Mayor of Ballina Councillor Michelle Mulherin along with Cllrs Padraig Moore and Mark Winters visited Scranton, Pennslyvania prior to St Patrick’s Day to join in the 100th anniversary celebrations of the birth of Fr Patrick Peyton. The Scranton-Ballina sister city committee hosted the three Ballina councillors.
Fr Peyton, the famous Rosary priest, who died in 1992, and who is now a sainthood candidate, was born on January 9, 1909, in County Mayo. He emigrated from his birthplace, Carracastle, and Attymass parish to Scranton in 1928, from where he entered religious life with the Congregation of Holy Cross and went on to become a world famous priest promoting his message: “The family that prays together stays together.” Holy Cross Family Ministries, which is continuing Fr Peyton’s mission, is sponsoring a year-long observance of the his 100th anniversary with the theme, “Honor his memory. Continue his mission.”
At Scranton City Hall on Friday March 13, the Ballina delegation joined the Scranton Mayor for the annual Irish flag raising ceremony by the Irish American Men’s Association. Later that day Cllr Mulherin and a member of the Board of Directors of the Fr Peyton Memorial Centre, Attymass placed a wreath in observance of Fr Peyton’s 100th anniversary.
