On June 27, 2019, the remains of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen were disinterred from St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York and carried to Peoria. The Archdiocese of New York had fought three years in court to keep them. Peoria's claim rested on where the priesthood began: Sheen had served at the altar of the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception as a boy, and Bishop Edmund Dunne ordained him there on September 20, 1919.
His fame came from broadcasting. Life Is Worth Living went out on Tuesday evenings from 1952 to 1957 with an estimated audience of thirty million, and when the Emmy came Sheen thanked his writers — Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Then, in September 2010, in central Illinois, a boy named James Fulton Engstrom was born with no pulse and lay clinically dead for sixty-one minutes while his parents prayed to Sheen. The heart began to beat. Rome accepted the case as the miracle for his cause.
The tomb is in a side chapel of the cathedral, a marble monument set at the altar of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The way in is the ramp at the front of the church, its railing lettered JMJ. Two blocks along the same avenue, inside the diocesan chancery, a museum holds what is left of the broadcasts.
📜 History & Spiritual Significance
The Immaculate Conception is the older title here. In 1693 Fr. Gravier founded the Mission of the Immaculate Conception on this stretch of the Illinois River. The parish came much later. Rev. John Blaise Raho bought a lot between Madison and Jefferson streets in August 1842; Rev. John Drew was appointed the first pastor of Peoria in January 1845; and on June 1 that year Rev. Louis Parodi, C.M., laid the cornerstone of a one-storey brick church dedicated to St. John the Apostle and Evangelist under the patronage of St. Philomena. The parish took its settled shape across 1845 and 1846. Pope Pius IX erected the Diocese of Peoria on February 12, 1875, covering twenty-six counties of central Illinois, and the church on Madison Avenue became its cathedral in 1877.
The present building was begun under the first bishop, John Lancaster Spalding, who laid the cornerstone on June 28, 1885 and dedicated the finished cathedral on May 15, 1889. The Chicago architect Casper Mehler designed it in Gothic Revival to reflect St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York — the same church that would hold Sheen's body until 2019. Anamosa limestone faces the exterior, the twin spires rise 230 feet, and the building runs 170 feet long by 80 feet wide. Two things came across from Old St. Mary's when it was taken down in 1898: a bell in the south tower, and the painting of the Crucifixion behind the altar, made in 1873 by the Spanish artist Yzquierda and bought for the old cathedral by Spalding. The Wicks organ installed in 1936 has 3,329 pipes. Daprato Rigali Studios reworked the interior between 2014 and 2016. Mother Teresa came in 1995, for a Mass in her honour.
Peter John Sheen was born on May 8, 1895 in El Paso, Illinois, east of Peoria, the eldest of the four sons of Newton and Delia Sheen. Fulton was his mother's maiden name, and it is the one he came to prefer; she had dedicated him to the Blessed Virgin at his baptism. The family moved to Peoria. The boy served at the cathedral altar and graduated valedictorian of Spalding Institute in 1913, went on to St. Viator College at Bourbonnais and Saint Paul Seminary in Minnesota, and was ordained in 1919. A doctorate in philosophy followed at Leuven in 1923, with the Cardinal Mercier Prize — the first time an American had won it. He spent 1926 as a curate at St. Patrick's, a poor parish in Peoria, and then left for the Catholic University of America, where he taught philosophy from 1928 to 1950 and wrote most of his seventy books.
The Catholic Hour went out on NBC every Sunday evening from 1930 to 1950, reaching a weekly audience of about four million by the end of that run; letters arrived in the thousands, and Time in 1946 called him "the golden-voiced Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen, U.S. Catholicism's famed proselytizer." In 1940 he narrated an Easter Mass on the experimental station W2XBS, one of the first televised religious services in the United States. Pius XII made him Auxiliary Bishop of New York in 1951, and Life Is Worth Living began the year after. He directed the Society for the Propagation of the Faith for sixteen years and gave it ten million dollars earned from television. Paul VI appointed him Bishop of Rochester in 1966; he resigned in 1969 as his seventy-fifth birthday approached, and was named Archbishop of the titular see of Newport in Wales. His motto was Da per matrem me venire — grant that I may come through the Mother. He kept a Holy Hour every day and called it the hour that makes my day. He died in New York on December 9, 1979, aged 84, in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, and was buried in St. Patrick's Cathedral.
