The eldest son of an immigrant Irish family in Connecticut, young Michael left school at 13 to work in a brass factory making spoons. At 16 Michael J. McGivney began studies for the priesthood in Quebec, but was obliged to leave to help support the family when his father died. BMichael completed his education in Baltimore, Maryland, and was ordained for the diocese of Hartford in 1877.
At 29-year-old Father Michael McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus in 1882,
At St. Mary’s Church in the bustling port city of New Haven, Connecticut, he stepped into the breach. Gathering men in his parish basement, Father McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus.
After founding the Knights, Father McGivney was notably intentional about placing leadership in the hands of the group’s lay members. In this way, he anticipated by nearly a century Vatican II’s focus on and empowerment of the laity in living out the universal call to holiness and the Church’s mission to evangelize.
During the global flu pandemic of 1899-1890, Father McGivney was ministering among his people until his own weakening health confined him to bed, where he continued praying for his flock.
He died on Aug. 14, 1890, two days after his 38th birthday. At his beatification ceremony on Oct. 31, 2020, Pope Francis stated 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.”
The Holy Father set his annual feast day for Aug. 13, the day between Father McGivney’s birthday (in 1852) and the day he entered eternal life (in 1890).
As the founder of the Knights of Columbus, Father Michael J. McGivney was a central figure in the growth of Catholicism in America, and he remains a model today. His example of charity, evangelization and empowerment of the laity continues to bear fruit and guide Knights of Columbus around the world.
Those who knew him best in life saw in him both a “genial” countenance and a man with an “indomitable will” to achieve the good. In sum, his founding of the Knights of Columbus “attests to the love in which he held his brother man.”