Making Room for the Saints: An Unexpected Blessing at Bl. Fulton Sheen’s Beatification
By Anthony Di Mauro
The Relic Project had no booth reserved for Fulton Sheen’s beatification. We planned simply to attend, pray, and celebrate. The relics of the saints were going to stay at the hotel.
Then a phone call about a backpack led to an invitation to bring the saints. Before long, crowds were gathering to venerate their relics.
Providence Upon Providence
Looking back, we can only describe what unfolded as providence upon providence.
The day before, on Wednesday, September 23, we had brought more than 50 relics to the inaugural Fulton Sheen Institute Conference, organized by Dr. Peter Howard and his wife, Chantal. Our participation there had been arranged in advance. For the beatification at the Dome in downtown St. Louis, we expected to join the faithful as attendees.
On the eve of Fulton Sheen's beatification, I saw on Instagram that Proud Catholic Company would have a booth in the exhibit hall. I didn't think much of it until the following morning.
My plan was simply to introduce The Relic Project to other organizations and share our flyers and brochures.
There was one practical problem: the Dome had a strict clear-bag policy, and I didn’t have a clear bag. I considered using a simple ziplock bag, but it wouldn’t hold everything I wanted to bring. So, before leaving for the Dome that morning at around 6:30 a.m., I took a chance and called my friend Brother Juan John at Proud Catholic Company to ask whether I could bring a backpack of our materials and leave it at their booth.
My call reached him just after he had finished his daily morning prayer. He graciously offered to help, then asked a question that changed our plans:
“Do you have any saints?”
“Yes, we do!” I replied. “We have relics of around 50 saints with us.”
“Would you like to bring them to the beatification?” he asked. “We have a small space where we could display them.”
Amazed by the invitation, I explained my hesitation to Brother Juan John.
“We don’t usually display relics alongside vendors selling merchandise because we don’t want anyone to think the relics are for sale. It’s also not the setting we would normally choose for veneration. I wouldn’t want people to think we were using the saints as a marketing tactic to draw them into a booth.”
I paused for a moment and considered his offer. Proud Catholic Company was generously making room for the saints, and I knew how expensive it would have been for our ministry to reserve a booth of our own.
Perhaps Blessed Fulton Sheen wanted the saints to be there, to greet the pilgrims gathered for his beatification. This unexpected invitation seemed to be opening a door.
“We’ll make an exception this time,” I told him.
Suddenly, we had somewhere to bring the saints but we didn't have a table.
Immediately, Brother Juan John and his wife Stacie, with great excitement, asked their guardian angels to help them find a table for the relics. About three minutes later, Brother Juan John's wife received a call from their friend who had a booth in the exhibit hall.
She wanted to know whether she could store a box and a tote behind their booth. They said yes, then asked whether she happened to have a table she wasn’t using, mentioning that The Relic Project would be bringing around 50 relics but they don't have a table to place them on.
She didn’t have a table, but she had a shelf. For displaying the relics, that was even better.
For Stacie and Brother Juan John, receiving that unexpected call was an answer to their prayer. Someone had offered exactly the kind of help they needed to display the relics.
Setting Up
Getting the relics into the Dome presented another challenge. The surrounding roads were closed, and we needed to reach the rear loading dock with our display materials.
At one of the road closures, a police officer made a call on our behalf. He was turning many vehicles away but let us pass. We were given permission to travel down the closed roads and were even able to park close to the building.
When we arrived, Brother Juan John with Proud Catholic Company welcomed us into their already limited booth space. We began setting up in a small corner, deeply thankful that they had made room for us.
As soon as we opened the relic case, people began gathering. Visitors wanted to see the relics, learn about the saints, and spend time in prayer. Before long, the small corner Proud Catholic Company had generously shared with us was crowded.
“We were getting swarmed by people,” said Marguerite Di Mauro, The Relic Project’s outreach director. “The space for the relics was really small. We needed more space.”