The cause opened in 2002, and in June 2012 Benedict XVI recognised the decree of heroic virtue that made Sheen Venerable. The miracle came from Peoria itself. James Fulton Engstrom was born in September 2010 after a true knot tightened in his umbilical cord during labour, and went sixty-one minutes without a pulse while Travis and Bonnie Engstrom prayed to Sheen; the boy developed normally. Pope Francis approved the miracle on July 5, 2019 — eight days after the remains had been moved to Peoria. A beatification was set for December 21, 2019 in Peoria and then postponed, after Bishop Salvatore Matano of Rochester raised a 1963 misconduct case he feared would be cited unfavourably in a forthcoming New York attorney general's report; the Diocese of Peoria answered that the priest concerned had been assigned by Sheen's successor and that Sheen had been exonerated. On February 9, 2026 Bishop Louis Tylka announced that the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints had cleared the cause to proceed. The Mass of beatification is set for September 24, 2026 at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis, Missouri, with Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle as papal representative — a separate journey for pilgrims, and not one that ends in Peoria. Until that Mass is celebrated the title is Venerable.
☩ Pilgrimage Sites in Peoria
Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception
The mother church of the Diocese of Peoria, its twin limestone spires over the North Side Historic District. Sheen's tomb is in the side chapel, a marble monument at the altar of Our Lady of Perpetual Help; pilgrims pray there, and the cause's own body, the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation, directs visiting groups here. Behind the main altar is the 1873 Crucifixion that hung in the earlier cathedral, and the diocesan collection of relics is kept in the building. Group visits are arranged through the diocese.
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Museum
Two blocks along Madison Avenue, inside the Spalding Pastoral Center — the diocesan chancery — the museum opened at this site in 2008 and carries Sheen from an Illinois boyhood through the priesthood to the years on air, with an immersive exhibit called the Sheen Experience. The Diocesan Historical Museum shares the space, on the bishops of Peoria and the beginnings of the faith in central Illinois. A gift shop adjoins it.
St. Mary's Cemetery
A Catholic cemetery of 1882 in West Peoria, 4.3 km west of the cathedral. Sheen is not buried here; his parents Newton and Delia are, with his grandparents and his former pastor Msgr. Culleton. The Bishops' Mausoleum on the grounds holds John Lancaster Spalding, Edmund M. Dunne, Joseph H. Schlarman, John Baptist Franz, Edward W. O'Rourke and Archbishop John J. Myers. The Sheen Foundation suggests it as the third stop, after the tomb and the museum.
🕯️ Annual Feast Days & Celebrations
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception — December 8
The patronal feast of the cathedral, kept with the principal Mass of the day. It is the dedication of the mother church of the diocese, and the title the first mission on this river carried.
Sheen Family Day — a Saturday in July
An open day for families run by the Sheen Foundation with lay volunteers, moving between the Spalding Pastoral Center and the cathedral: guided tours of the church tied to episodes from Sheen's life, activities for children, and time at the tomb. It began in 2014 and draws a few hundred people. The Saturday is set year by year.
🛏️ Where to Stay
No shrine or religious house in Peoria takes pilgrim guests; the tomb, the museum and the cemetery are reached from ordinary downtown hotels.
