Patrick Peyton was dying.
The year was 1938. A seminarian at the University of Notre Dame, Peyton had to face the doctor’s news: “You have tuberculosis.”
A year later, “the doctor said, we don’t know if you’re going to make it,” said Fr. David S. Marcham, Vice Postulator and Guild Director for the cause of Venerable Patrick Peyton, in an interview with Catholic Exchange.
The blow was crushing. As Fr. Marcham pointed out, Peyton’s path to the priesthood hadn’t been strewn with roses. At home in County Mayo, Ireland, his seminary applications had been turned down. The opportunity to join family in the United States had unexpectedly put priesthood back on the table.
Now, just when everything seemed to be on track, a life-threatening illness might steal his chance at priesthood.
Upon hearing the news, one of Peyton’s professors gave him advice that altered the trajectory of his life.
“He said, you’ve been given your faith through your mother. You have it, but you need to use it,” recounted Fr. Marcham. “Mary will be as good to you as you believe she will be. If you think she’s fifty percent for you, that’s what you’ll get. But if you believe one hundred percent she’s there for you, that’s what you’ll get.”
“Patrick Peyton said, from that moment, I surrendered, I turned to our Blessed Mother, and said, I believe you can do this, please heal me,” he said. “Miraculously, the tuberculosis left him.”
From that seed, Fr. Patrick Peyton’s famous Rosary Rallies were born.
“He was so moved, his first question was, how do I repay our Lord and the Blessed Mother for healing me?” Fr. Marcham said. “He finally settled upon, I want to promote the family Rosary prayer. That’s where it all began. It was in response to a miraculous healing that allowed him a second chance in life to serve God as a priest.”
This year, a multitude of Catholic families will gather at the University of Notre Dame, where Fr. Peyton rediscovered the Blessed Mother’s love during his illness. This September 7, organizations including Holy Cross Family Ministries, the Congregation of Holy Cross, and the University of Notre Dame are carrying on Fr. Peyton’s lifework through the 75th Anniversary Venerable Patrick Peyton Rosary Rally.
Seventy-five years ago, Fr. Peyton brought a Rosary Rally to Notre Dame for the first time. In 1950, families in the US were still suffering from the effects of World War II, which had ended just five years prior.
World war “changes the whole structure of family life, communities, parishes,” explained Fr. Marcham. “If servicemembers are lucky enough to survive and return, many come back with the scars of war . . . Sadly, sometimes they came back and their spouse had moved on.”
Coming from a tight-knit family that managed to weather poverty and health-related difficulties, Fr. Peyton honed in on his family tradition—praying a daily rosary—as crucial. His first-ever 1948 Rosary rally in London, Ontario, Canada, was a smash hit.
“[More than] eighty thousand families, 95% of the diocese, made pledges to faithfully pray the family Rosary,” said Fr. Marcham.
Two years later, after hosting a series of rosary rallies around the US, Fr. Peyton “came full circle” at Notre Dame, in the words of Fr. Marcham.
“His vocation to the priesthood, call and response, really started at the University of Notre Dame,” he said. “That’s where he prayed at the grotto and in the chapel, where he was miraculously healed in the infirmary on campus in 1939.”
What did the Rosary mean to Fr. Peyton?
“He said one time that praying the Rosary together as a family made their home a little chapel,” said Fr. Marcham. “He spoke of how important it was that his mother was the one that rounded them all up. But it was his father who led the Rosary.
“And he said, it never left him, hearing his father begin, ‘I believe in God.’ He said those are the most powerful words that a father can say before his wife and children.”
The 75th anniversary Rosary Rally at Notre Dame this September may reflect a trend among modern US Catholics, according to Fr. Marcham.
“I think that the National Eucharistic Congress inspired our nation to have a deeper devotion to Eucharistic Adoration and to Holy Communion. That, to me, was step one,” he mused. “Step two that I’m seeing is that there is a renewal of interest in praying the Rosary.”
For example, earlier this year, Fr. Mark-Mary Ames’ “The Rosary in a Year” podcast ranked #1 on Apple podcasts.
Referencing Catholics’ growing attentiveness to the Eucharist and the Rosary, Fr. Marcham concluded, “I think that God is really laying out a path for us to follow for renewal in our faith and in our families.”
Furthermore, in the context of the wider world stage, Fr. Marcham views the 75th anniversary Rosary Rally as significant, coinciding with this year’s Jubilee of Hope.
“We can be much more hopeful people by uniting in prayer to Our Lord and our Blessed Mother,” he said, adding, “My next prediction is that Eucharistic renewal and the renewal of the Rosary in family prayer will then lead to the next step, which will be an increased participation in Sunday Mass and at the same time an increased participation in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.”
Based out of the Fr. Peyton Center in Massachusetts, Fr. Marcham says he personally wasn’t always so passionate about praying the Rosary.
“When I first got here, the Rosary was an emergency prayer for me,” he admitted.
However, he believes that praying the Rosary consistently at the center has transformed him.
“Anytime we make time to pray, and I would say anytime we make time to pray with our families and those we work with or go to school with, it changes your life,” he said. “It can’t help but change it because you’re expressing your faith publicly. I grew up in a devout Catholic family who talked about faith at home, but we would not be as apt to public prayer outside of church. So this helped me to grow in that.”
Fr. Marcham believes those participating in the upcoming Rosary Rally can become similarly invigorated. He referenced the Notre Dame Victory March lyrics, “Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame, wake up the echoes cheering her name.”
“What we’re doing by rallying is, by ‘waking up the echoes,’ it’s waking up the legacy of our faith. The faith that we’ve been taught, such as about Our Lord and our Blessed Mother, but also the legacy of Fr. Peyton and what he means to us,” he said. “I hope we will ‘wake up the echoes’ of the faith of everyone who attends.”
Author’s Note: To learn more about the September 7th Rosary Rally at the University of Notre Dame (attending in person or online), visit www.familyrosary.org/rosaryrally. Additionally, consider praying for Fr. Peyton’s canonization as part of the Fr. Peyton Prayer Guild at www.fatherpeyton.org.
Photo by Steven Van Elk on Unsplash
