Blessed Michael McGivney the Priest who Founded the Knights of Columbus - Biography - Saint of August 13

Michael Joseph McGivney was born in Waterbury, Conn., on August 12, 1852, the first child of Patrick and Mary (Lynch) McGivney. His parents came to the United States in the great 19th-century wave of Irish immigration and were married in Waterbury. Patrick was a molder in the heat and noxious fumes of a brass mill. Mary gave birth to 13 children, six of whom died young, leaving Michael with four living sisters and two brothers. Life was not easy, especially for Catholic immigrant families who often faced prejudice, social exclusion, and financial and social disadvantages. Young Michael thus experienced from an early age grief, anti-Catholic bigotry and poverty. But his faith sustained him. At home and in church, he learned and embraced love, faith, fortitude, prayer and putting love of God above any earthly rewards.

Father McGivney had a keen sense of the layman’s unique vocation, needs and potential contributions, and he drew his people into the life and activities of the parish. This respect for the laity led Father McGivney to found the Knights of Columbus, a fraternal organization for Catholic men, in 1882.

The young priest designed a way to strengthen the Catholic faith of men and their families while providing financial protection when they suffered the death of the breadwinner. He well knew that keeping families together assisted both temporal and spiritual needs. His new fraternity was designed to provide Catholic men with an alternative to anti-Catholic secret societies that offered social and employment advancement but drew them away from the faith.

Father McGivney proposed that the new group be named for Christopher Columbus. Universally esteemed at the time as the heroic discoverer of the New World, Columbus would highlight the deep roots of Catholics in America, and the long history of Catholic evangelization in the hemisphere.

On March 29 – a day celebrated annually as Founder’s Day – the Connecticut legislature granted a charter establishing the Knights of Columbus as a legal corporation.

The name “Knights” appealed to the Civil War veterans in the group who saw noble principles of knighthood in the Order’s protection of the faith, family finances and the civil and religious rights of Catholics. A charter member wrote that Father McGivney was “acclaimed as founder by 24 men with hearts full of joy and thanksgiving; recognizing that without his optimism, his will to succeed, his counsel and advice, they would have failed.”

The Order’s original principles were unity and charity. “Unity in order to gain strength to be charitable to each other in benevolence whilst we live and in bestowing financial aid to those whom we have to mourn,” Father McGivney wrote. Principles of fraternity and patriotism were added later. Knights were led by their founder to take on the many challenges facing Catholic family life — poverty, early death, secret societies, anti-Catholicism — with the flexibility to take on other duties in the future. With a vision for growth, he asked the pastors in Connecticut to kindly help “in the formation of a council in your parish.”

As an indication of the respect the first Knights had for Father McGivney’s leadership, they moved to elect him head of the new Order. However, the humble priest insisted that a layman should lead the lay organization. James T. Mullen, a Civil War veteran, was elected the first supreme knight and Father McGivney took up the office of supreme secretary. Two years later, when operations were on a sound footing, Father McGivney resigned his executive post to become supreme chaplain, explaining that his first obligation to the Order was to serve as a priest.


Father McGivney fell ill during the pandemic known as the Russian or Asian flu in late 1889. He developed tuberculosis and was stricken with severe pneumonia in January 1890. The young priest lost physical strength just as his Order was moving toward new vitality. After seeking respite and remedies, he was eventually confined to bed in the St. Thomas rectory, where his concern and prayers for his people only increased. After receiving the last rites from a fellow priest, he died on August 14, two days past his 38th birthday.

The funeral in Thomaston was an indication of the love and respect the people held for this hard-working, holy parish priest, drawingCatholics from across the state, including the bishop, more than 70 fellow priests, and civic leaders. The funeral cortege in Waterbury was the largest ever in that city at the time, with mourners renting every available carriage within miles for the procession to the McGivney family plot in St. Joseph Cemetery.

The funeral also reflected the deep personal appeal that Catholics found in the Knights of Columbus. Delegations came from almost every one of the 57 Knights of Columbus councils that had been chartered in the Order’s first eight years. Father McGivney’s holy example also inspired his two younger brothers, Patrick and John, who followed him into the priesthood and served the Order as supreme chaplains.

Today, the earthly remains of Father McGivney are interred in a polished sarcophagus in New Haven’s St. Mary’s Church, where he founded the Knights of Columbus. His vision and mission are carried forth by more than 2 million Knights of Columbus throughout the world, who form a band of brothers under the principles of Charity, Unity, Fraternity and Patriotism.

Edited from : https://www.fathermcgivney.org/