Marguerite noticed an empty booth nearby and began asking around to find out whose space it was and whether we could use it. Her search led her to Sophia Institute Press, which had a larger booth elsewhere in the exhibit hall. They encouraged her to ask the person in charge for permission to use the vacant space.
Getting an answer took some patience. Marguerite spent nearly twenty minutes making her way through the crowds, then another twenty minutes waiting at the desk for the person in charge.
When he arrived, she introduced The Relic Project and explained what was happening. To her amazement, he told her he had already received two calls about our ministry.
He immediately gave us permission to use the booth and they gave her exhibitor passes.
That morning, we had been wondering where to leave a backpack. Now we had a whole booth beside Proud Catholic, with room to welcome people who wanted to venerate the relics of the saints.
Beautiful Joyful Chaos
From then on, it was beautiful, joyful chaos.
Wave after wave of visitors came to pray, ask questions, and share their own stories of faith. In the middle of a crowded exhibit hall, the booth became a place where people could pause and spend time with the saints.
The setting did bring one challenge: many Catholics approached us asking whether the relics were for sale. The question came up so often that we had to put up a handwritten sign explaining that the relics were not for sale and that selling and buying them is a sin.
We hadn’t brought our usual booth setup, so we simply made it work with what we had. I made a makeshift sign, and we arranged our table runner bearing The Relic Project’s name, a shelf to display the relics, a tablet to play our videos and introduce visitors to the online Map of Relics, and slapped our brochures throughout the display so people knew who we were. Even our donation box was improvised from a cardboard box.
The generosity of those who visited brought another unexpected blessing. Coming to the beatification had required a financial sacrifice for our ministry, but the donations we received that day covered the costs of the entire trip. I had asked God to provide, and He did.
Seeing so many people come to pray also put our makeshift setup into perspective. We had been concerned about having enough space, finding a shelf, and putting together a display. Yet even with our simple setup, pilgrims kept gathering to encounter the saints.
We didn’t need a fancy booth. We just needed to make room for the saints.
Among those who visited were pro-life advocate Abby Johnson, founder of And Then There Were None, and Chalise Zolezzi, EWTN’s director of marketing. We were grateful to meet them, along with so many wonderful people who had traveled from across the country and around the world.
When we remember the booth, we remember the people whose kindness made it possible.
Proud Catholic shared what space they had. A friend offered a shelf. We pursued the possibility of a larger space, and Sophia Institute Press encouraged us to ask. A police officer helped us reach the building, and an organizer welcomed us into an available booth.
To each of them, and to everyone who helped us welcome the people who came to pray, thank you.
Above all, we thank God for giving us this opportunity to serve.
Blessed Fulton Sheen described humanity’s longing for God in these words:
“Two classes of people make up the world: those who have found God, and those who are looking for Him - thirsting, hungering, seeking! And the great sinners came closer to Him than the proud intellectuals! Pride swells and inflates the ego; gross sinners are depressed, deflated and empty. They, therefore, have room for God. God prefers a loving sinner to a loveless 'saint'. Love can be trained; pride cannot. The man who thinks that he knows will rarely find truth; the man who knows he is a miserable, unhappy sinner, like the woman at the well, is closer to peace, joy and salvation than he knows.” ― Fulton J. Sheen, Life of Christ
Looking back, those words help me understand why that unexpected booth mattered. People came with questions, prayers, and personal stories of faith. Our simple display gave them somewhere to pause, venerate the relics, and reflect on the lives of the saints.
This is why The Relic Project exists: to help the faithful encounter Jesus through His saints.
And now Bl. Fulton Sheen has his own relics that people can encounter.
Through his preaching, writing, and broadcasts, Blessed Fulton Sheen devoted himself to bringing people closer to Christ. On the day we gathered to celebrate his holy life, we were given a small opportunity to share in that work.
I believe Blessed Fulton Sheen was interceding for us, helping make room for his heavenly friends among the pilgrims. Each person’s generosity made the next step possible, and each step gave us another opportunity to welcome someone who wanted to pray.
Ultimately, a simple phone call had opened a door we never expected.
Blessed Fulton J. Sheen, pray for us.
