Venerable Fulton J. Sheen
A priest of the Diocese of Peoria who carried the ordinary work of Catholic teaching — catechesis, preaching, the Holy Hour, the missions — into radio and television, and who now rests in the cathedral where he was ordained.
The Life and Witness of Venerable Fulton J. Sheen.
Fulton Sheen was a priest first. Everything that made him famous — the radio hour, the television program, the network audience — was an extension of what he had been ordained to do in 1919: preach Christ, teach the faith, and bring people to the sacraments. Peoria formed him and now keeps his tomb.
He was born Peter John Sheen in El Paso, Illinois, on May 8, 1895, and baptized at Saint Mary’s parish there four days later. The family moved to Peoria in 1900. He attended the cathedral school, served at the altar of Saint Mary’s Cathedral, and returned to that same sanctuary on September 20, 1919 to be ordained a priest of the Diocese of Peoria.
Study followed: a doctorate in philosophy at the Catholic University of Louvain in 1923, where he became the first American to receive the Cardinal Mercier Prize. He taught theology and philosophy at the Catholic University of America from 1927 to 1950. The habit that shaped the rest of his life belonged to neither lecture hall nor studio — a daily hour of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, which he kept and urged on priests for over sixty years.
The broadcasting came out of that. He began preaching on the NBC radio program The Catholic Hour in 1930, reaching some four million listeners over two decades. From 1951 the television program Life Is Worth Living drew audiences reported as high as thirty million and won an Emmy in 1953. He used the time to teach: on conscience, suffering, marriage, communism, the Cross. From 1950 to 1966 he served as national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, directing the offerings of American Catholics to the missions — work he considered more important than the broadcasts.
He was appointed auxiliary bishop of New York in 1951, attended every session of the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965, served as Bishop of Rochester from 1966 to 1969, and was then named titular Archbishop of Newport. On October 2, 1979, two months before his death, Pope John Paul II embraced him at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York and said: “You have written and spoken well of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are a loyal son of the Church.” He died in New York on December 9, 1979, and was buried in the crypt of Saint Patrick’s. His remains were returned to Peoria on June 27, 2019.
Sheen is remembered as a broadcaster because that is the part of his life the public could see. The Church is examining something else: whether a priest who held an audience of millions kept the interior life of a man who prayed an hour daily before the Blessed Sacrament and directed his fame toward the missions rather than himself. That question is what a cause of canonization exists to answer, and it has not been finally answered.
A life, in years and approximate ages.
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May 8, 1895BirthBorn in El Paso, IllinoisBorn Peter John Sheen, the eldest of four sons of a farming family.
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May 12, 1895Four days oldBaptized at Saint Mary’s, El PasoBaptized in the parish’s original wooden church, which no longer stands. The parish continues, and its baptismal record is the primary witness.
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1900About 5The family moves to PeoriaHe attends the cathedral school and serves at the altar of Saint Mary’s Cathedral.
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September 20, 1919Age 24Ordained a priest at Saint Mary’s CathedralOrdained for the Diocese of Peoria in the cathedral where he had served as a boy.
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1923Age 28Doctorate at Louvain and the Cardinal Mercier PrizeHe earns a doctorate in philosophy at the Catholic University of Louvain and becomes the first American awarded the Cardinal Mercier Prize.
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1930Age 35Begins preaching on The Catholic HourHis Sunday radio preaching reaches roughly four million listeners over the next two decades.
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1950–1966Ages 55 to 71National director of the Society for the Propagation of the FaithHe directs American Catholic support for the missions, work he considered more important than his broadcasting.
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1951Age 56Auxiliary bishop of New York; Life Is Worth Living beginsConsecrated a bishop and, in the same year, begins the television program that ran until 1957 and won an Emmy in 1953.
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1962–1965Ages 67 to 70Attends every session of the Second Vatican CouncilHe takes part in all four sessions of the Council.
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1966–1969Ages 71 to 74Bishop of Rochester, then titular Archbishop of NewportHe governs the Diocese of Rochester, resigns in 1969, and is named titular Archbishop of Newport.
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December 9, 1979Age 84Dies in New YorkHe dies of heart disease and is buried in the crypt of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, two months after Pope John Paul II embraced him there.
