It was 1895, in the month of Mary; one century was ending and another beginning; and with its beginning, was the need of a voice in the desert, crying out, proclaiming the Word of God. Fulton J. Sheen was to be that voice. The prophet, whose words and voice would ring out for all time and place, was born above the family's hardware store in El Paso, Illinois.

Fulton J. Sheen was brought up on the need of putting in a good day's work. It was not the hard work he minded; it was that the hard work was done on a farm. Out of necessity, his family had moved to a farm (after a fire had destroyed their store). Whereas his brothers loved to work on the farm, Fulton suffered it. A neighbor once told his father, he (Fulton J. Sheen) would never amount to much; his head was always in a book.