When James Fulton Engstrom was born on Sept. 16, 2010, he showed no signs of life.
For 61 minutes, doctors, nurses and first responders tried to revive him.
His mother prayed.
And the name she repeated was Fulton Sheen.
The recovery of James Fulton Engstrom would eventually be recognized by the Catholic Church as the miracle attributed to the intercession of soon-to-be-blessed Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, clearing the way for his beatification.
But long before Vatican doctors and theologians studied the case, the story began with an ordinary Catholic family in central Illinois.
James is the son of Bonnie and Travis Engstrom, a Catholic couple from the Peoria area.
During Bonnie’s pregnancy, the family had already developed a devotion to Archbishop Sheen, whose roots were also in central Illinois. Bonnie and Travis watched old recordings of his preaching and came to admire the warmth, humor and intelligence of the man once dubbed “God’s microphone.”
They decided that if their unborn child was a boy, they would name him James Fulton.
The choice was more than sentimental.
“There was power in it, because we had made an intentional decision that every time our children’s names are spoken, it will be an invocation of the saints for whom they are named,” Bonnie later wrote in her 2019 book, 61 Minutes to a Miracle: Fulton Sheen and a True Story of the Impossible.
Throughout her pregnancy, she asked Archbishop Sheen to intercede for her child and for her family.
Then, during labor, everything changed.
Bonnie had experienced a healthy pregnancy and planned a home birth.
Unbeknownst to the family, however, a knot had formed in James’ umbilical cord. During the final stage of labor, the knot tightened, cutting off his oxygen supply.
When James was born at 1:48 a.m., he was blue and lifeless.
Travis performed an emergency baptism.
“James Fulton, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
As medical personnel attempted CPR, Bonnie sat nearby and prayed.
She had no elaborate prayer prepared. She simply repeated Archbishop Sheen’s name.
James was rushed to OSF HealthCare St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria, where medical teams continued trying to revive him.
Still, there was no heartbeat.
After 61 minutes, doctors were ready to declare him dead.
And then his heart began to beat.
“My little boy, James Fulton, 9 lbs. and 12 oz., had been without a pulse for 61 minutes,” Bonnie wrote in her book. “Everyone stopped working. And then his heart started.”
The return of a heartbeat was only the beginning: Doctors feared that after such a prolonged lack of oxygen, James would suffer catastrophic damage.
His parents were warned that he might die from organ failure. They were also told that, if he survived, he could be blind, unable to walk or talk, and incapable of feeding himself.
The Engstroms continued asking for Archbishop Sheen’s intercession, this time praying not simply for James to live but for a complete healing.
Friends, relatives and strangers joined them. Through social media, requests for prayer spread far beyond Illinois.
Then James began defying the expectations.
His condition improved. His organs functioned. Later medical examinations showed that his brain was normal despite the damage doctors had initially feared.
The baby doctors had anticipated would never walk, talk or function normally continued developing as if nothing had happened.
Today, James Fulton Engstrom is a healthy teenager. In 2026, at age 15, he reflected publicly on Archbishop Sheen’s continuing presence in his life as his family prepared to celebrate the long-awaited beatification.
The Church does not declare a healing miraculous simply because it seems extraordinary.
A formal investigation examines medical records, eyewitness testimony and whether there is a scientifically adequate explanation for what occurred.
In 2011, the Diocese of Peoria opened a tribunal to investigate James’ recovery. The Engstroms turned over medical records, and witnesses — including medical professionals and people present around the time of James’ birth — were questioned.
The evidence was then sent to Rome.
Medical experts, theologians and members of what was then the Congregation for the Causes of Saints examined the case. The Sheen Foundation reports that the miracle received unanimous approval at the relevant stages of review.
On July 6, 2019, Pope Francis authorized the decree recognizing the miracle attributed to Archbishop Sheen’s intercession.
That decree cleared the way for beatification.
The connection between the Engstrom family and Archbishop Sheen did not begin in the emergency surrounding James’ birth.
Bonnie had already been asking for his prayers throughout her pregnancy.
The family lived in the Diocese of Peoria, where Archbishop Sheen had been born, ordained a priest and where his cause for sainthood was being promoted.
Watching recordings of Archbishop Sheen, Bonnie remembered being struck by how approachable he seemed — funny, intelligent and warm.
That relationship of prayer meant that when she suddenly found herself facing the possible death of her child, turning to Archbishop Sheen felt natural.
It is an important part of the story.
Catholic devotion to the saints is not based on the idea that saints replace God or perform miracles through their own power. Catholics ask saints to intercede — to pray with and for them before God.
In the Engstrom home, Archbishop Sheen had already become one of those heavenly friends.
For a candidate for sainthood who was not martyred, the Church ordinarily requires a verified miracle attributed to that person’s intercession before beatification.
James Fulton’s healing fulfilled that requirement for Archbishop Sheen.
The Church had already recognized Archbishop Sheen’s heroic virtues in 2012, when Pope Benedict XVI declared him Venerable. The recognition of the Engstrom miracle in 2019 meant that the principal canonical requirements for his beatification had been met.
On Sept. 24, 2026, Archbishop Sheen will finally be declared Blessed.
For Bonnie Engstrom, however, the miracle has never belonged only to her family.
After the Vatican recognized the healing, she reflected that she did not believe the miracle had simply been given “to us, for us.”
“I think it was given to the church, for the church,” she has said.
That may be the most fitting way to understand the story.
James Fulton Engstrom’s life is inseparable from one family’s gratitude. But the Church’s recognition of his healing also points beyond that family — toward the life and intercession of a priest who spent decades trying to bring people closer to Christ.
And toward a mystery Archbishop Sheen himself spent his life preaching:
That prayer matters.
That heaven is not far away.
And that God can work through circumstances that human beings cannot explain.
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen will be beatified Sept. 24, 2026, in St. Louis.
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