`Rosary Priest’ on path to Sainthood

It is almost a year to the day since I last visited the grave marker of Fr. Patrick Peyton in North Easton, Mass. The last time I had been there, it was all but impossible to find the marker which was covered under the winter snow. Had it not been for the tiny flags marking the grave markers of the bothers and priests who had served their country in the Korean and Second World Wars, I never would have found the marker on Christmas Eve morning, 2008. On July 21, last year, there was no one in the walled cemetery where Fr. Peyton is buried and now the tiny flags honouring the priests that had served their country were clearly visible, stirred by the gentle breeze.

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Only yesterday, Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien, Archbishop of Baltimore, presided over the closing session of the Cause for Sainthood of Holy Cross Father Patrick Peyton during a noon Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Father Peyton, the legendary “Rosary Priest” who immortalized the promise, “The family that prays together stays together”, died in 1992. The investigation into the sainthood cause of the humble Irish priest, who made a meaningful impact on the lives of so many, opened in June, 2001. But in the process of official Saint status, Fr. Peyton was already a small `s’ saint during his remarkable life on earth. In the days when there were no Blackberrys or IPods, he managed to conduct rosary crusades in 40 countries, drawing some 28 million people. There was no Internet to carry his message. Not every family back in the 1940s had a television or even a radio, but word of mouth carried his message, lighting dark corners everywhere. The Rosary Priest is also an ongoing inspiration to all of those who believe that miracles start by never giving up. Only 19 years of age when he arrived in America from Ireland, he was told by doctors soon after his ordination that the dreaded tuberculosis from which he suffered would keep him in bed the rest of his life. Never letting go of his dreams to get his message to the world, he used his sick bed time to pray. Surprising doctors of the day, Fr. Peyton left his sick bed all the same, and by 1947 he had created Family Theater Productions, producing some 600 radio and television programs featuring hundreds of actors and celebrities, and more than 10,000 broadcasts. Messages came from far and wide when I wrote on Canada Free Press about my first visit to Fr. Peyton’s grave marker (Rosaries in the Snow, Dec. 26, 2008). One lady who sends me care packages from Texas, is a distant cousin of Bing Crosby, who along with Loretta Young, Jimmy Stewart, Perry Como and Lucille Ball appeared on Fr. Peyton’s television shows. There is room for real hope and change in contemplating how a message of the 1940s outlives the meaningless political slogans of the day. That’s because the words of some messengers transcend time to live on in the human heart forever. “The family that prays together stays together.”

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