John Murray PP tells the story of Patrick Peyton, who as a seminarian sick from tuberculosis with little hope of recovery, prayed to Our Lady and was cured. He went on to become a successful crusader for the Family Rosary with the motto: “The family that prays together stays together”. He also engaged the services of many Hollywood stars to promote his regular national radio show, “Family Theatre”.
Imagine Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and George Clooney all lining up to talk on television about the importance of prayer in their lives. Hard to imagine, yet fifty years ago the stars of Hollywood did just that. Only then it was Gary Cooper, Lucille Ball, Henry Fonda and Jack Benny. Older readers will recall these names with a certain nostalgia!
The person who persuaded these megastars of the silver screen was no bigshot but a priest whose humble beginnings were a far cry from the mansions of Beverley Hills.
Patrick Peyton was born in 1909 in the parish of Attymass in County Mayo. He was a member of a family of nine and life was tough. In those decades after the Great Famine of the 1840s, the economic situation in Ireland was very difficult indeed and many generations of families made their way to England, Australia and of course, the United States. Such was the path for Patrick and his brother Tom. Nellie, their sister, was already there and the brothers went to join her.
Patrick well remembered the moment of departure for him and his brother Tom. A day or so before they left, the father asked him to kneel before a picture of the Sacred Heart. ‘He addressed Our Lord with an intensity from his heart as he entrusted me completely to His care and protection. Then he said words which were engraved on my heart: “Be faithful to Our Lord in America”.
Patrick’s wish from boyhood was to be a priest and once he reached the States he was able to fulfil his dream. He enrolled in the seminary and made good progress.
However, in his final year he developed tuberculosis, a common ailment throughout the world in the first half of the twentieth century. The illness devastated him, and the medical team gave Patrick little hope of full recovery. They didn’t reckon on the power of prayer and the faith of this particular Irishman!
He prayed, especially to Our Lady, and soon his health improved – much to the consternation of the doctors. In 1941 Patrick was ordained with his brother Tom to the priesthood at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the campus of Notre Dame University, Indiana.
He was so grateful to Our Lady that he asked his superiors if he could begin the prayer crusade which was to take him all over the world, preaching the importance of prayer and especially family prayer. He knew this lesson not from books or learned teachers but on his knees and beside his parents and siblings.
‘What impressed me most was the voice of my mother talking to Mary: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.” In good times and in bad, in sickness and health, in poverty and hard work, we ended each day speaking to Jesus and His Mother, offering them the greatest tribute that could possibly be given, making the greatest act of faith, and honouring Mary above all the angels and saints. Because of the family rosary, my home was for me a crusade, a school, a university, a library and most of all a little church.’
Like many great ventures for God, Patrick’s prayer crusade had small beginnings. He had started a fifteen-minute programme on one of the local radio stations based on the simple idea of families saying the rosary together. It was shortly after his own ordination and America – like most of the rest of the world – was at war.
With so many men away fighting, families were suffering – indeed disintegrating. Patrick spoke to one of the radio chiefs at one of the larger companies and they agreed to give him a longer slot if he could persuade a big star to participate. He persuaded the parents of the Sullivan brothers to come on one of his first shows – their five boys had died together on a battleship in the Pacific. Then he went directly to Hollywood and asked to speak to Bing Crosby. To his surprise he was put through and the star agreed also to participate.
Within a few years Fr. Peyton had a regular show called Family Theatre, running weekly on national radio. James Stewart, who starred in many Holywood films, hosted the first one with these words: ‘With the hope that families everywhere will always be together and that your home will be a happy one – with the conviction that prayer, simple prayer, will help keep it that way.’
Family Theatre had a basic message and always began with the words of Alfred Lord Tennyson: ‘More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.’ And, of course, before the end of the programme the famous slogan that became Fr. Peyton’s signature was also aired: ‘The family that prays together stays together.’
In time, as the new era of television dawned he embraced the new medium with enthusiasm and undertook the monumental task of producing fifteen biblical dramas based on the mysteries of the rosary. In all, Family Theatre produced more than fifty-eight films in his own lifetime, enlisting the talent of Hollywood’s finest – from Frank Sinatra to William Shatner and Bing Crosby to Grace Kelly – indeed the last three films Princess Grace made before her marriage were for Family Theatre.
Patrick Peyton died in 1992 at the age of eighty-three, but others had already taken up the baton of religious broadcasting which he had started. His cause for canonization was introduced in 2001 and today he bears the title ‘Servant of God’. He prayed to Our Lady and soon his health improved.
This article first appeared in The Messenger (October 2008), a publication of the Irish Jesuits.
