Pilgrims arrive ahead of the beatification Mass for Venerable Fulton J. Sheen Sept. 24, 2026, at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis. The archbishop is remembered as one of the most influential and innovative evangelists in American history. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)ST. LOUIS — From across the United States and around the world, faithful of all ages have traveled to St. Louis for the Sept. 24 beatification of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen -- and several pilgrims described the occasion as both a "gift" and a call to be missionary disciples.
Dominique Abagi of Sydney traveled 12 hours from her vacation lodgings in Colombia to attend the celebration, which she described as a "must-go" opportunity.
"I love his writing and I love his videos," she said, speaking to OSV News after a Sept. 23 scheduled midday Mass at the Basilica of St. Louis, King of France, located near the iconic Gateway Arch.
Pilgrims filled both the pews and the confessionals at the basilica, prompting basilica rector and celebrant Father Nicholas W. Smith to quip that had he anticipated such a crowd, he would have "called in reinforcements."
Abagi said that she particularly appreciated Archbishop Sheen's ability to make the truths of the Catholic faith accessible.
"I love that he explains things that seem complex, but when he says them, I'm like, 'Oh no, that's just true,'" she said.
Fellow pilgrim and Mass attendee Carolyn Kwapich of Ave Maria, Florida, echoed that view.
"I think he speaks so clearly that he's almost a man for the common man," she told OSV News. "He's not speaking at a level that's so high that people can't relate to him. I think that you could always take something away from any of his preaching."
Archbishop Sheen's keen awareness and spiritual foresight made him "a man of our times," she said, noting that "Life of Christ" was one of her favorite books by Archbishop Sheen.
Kwapich, a self-described Catholic "revert," fought back tears as she said, "I love Fulton Sheen."
Kathleen Hastings of Phoenix, who was also at the Sept. 23 Mass, told OSV News she had an additional reason for being on hand.
"He and my grandmother are second cousins. Their grandmothers were sisters," she explained. "So I'm on the Fulton side; that's why I came."
Hastings described the beatification as "very exciting."
"We hope he becomes a saint fairly soon," she said.
Ukrainian Catholic pilgrims attending the beatification pointed to Archbishop Sheen's closeness to Eastern Catholics.
Yuriy Melnik, a western Ukrainian native who along with his wife, Helena, now lives in Chicago, noted that Archbishop Sheen had priestly faculties in the Byzantine Catholic rite.
"He was bi-ritual," said Melnik, citing St. John Paul II's metaphor of the "two lungs," Eastern and Western, which both enable Jesus Christ's Catholic Church to breathe fully.
In a homily during a 1960 Melkite Divine Liturgy in Birmingham, Alabama, Archbishop Sheen pointed to the Byzantine rite as "the door" through which the Russian Orthodox Church would enter if it ever sought full communion with Rome.
Melnik, who spoke with OSV News Sept. 23 following pre-beatification vespers at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, also stressed Archbishop Sheen's passionate opposition to communism.
"He was a fierce fighter against communism, and that's exactly what we (in Ukraine) experience in our life," said Melnik, referencing Russia's war on Ukraine. Initiated in 2014 and accelerated by Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion, the conflict has been classified as genocidal in multiple human rights reports.
"We share so much in common with Fulton Sheen," said Melnik. "That's why he is so dear to our Ukrainian heart as well."
Fellow Ukrainian Catholic Olga Salheska -- originally from Ternopil, Ukraine, and currently living in Chicago -- said that Archbishop Sheen's passion for the Gospel inspired hearts everywhere to become missionary disciples.
"We need to evangelize as much as we can," Salheska told OSV News. "It doesn't matter where we live; it doesn't matter what language you speak."
Archbishop Sheen's beatification and its surrounding events have provided pilgrims renewed energy for their own missionary journey as fellow followers of Christ.
"It's a gift to be able to come," Abagi said.