Peoria Marriott Pere Marquette ⭐⭐⭐⭐ — A fourteen-storey landmark of 1926 on Main Street, the city's surviving grand hotel of the period and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. About 0.8 km from the cathedral, with an indoor pool, restaurant and a skywalk to the Civic Center. Website
Courtyard by Marriott Peoria Downtown ⭐⭐⭐ — The closest of the three to the tomb, about 0.6 km away on Main Street. Indoor pool, fitness room, restaurant and bar. Website
Staybridge Suites Peoria-Downtown ⭐⭐⭐ — An all-suites hotel of 105 rooms, refurbished in 2021, with kitchens in the suites and free parking. About 1.5 km from the cathedral, near the Civic Center and the riverfront; the practical choice for families or a stay of several days. Website
🚗 Getting There
By Air: General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport (PIA) lies five miles west of downtown, with nonstop American Eagle service from Chicago–O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth and Charlotte, United Express from Chicago–O'Hare and Denver, and Allegiant routes to Florida, Nevada and Arizona. Central Illinois Regional Airport at Bloomington–Normal (BMI) is the nearest alternative. Chicago, 211 km north-east, is the usual long-haul gateway.
By Train: Peoria has no passenger rail station — the largest metropolitan area in Illinois without one. Amtrak's Peoria stop at the CityLink Transit Center is a Thruway coach connection rather than a platform; it runs to the trains at Normal (Uptown Station), and Galesburg is the other Amtrak stop within reach.
By Bus: Amtrak Thruway coaches link the CityLink Transit Center with Bloomington–Normal, where the Lincoln Service and Texas Eagle call.
By Car: Interstate 74 crosses the Illinois River and runs through downtown Peoria; Interstate 474 loops south of the city for traffic going past it. The cathedral and the Spalding Pastoral Center are on the same block of NE Madison Avenue, a few minutes from the I-74 downtown exits.
On Foot: The cathedral and the museum are two blocks apart on Madison Avenue and are walked between. St. Mary's Cemetery, 4.3 km west, needs a car.
📚 Further Reading
Books:
Fulton J. Sheen. Treasure in Clay: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen — Sheen's own account of his life, finished shortly before his death in 1979. The one book to carry to the tomb.
Cheryl C.D. Hughes. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: Convert Maker — The most recent full biography (Ignatius Press, 2024), written in the years of the cause and framing him under his declared title.
Marion Amberg. Monuments, Marvels, and Miracles: A Traveler's Guide to Catholic America — A survey of shrines and Catholic sites across the United States, for the pilgrim putting Peoria into a longer route.
Online Resources:
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation — Biography — The cause's own account of Sheen's life and Marian devotion.
Diocese of Peoria — Diocesan History — The timeline of the diocese from its erection in 1875.
🎥 Recommended Videos
'Sheen Experience' Immersive Museum Honors Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen | EWTN News Nightly — EWTN's news report from inside the Peoria museum's immersive exhibit.
The Sheen Experience | Official Trailer | Immersive Journey into the Life & Legacy of Fulton Sheen — The Sheen Foundation's own trailer for the exhibit at the Spalding Pastoral Center.
Peoria, IL Pilgrimage #1 Cathedral Church and Abp Fulton Sheen's tomb. — A walk through the cathedral and the side chapel, filmed on site.
🔗 Useful Links
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation — The body promoting the cause, with pages on the tomb, the museum and the cemetery.
Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception — The parish site for the cathedral and the tomb.
Diocese of Peoria — Diocesan news, offices and resources.
🧭 Nearby Pilgrimage Destinations
Chicago (211 km north-east) — The metropolitan see over Peoria, with Holy Name Cathedral, the National Shrine of St. Jude and the National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe at Marytown.
St. Louis (236 km south) — The Cathedral Basilica and its mosaics, and the city where Sheen's beatification Mass is to be celebrated.
Belleville (242 km south) — The National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows, six kilometres from St. Louis and easily joined to it.
Holy Hill (302 km north) — The Discalced Carmelite basilica of Mary, Help of Christians, on its hill in Wisconsin.
La Crosse (364 km north-north-west) — The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in Wisconsin.
El Paso, Illinois (48 km east) — Sheen's birthplace, with a spiritual centre named for him in the town's former railway freight depot, where his 1953 Emmy is displayed.
Galesburg, Illinois (70 km north-west) — Corpus Christi Church, one of the six stops on the Diocese of Peoria's anniversary pilgrimage passport.
🪶 Closing Reflection
"You have written and spoken well of the Lord Jesus. You are a loyal son of the Church."
— Pope St. John Paul II to Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, 1979
