The Catholic Patriotic Minute #13: Blessed Father Michael J. McGivney
Catholics For Catholics Special Edition | September 29th, 2025
Blessed Michael J. McGivney: Founder of the Knights of Columbus
On October 2, 1881, Blessed Father Michael J. McGivney met with men at his parish, St. Mary’s Church in New Haven, Connecticut, to suggest founding an organization that would become the Knights of Columbus. Because McGivney was guiding his parish in a post-Civil War nation, he attempted to cultivate charity and unity, particularly of the Catholic family, in his parish. His efforts resulted in beginning an organization that now brings together two million Catholic men across the nation.
In Waterbury, Connecticut, Michael was born on August 12, 1852, to a poor family, whose parents immigrated from Ireland. He was one of thirteen children, but six of the thirteen died young. He studied at a nearby public school, where he was acknowledged for his “[e]xcellent deportment and proficiency in his studies.”
Soon after the end of the Civil War, Michael graduated from school early when he was thirteen and helped his family financially by working at a brass factory. At the age of sixteen, Michael realized his vocation for the priesthood. For the next five years, Michael would be formed by four seminaries and three specific religious orders, the Vincentians, Jesuits, and Sulpicians. During his early years as a seminarian, Michael was remembered for his affinity for his academic studies.
However, in June 1873, Michael’s father died. Michael returned to Waterbury and had to face the possible reality of having to leave the seminary in order to support his family. But, the Archbishop of Hartford assisted Michael financially so that Michael could attend St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland. Here, Michael was remembered for his religious zeal, his humor, and even for his love of baseball.
On December 22, 1877, Archbishop James Gibbons ordained Michael a priest in the United States’ first cathedral, the Cathedral of the Assumption, in Baltimore. His first assignment was at St. Mary’s Church in New Haven, Connecticut, a parish with problems such as debt and a shortage of priests and a city with anti-Catholic sentiments. Parishioners and locals drew close to Father McGivney, resulting in mentoring his flock well and converting others to Catholicism.
Father McGivney would often visit and pray with prisoners, one of whom being James “Chip” Smith. Smith was twenty-one, Catholic, and sentenced to death for killing a police officer while intoxicated. Father McGivney would meet with Smith regularly over a span of months, praying for him and offering Mass for him. On the day of Smith’s execution, Father McGivney walked with Smith to his death and gave Smith a cloth Sacred Heart Badge to wear. Smith said, “Father, your saintly ministrations have enabled me to meet death without a tremor. Do not fear for me, I must not break down now.”
As a priest, Father McGivney was remembered for bringing a reassuring stability that the parish and city needed. One of his fellow priests likened Father McGivney’s presence to his face, “a face of wonderful repose. There was nothing harsh in that countenance although there was everything that was strong.” He provided financial relief for his poverty-stricken congregation by organizing parish plays, fairs, and events. Father re-started a group, whose purpose was to end alcoholism in their community. One of his parishioners noted, “He was zealous of the people’s welfare, and all the kindliness of his priestly soul asserted itself more strongly in his unceasing efforts for the betterment of their condition.” Father McGivney’s efforts always involved bringing his community together.
In fact, his most renowned accomplishment to foster a faithful and stable community was his founding of the Knights of Columbus. On March 29, 1882, the Connetictut legislature established the Knights of Columbus as a legal corporation. Father McGivney named the organization after Christopher Columbus because of Columbus’ practice of Christian evangelization upon meeting natives in the New World. He also called the members “Knights” to connect their institution with the Civil War veterans. With twenty-four men at St. Mary’s, he formed this fraternal institution for Catholic men to gather together in their shared missions of pursuing Christ and fulfilling their vocations as husbands and fathers. Father McGivney chose unity and charity as the Order’s founding principles because, as he explained, their aim was “[u]nity 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.”
At this time in the United States, families were breaking apart more and more, in large part due to their financial situations. Father McGivney truly understood that his families needed financial assistance to stay intact, just as his family did once his father died. In particular, he feared that men from his flock would enter anti-Catholic secret societies, like the Freemasons. Even after Father McGivney’s death, the Knights of Columbus would continue to actively oppose anti-Catholic organizations, like the Ku Klux Klan for their propaganda and violence aimed at Catholics in the 1920’s. In the 1880’s, the Freemasons were giving men employment opportunities and other financial aid, such as health insurance and burial funds. And so, the Knights’ initial efforts, led by Father McGivney, consisted of forming an insurance system and a Sick Benefit Deposit for their members.
Although the Knights asked Father McGivney to be the head of their Order, Father requested that a layman lead it. He was their supreme secretary in 1882 and then, in 1884, their supreme chaplain, his preferred role. In November 1884, to the dismay of his parishioners, Father McGivney was assigned to be the pastor of another working-class parish, St. Thomas Church in Thomaston. During his last Mass at St. Mary’s, Father McGivney told his flock, “For the past seven years I have been with you and toiled with you and no matter where I go the people of St. Mary’s will occupy the best place in my heart. Would that I could express my gratitude for the love and affection you have shown me. . . I trust that we may meet again in Heaven.”
In January 1890, Father McGivney contracted tuberculosis and then pneumonia. Two days after his thirty-eighth birthday, on August 14, 1890, Father McGivney passed away. The many attendees at Father’s funeral included more than seventy priests, Catholics from all over Connecticut, local political leaders, and members from almost all of the fifty-seven Knights of Columbus councils that were formed in Father McGivney’s last eight years of life. Now, there are over two million serving in the Order of the Knights of Columbus. On March 15, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI declared Father McGivney a Venerable Servant of God. On October 31, 2020, Pope Francis beatified Father McGivney, and so Blessed Michael McGivney’s feast day is August 13, the day in between his birthday and the day of his death. He is the first priest, who spent his whole time as priest at a parish in the United States, to be beatified.
Pope Francis noted that Blessed Michael McGivney’s “zeal for the proclamation of the Gospel and generous concern for the needs of his brothers and sisters made him an outstanding witness of Christian solidarity and fraternal assistance.” His charity for his flock and his community in a post-Civil War America not only sanctified him, but it also initiated communities throughout all of the United States, helping families remain together and allowing for Catholic men to find community within the Church.
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