— Gina Christian, OSV News
'Pivotal' Archbishop Sheen 'opened the door to the evangelization of the world,' says Bishop Barron
Seminarians watch as prelates process in at the start of the vespers for Venerable Fulton J. Sheen Sept. 23, 2026, at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, the eve of his beatification. Archbishop Sheen is remembered as one of the most influential and innovative evangelists in American history. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)ST. LOUIS — Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen -- the 20th-century theologian, evangelizer and Catholic communications pioneer -- "opened the door to the evangelization of the world," said Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota.
The bishop shared his thoughts on Archbishop Sheen in a Sept. 23 homily at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, where hundreds gathered for vespers a day before the archbishop's beatification in that city.
Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski of St. Louis presided over Evening Prayer, part of the Liturgy of the Hours, the Church's continuous cycle of daily prayer at set times.
Although Archbishop Sheen's canonization cause was introduced in 2002 by his home Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, organizers selected St. Louis as the beatification site in order to better accommodate the thousands in attendance.
Cardinals, bishops, priests, religious and lay faithful from around the country -- along with Archbishop Gabriele G. Caccia, apostolic nuncio to the U.S. -- were on hand for the vespers, which took place on the memorial of St. Pius (Pio) of Pietrelcina.
Addressing the congregation, Bishop Barron said, "I consider it one of the single privileges of my life to be able to preach this homily on the vigil of Fulton Sheen's beatification."
He described Archbishop Sheen as "my model and inspiration," and as "one of the pivotal players in the modern history of the Catholic Church" who emerged amid a mid-20th-century Catholic "renaissance" that included "Graham Greene, Dorothy Day, Jacques Maritain, Henri de Lubac, Thomas Merton, Evelyn Waugh and many others."
Bishop Barron said Archbishop Sheen was "by common consensus" regarded as "the premier preacher in the English language in the 20th century."
What made Archbishop Sheen "a blessed, saintly man of God" was his friendship with Jesus Christ, said Bishop Barron.
Archbishop Sheen's description of his vocational discernment in his autobiography, "Treasure in Clay," offers "a template for anyone's relationship to the Lord," said Bishop Barron.
Citing passages from the book, Bishop Barron said three stages mark the development of that relationship: recognizing God's transcendent holiness, reckoning with one's need for redemption and the mandate for mission "as a bearer of grace to others."
Archbishop Sheen embraced "unmerited divine love," exemplified in Mary, whom he viewed in accord with Catholic theological tradition as "the prime instance of a human being receiving the unmerited love of God," said Bishop Barron.
He noted that Mary "haunts the spiritual life of Fulton Sheen, from his baptism in the Church of St. Mary to his ordination in the cathedral dedicated to Mary, to his deep devotion to the rosary, and finally to his more than 30 journeys to Lourdes to visit, as he put it, 'the woman I love.'"
Bishop Barron said that "nowhere was Fulton Sheen's rootedness in the grace of Christ more apparent than in his practically lifelong dedication to the Holy Hour -- the daily, uninterrupted, hour-long prayer in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament."
The bishop stressed the importance of that practice in his own life, admitting he learned to embrace it from his students while he was rector of Mundelein Seminary from 2012-2015.
"I now savor the Holy Hour … in my private chapel every morning before commencing my work day," he said.
As he contemplated God's holiness, Archbishop Sheen was ready "to admit his failures, his bad judgments, his personal weaknesses," said Bishop Barron.
Through radio and television broadcasts, extensive writings, speaking engagements and missionary travels, Archbishop Sheen devoted his life to making Christ known to the world, said Bishop Barron.
"No one in the 20th century walked the great path of mission with more flair and dedication than Fulton Sheen," said the bishop.
And, he added, "I believe that Fulton Sheen is, par excellence, the saint of the New Evangelization," the Church's renewed commitment -- called for in particular by St. Paul VI and St. John Paul II -- to fulfill Christ's command to bring the Gospel to all people.
"Anyone who seeks fresh language to bring the Gospel to our culture, anyone who preaches the ancient word with a heart on fire, anyone who dares to use the media of communication available to us today, is indebted to Fulton Sheen and finds in him a powerful heavenly friend and intercessor," said Bishop Barron.
— Gina Christian, OSV News