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“The dominant quality of my father, the one that gave unity to the rest, was his great spirit of faith. This, of course, is characteristic of the culture in which I was raised. The language is sprinkled with expressions of piety. Heaven and earth are intertwined in the mind and the imagination. We lived among holy wells, the memories of saints who had labored in the same fields, the hiding places of persecuted priests, and the rocks on which they had celebrated Mass.

“All of this was embodied in my father to a high degree. In his presence, one felt uplifted, almost like being in church.  I don’t mean that he preached to us.  What impressed me was the way he lived and the way he prayed, especially when each evening we all knelt together to say the Rosary. If there was one inflexible rule in our home, it was that every one of us had to participate in the family Rosary led by my father.  It didn’t matter how hard or how long the day’s work – digging potatoes, cutting turf, or repairing a road. Often one or another would drop to sleep on his knees. But he was always brought back into the prayer, kindly but firmly. It was the entire family praising God, asking Him through His Mother to protect it, to guide it to the destiny He had intended for it. That nightly scene constitutes my earliest memory and the most abiding. From it I derive the entire pattern and purpose of my existence.”

-Venerable Patrick Peyton, All For Her

Growing up in this atmosphere had a profound impact on young Patrick.  Soon he was serving Mass on Sunday – sometimes more than one – and dreaming of a future as a priest. Even when he faced outright rejection by some communities and simple disregard by others, his vocation never left, though for a time he suppressed it.

As a young man, Patrick found his opportunities in Ireland limited. He convinced his parents to allow him to emigrate to America with his older brother. Upon arrival in the United States, Patrick and Tom reunited with their sisters in Scranton. While Patrick had managed to silence the call to the priesthood, his family was still hopeful that it wasn’t gone forever.

“[My three sisters] remained convinced that my calling in life was to the priesthood and that I would be restless and discontented in any other career.”

 -Venerable Patrick Peyton, All For Her

They conspired to have Patrick meet Monsignor Kelly at the Cathedral. Young Pat would not have it and refused. Eventually, he did accept a position at the Cathedral, and when his vocation was reawakened there he began speaking to his brother Tom about his possible vocation. The seeds sown on the family farm back in County Mayo were bearing fruit in Pennsylvania! 

As we know, Patrick and Tom joined the Congregation of Holy Cross. Pat was stricken ill and healed as a seminarian and became a priest with a missionary spirit, bringing the Family Rosary that was so instrumental in his upbringing and faith formation as a boy to the world at large, explaining the benefits that all who pray together as a family would receive simply by doing so! 

Clearly, the foundation that the Peyton family provided in Ireland had far-reaching effects. Vocations grew from those roots, not only the Peyton brothers but nephews and cousins as well. Father Peyton’s brothers and sisters who had families of their own continued the faith traditions of their parents, which has lasted in their families to this day. And the ministries founded by Venerable Patrick Peyton persist to this day, helping strengthen families in their own faith journeys through family prayer, especially the Rosary. 

 ~ David Goodrich, HCFM Archivist