Bl. Michael J. McGivney

Born: August 12, 1852

Died: August 14, 1890

Feast day: August 13

Patron of: Knights of Columbus

McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus, the world’s foremost Catholic fraternal benefit society with close to 2 million members, had many striking characteristics that made people notice him: His youthful, boyish face. Exemplary pastoral compassion. An understated way of leading without taking center stage. A deep love of Christ.

McGivney worked primarily with Irish-American immigrants and their children. He had less evangelization to do, but he worked with people whose world had largely dissolved. The stable patterns of rural Ireland that grew organically out of pre-Christian tribal societies—clear social roles, extended family ties, deep cultural continuity, and a connection to place over generations—were ripped away by migration.

American cities like New Haven exacerbated this effect, with a fast-changing economy, the growing influence of mass culture, and previously inconceivable cultural change. Small groups of people living in the same place for centuries were suddenly thrown up into the air like a deck of cards and shuffled into new, often random patterns.

It was in this context that McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus. At the most basic level, he wanted to provide through insurance the safety net that families needed. Culturally and spiritually, McGivney wanted a society that was not secret but gave men an identity while they connected directly to the life of faith. And, thinking ahead of his time, he wanted it to be run by laypeople. McGivney’s vision, in other words, was to rebuild the Catholic villages that had been lost in migration.

—Damian Costello