Beatrice, who was working as a housekeeper for Thomas J. Baldrige, the state Attorney General. Peyton's sister Nellie had already spoken to Monsignor Paul Kelly of Saint Peter's Cathedral and mentioned Peyton's interest in pursuing a priestly vocation. Monsignor Kelly told Nellie to bring her younger brother Patrick to the cathedral as soon as he arrived. By June 1928, with hard luck in finding a job, Peyton finally met Monsignor Kelly and was offered a position of becoming the cathedral's sexton. In the words of Peyton at that time, "a sexton was just another name for a janitor." Peyton took the job with initial hesitation, but his daily presence at the cathedral brought back the calling for a vocation, and he finally decided to pursue the priesthood. Monsignor Kelly insisted that Peyton complete his high school education before admission to the novitiate. He and his older brother Thomas both pursued their religious vocations while working at the cathedral. During the spring of 1929, Father Pat Dolan of the Congregation of Holy Cross came to the cathedral in Scranton in search of new seminarians. Peyton and his brother Thomas entered the minor seminary of the Congregation of Holy Cross in Notre Dame, Indiana. After completing their high school studies at the Holy Cross School in Notre Dame, Indiana, Peyton was admitted to the Moreau Seminary within the University of Notre Dame in 1932, where he pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree, and excelled in Philosophy. He credited Cornelius Hagerty, a professor of ethics, as the one who provided him with counseling. As a young seminarian, Peyton was attracted to become a Holy Cross Father for the order's focus on the Holy Family and towards obedience and conscience. Marian devotion In October 1938, during Peyton's second year of theology at Catholic University of America, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. He was transferred back to Notre Dame to the Infirmary. Father Cornelius Hagerty was influential in this stage of Peyton's life, encouraging the young seminarian to seek the Blessed Virgin Mary's help. The doctors discovered that the patches in his lungs disappeared. He immediately packed his bags and left for Washington, D.C., to complete his theology studies and take his final vows. On June 15, 1941, Peyton and his brother Thomas were ordained at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at the University of Notre Dame as members of the Congregation of Holy