September 11, 2005
Fr. Patrick Peyton, CSC 1909-1992
Fr. Peyton, known as the “Rosary Priest”, had grown up in a very poor, humble Irish family of nine children which had great and solid faith. He had to overcome many obstacles, including very poor health, in order to finally become a priest. With his prayer to the Blessed Virgin he recovered from tuberculosis, which was at that time considered an incurable disease.
Father Peyton began to preach the rosary everywhere and ran huge prayer crusades around the world. He also had many friends in Hollywood and was the guiding light of the Family Theatre. I have had different people from Hollywood tell me how suddenly they would receive this unexpected phone call from this priest who would start to call them directly “Irene” or “Loretta”. This was Irene Dunn and Loretta Young.
Those of you who are older will remember the tremendous response that there was to the preaching of this simple and devout priest who always gave the same messages: “pray the rosary” and “the family that prays together stays together”. Fr. Pat Peyton was also a very good friend of the Capuchins in New York and often stayed at the Capuchin Monastery of St. John on 31 st Street. His cause for beatification has been introduced and you can pick up much information by e-mailing ppmc@eircon.net, which comes from County Mayo Ireland. A number of people in the United States are also working on the cause for Fr. Peyton’s beatification.
Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR
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