On a glass shelf in a small cabinet in the little Fulton Sheen museum, a few blocks from the cathedral in Peoria, Illinois, there sits a small blue medallion on a chain.
It’s the Patronal Medal, awarded by The Catholic University of America.
A placard says the medal was given to Blessed Fulton Sheen in 1975, “a yearly Catholic honor awarded for excellence in broadcasting.”
That’s not quite true, it turns out. And the medal actually has a more interesting story than what the placard suggests.
The Patronal Medal was created in 1974 by The Catholic University of America. It later became a joint honor from the university and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, which sits adjacent to it.
The medal – which bears a simple blue and white design – acknowledges efforts to further theology or devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
It is awarded at Mass at the basilica on or around December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
In 1975, CUA President Dr. Clarence Walton wrote about the creation of the award, “Ever since coming to The Catholic University of America six years ago, I have been struggling for ways to make this University more academically and more financially stable. But these efforts went on with full recognition that if this University was to fulfill its mission it must seek to make the presence of God and His saints felt by faculty and students alike.”
Sheen became the first recipient of the Patronal Medal.
On April 16, 1975 – a few weeks before he turned 80 – Sheen was presented with the award, along with an honorary degree from CUA, at a Mass at the basilica.
The ceremony had originally been planned for December 1974, but was delayed — it’s not immediately clear why.
In his remarks at the ceremony, President Walton said the award was intended to “show respect and esteem for one whose life is infused with love for Mary” and to “encourage others to emulate that life and share that love.” It seems that’s why the medal was blue.
Though initially envisioned as an annual award, the Patronal Medal was awarded periodically beginning in the 1990s.
“It is occasional, not annual: University Archives records and the project’s recipient list document 33 recipients across 28 conferrals from 1974 to 2016,” said Karna Lozoya, CUA vice president for communications.
The award was last bestowed in 2016, to Robert Comstock and Sandra Andreas McMurtrie, two board members of CUA and the basilica.
Lozoya told The Pillar that although the medal has not been awarded in the past decade, “It was never discontinued, it just hasn’t been distributed in a while.”
Other notable recipients of the Patronal Medal include Mother Teresa in 1979; Fr. Patrick Peyton, founder of the Family Rosary Crusade, in 1980; and Dolores Hope, who built the Chapel of Our Lady of Hope in the basilica, in 2001.
Servant of God Dorothy Day was invited to receive the award in 1980, but she was unable to do so as a result of poor health.
Peggy Scherer, co-managing editor at The Catholic Worker newspaper at the time, wrote in a letter that Day was “pretty much confined to her room.” Day died the following month, shortly before the presentation of the Patronal Medal that year.
The Pillar contacted the Archbishop Fulton Sheen Museum in Peoria about the placard, describing the Patronal Medal as an award for broadcasting excellence.
The museum said the mistake may have been introduced accidentally when collections were being reorganized, and will be corrected.