Father Michael McGivney was twenty-nine years old — the son of Irish immigrants, a parish priest at St. Mary's Church in New Haven, Connecticut — when he founded the Knights of Columbus in October 1882.
He had watched too many Catholic families fall into poverty when the man of the house died. Widows were sent to the poorhouse. Children were placed in state institutions, raised by strangers, sometimes lost to the faith. McGivney wanted a mutual aid society for Catholic men — a brotherhood that would lift one another up in life, and ensure that no widow would be left to fend for herself in death.
A brotherhood for Catholic men. A safety net for the women and children they left behind.
He died of pneumonia six years later, at thirty-eight, before he saw what the Order would become. Today the Knights of Columbus comprise more than two million men in twelve countries — but at every level, the work is the same one McGivney started. Men, in service, in brotherhood. Pope Francis beatified him in 2020.
Further reading
The life and cause of Bl. Michael McGivney — fathermcgivney.orgThe official site of the cause for the canonization of Father McGivney — biography, prayers, news, and the Guild that supports the work.