United States Catholic Catechism for Adults

22 SACRAMENTALS AND POPULAR DEVOTIONS

FORMS OF POPULAR PIETY —CCC, NOS. 1667-1679

THE ROSARY PRIEST For a half century, from 1940 to 1990, Fr. Patrick Peyton, CSC, was “the Rosary priest” to millions of people around the world. To Catholics and other believers around the United States, he was the force behind the familiar slogan, “The family that prays together stays together.” He was born on January 9, 1909, in County Mayo, Ireland. In 1928, Patrick and his brother Tom left home to seek work in America. They went to Scranton, Pennsylvania. Patrick became a janitor at

St. Peter’s Cathedral. Eventually, he and Tom finished high school. Patrick then entered the seminary at the University of Notre Dame, staffed by the Holy Cross Fathers. Before he finished his theological studies, Patrick con tracted tuberculosis. He wrote of this as his “darkest hour.” God made my worst and darkest hour the start of a new life full of meaning. In the middle of the night, my right lung began to hemorrhage. A doctor came and told me he thought I would die that night. I had been strong, vigorous, independent. Now ambu lance attendants placed me on a stretcher, maneuvered me down a narrow, winding stairway and raced me to the hospital. I deteriorated until the doctors said, “Try prayer. Our remedies are useless.”