Peter Curtin Major, son of Judge Charles T. Major and Anne Elizabeth Curtin Major, grew up in Skaneateles with his brother, Charles T. Major Jr.

Charles Jr. followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming a lawyer and later a state Supreme Court judge.

Peter followed his own path. After graduating from Syracuse’s LeMoyne College and from law school, Peter studied for the priesthood at Mill Hill Missionaries in England and was ordained in Skaneateles in 1968. Since then he has devoted his life to the missions in Borneo, Cairo and the Sudan. He has great empathy for the poor and also is gifted at learning languages. He learned Arabic in Lebanon and Egypt. Before that he learned the Dyak Language in Borneo – and mastered their birdcalls.

In 1982 war broke out in Sudan and Father Major was held hostage for nearly two months.

“They demanded ransom from the church and the U.S. government, which they didn’t get. We were eventually released. I went to Khartoum, the capital city in the North. I’ve been there since 1987, when we started a new parish with the displaced people. There are about one and a half million displaced people living in Khartoum. I worked with them for 10 years."

When he left that parish, Father Major went to work in prison ministry.”