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The Rosary Priest Venerable Father Patrick Peyton was a joyful apostle who promoted family prayer and devotion to Mary worldwide by Father Richard Gribble, CSC
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he green hills and rocky seacoast of County Mayo, in western Ireland, have been a seedbed of the Catholic faith for centuries. Devotion to the Mother of God took on special significance in the area when the Blessed Virgin Mary, together with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist, appeared to a group of country dwellers in the village of Knock in August 1879. One son of Mayo, the Irish-American priest Father Patrick Peyton of the Congregation of Holy Cross, inspired Marian devotion around the world. A self-described “mule for Mary,” Father Peyton became internationally renowned for his work popularizing the family rosary during his 50 years of ministry, until his death in 1992. Father Peyton, whose legacy continues to inspire, was declared Venerable by Pope Francis on Dec. 18, 2017. 22 ♦ C O L U M B I A ♦
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UNDER MARY’S MANTLE The sixth of nine children, Patrick Peyton was born Jan. 9, 1909, in Carracastle, on the eastern border of County Mayo. Like many in early 20th-century Ireland, Peyton’s family, led by his father, John, gathered every evening to pray the rosary. This became the foundation of his famous phrase, “The family that prays together stays together.” Peyton’s priestly vocation began to develop during his childhood, as he assisted the priest at his local parish. Because of his family’s poverty and the fact that older brothers stood ahead of him to inherit the family farm, it became clear that his future was not in Ireland. When he was 19, he and his brother Thomas immigrated to the United States. They settled first in Scranton, Pa., where their older sister Beatrice and her family had arrived earlier. Peyton worked