together, stays together.”
Father Patrick Peyton died peacefully on June 3, 1992 holding a rosary in his hands. The cause for his sainthood began on June 1, 2001. Please visit the website dedicated to Father Patrick Peyton’s cause for sainthood and submit your prayer petitions and testimonials of miracles through the intercession of Father Patrick Peyton.
