Father McGivney

Father Michael J. McGivney was born in 1852, the first child born to Patrick and Mary McGivney. His mother would give birth to 13 children, six of whom died in infancy or childhood. So this first child, Michael, learned early about sorrow, and the harsh grip of poverty. He also learned about the powers of love, and faith and family fortitude.

At the age of 13, he was forced to leave school and go to work in a local factory. In those days, the few extra dollars earned would help with family survival. When he reached the age of 16, he was finally able to begin his journey to the priesthood, leaving Connecticut for Quebec, Canada. Here he would enter a school that would help him prepare for the seminary.

His preparation for the priesthood was interrupted just five years later, when his father died. Concerned about his family, he was forced to abandon, for a time, his dream of becoming a priest. As it turned out, Providence had plans for young Michael McGivney, and, with the assistance of a benevolent order of priests, he was able to re-enter school, attend the seminary, and realize his dream of ordination to the priesthood.

In those days, Catholics were the despised minority in the United States -- a country which had been discovered, explored and colonized by Catholics -- and which now allowed and, in some cases, encouraged the systematic exclusion of Catholics from the protection of its laws and the enjoyment of its blessings. It was a time when Catholics held the most menial and dangerous jobs and received the lowest pay. And when a family breadwinner would die, the family was usually left penniless. It was a time when the country's insurance companies refused to sell insurance protection to Catholics.

One day, in the late months of 1881, young Father Michael McGivney, only 29-years-old at the time, brought together a small group of Catholic men in the basement of St. Mary's Church in New Haven, Connecticut. During this meeting, he told them of his bold plan to form an organization that would provide a fraternal bond for his Catholic men, and offer assistance for future Catholics widows and orphans.

Many meetings and much discussion followed. Finally, on March 29, 1882, a charter was granted by the State of Connecticut to a Catholic fraternal organization called the "Knights of Columbus". The founders and first officers chose that name because they felt that, as a Catholic group, it should pay homage to the Catholic discoverer of America. This would serve to point out that it was, indeed, Catholics who discovered, explored, and colonized the North American continent. At the same time, the title "Knights" would signify that the membership embodied Knightly ideals of spirituality and service to Church , country, and fellow man.

The Order grew slowly at first. At the time, the first Supreme Knight, James Mullen, left office in 1886, the Knights of Columbus had 2,500 members in 38 councils -- all in Connecticut except for one in Rhode Island. A period of rapid growth was about to begin, and even Father McGivney himself had earlier written to all of his fellow pastors in the State of Connecticut urging them to establish a council in their parish. When he dies in 1890, there were 5,000 Knights in 57 councils. Over a century has passed since our founding in 1882, During the years of the Order's existence, membership has grown to over 1.5 million men -- and extended family of 6 million men, women, and children.