Street Named After Fulton Sheen in his Hometown

The great American Archbishop Fulton Sheen has had the street outside St. Mary's Cathedral in Peoria named after him.

Diocese of Peoria leaders and city officials unveil street signs in honor of Bishop Fulton Sheen outside the Cathedral of St. Mary. Story to come on https://t.co/pA5YfSLLj7. @WCBURadio. pic.twitter.com/YXrtHFdtq2

— Joe Deacon (@JoeDeaconWCBU) February 4, 2021

A number of priests attended a recent ceremony to mark the event, commenting that Sheen’s family had moved to the area so that they could attend the Mass at the Cathedral and go to school nearby.

Sheen was ordained a priest at the Cathedral in 1919.

Sheen tells a famous story of when he was an altar boy at the Cathedral and was serving Mass. Sheen dropped a wine cruet on the floor and it shattered in the company of Bishop Spalding. After the Mass, Bishop Spalding spoke to him and made two predictions about him. First, the bishop said he would one day study at Louvain in Belgium; second, he told him, "someday you will be just as I am."

Speaking at the ceremony to honour the street being named after Sheen, Msgr. Deptula stated, ‘And it is from these very streets that Fulton Sheen went on to change the world, not just the Catholic world, but the world, with a message that life is worth living’.

A street naming ceremony and blessing of the street sign held at the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception on February 4, 2021.

Many of those involved expressed their desire to someday see Sheen declared a Saint.

New street sign honors Bishop Fulton Sheen

His niece, Dolores Sheen, attended the event.

The signs are all in blue, in honour of Sheen’s devotion to the Virgin Mary.