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2002After deathThe Diocese of Peoria opens his causeBishop Daniel Jenky petitions the Holy See to open the cause for beatification and canonization; the diocesan phase concludes in February 2008 with twenty-two volumes of testimony.
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June 28, 2012After deathDeclared VenerablePope Benedict XVI recognizes his heroic virtue, and the Church begins calling him Venerable. This remains his title.
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June 27, 2019After deathHis remains return to PeoriaAfter litigation between his niece and the Archdiocese of New York, his body is transferred from Saint Patrick’s Cathedral to a side chapel of Saint Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria.
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July 6, 2019After deathA miracle is recognizedPope Francis recognizes a miracle attributed to his intercession, concerning the restoration to life of a stillborn child, James Fulton Engstrom.
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September 24, 2026After deathBeatification scheduled in St. LouisThe beatification Mass is scheduled at The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis, with Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle as papal representative. Until it is celebrated, Sheen remains Venerable.
Dates are approximate where the surviving record is traditional or incomplete.
One place where this witness remains visible.
Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception
Begin with Mass or quiet prayer in the mother church, then go to the tomb. The cathedral school and altar formed him, and this sanctuary ordained him in 1919.
Peoria holds the whole arc, from altar boy to tomb.
The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception is the one place that carries every part of Sheen’s Catholic life: the school he attended, the altar he served, the sanctuary where he was ordained, and the side chapel where his remains now rest.
The cathedral is a living parish and the mother church of the Diocese of Peoria. Come for Mass or for quiet prayer first; the tomb is understood properly only after the Eucharist that shaped the man buried there.
Sheen is Venerable, not Blessed. You may pray at his tomb and ask his intercession. Public liturgical veneration is not authorized before the beatification, and a scheduled date is not an accomplished act.
The tomb keeps its own posted hours, separate from Mass times, and both change around diocesan events. Check the cathedral and the official Sheen sources rather than assuming.
A tomb, not yet a shrine
Sheen’s remains rest in a side chapel of Saint Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria, where they were placed in 2019. Because he has not been beatified, the Church does not treat his remains as the relics of a Blessed and authorizes no public veneration of them. Pilgrims pray privately at the tomb. The distinction matters and the cathedral itself observes it.
The saint is publicly venerated at a named tomb.
Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception
The mother church of the Diocese of Peoria holds his tomb in a side chapel reached by the ramp at the front of the cathedral. It is also the church of his boyhood service and his ordination.
- The body of Venerable Fulton J. Sheen, returned to Peoria in 2019
The tomb keeps posted hours separate from the Mass schedule. Confirm current access with the cathedral or the official Sheen sources before traveling.
How Peoria holds Fulton Sheen's memory
Sheen's Catholic geography is unusually concentrated. One cathedral holds his boyhood school, the altar he served, the sanctuary of his ordination, and now his tomb. The museum two blocks away and the parish that baptized him complete the picture without competing with it.
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Ordained here, and buried here
Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception
He attended the cathedral school, served at this altar as a boy, and was ordained a priest in this sanctuary on September 20, 1919. His remains were returned here in 2019.
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His papers, vestments, and broadcasting work
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Museum, Spalding Pastoral Center
The museum stands on the campus where he went to school. It interprets the preaching, the media apostolate, and his direction of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. It belongs after the cathedral and the tomb, not before them.
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Baptized here in 1895
Saint Mary's Church, El Paso, Illinois
Roughly forty-five minutes east of Peoria. This is where his Christian life began, four days after his birth in the same town.
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Diocesan authority
cdop.org
The Diocese of Peoria ordained him, opened his cause in 2002, and keeps his tomb.
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The cause, in its own words
celebratesheen.com
The Foundation publishes the chronology of the cause and the current arrangements for the beatification.
The Diocese of Peoria and the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation are the authorities for the tomb, its access, and the museum. The Foundation's own biography is the source for the 1895 baptism at Saint Mary's in El Paso. The cause chronology follows the Foundation's published record: Venerable since June 28, 2012, a miracle recognized July 6, 2019, his remains returned to Peoria June 27, 2019, and a beatification scheduled but not yet celebrated.
Photo credits
- Saint page. Fred Palumbo, New York World-Telegram and the Sun, via the Library of Congress. No known copyright restrictions. Source. Public Domain.
- Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception. Nheyob, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source. CC BY-SA 4.0.