Pope Francis announced on May 27 that a miracle was attributed to Father Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus, clearing the way for his beatification. The miracle involved a mother whose pregnancy was threatened by a medical condition in 2015. The family prayed to Father McGivney, and the woman’s condition was healed.
A date for his beatification Mass will be set soon. The Mass will take place in Connecticut.
Father McGivney, who was born on Aug. 12, 1852 in Waterbury, Connecticut, was the first of Patrick and Mary McGivney’s 13 children and one of seven who survived. His parents were immigrants from Ireland.
Their family life was tough, with his father working in a brass mill. The McGivneys faced prejudice, social exclusion ad financial and social disadvantages, yet their faith sustained them.
As a boy, Father McGivney attended public schools and was a good student. He graduated three years early -- at age 13 – shortly after the Civil War, and then went to work in the spoon-making department of a brass factory to help support his family.
In 1868, at age 16, he left home to pursue a vocation to the priesthood. After his father died in 1873, Father McGivney’s vocation was nearly derailed because he thought he’d have to stay home to support his family. But, thanks to financial support from a bishop, he was able to return to the seminary. .
Father McGivney was ordained on Dec. 22, 1877 in Baltimore’s historic Cathedral of the Assumption. His first public Mass – attended by his mother – was celebrated a few days later at Immaculate Conception Church in Waterbury.
He served as a parish priest in New Haven, Connecticut and dealt with many of the same issues priests face today – clergy shortages, parish debt, illness and anti-Catholic sentiments. Father McGivney was beloved by his parishioners and he gained a reputation for touching hearts and leading souls to God.
In one incident, he ministered to a 21-year-old man on death row who was convicted of killing a police officer. The young priest visited the inmate daily, offering guidance, prayer and Mass. On the day of his execution, the man thanked Father McGivney and told him his ministering helped him meet his death. Father McGivney continued to pray for the man and blessed him at the scaffold.
Father McGivney worked closely with Catholic men who gathered in the basement of his parish to explore the idea of a Catholic fraternal benefit society that would help men keep their faith. The idea was that a man could be a good Catholic and a good American citizen as well as helping families stay together and help them financially. He had a keen sense of the layman’s unique vocation, needs and potential contributions and drew people into the life and activities of the parish.
When he was transferred to a new parish, parishioners were grief-stricken.
Father McGivney continued to work on the new organization, called the Knights of Columbus. It was chartered on March 29, 1882 by the Connecticut legislature.
The original principles were unity and charity. Although the first Knights wanted him to lead the group, Father McGivney insisted that a layman do that, so James Mullen, a Civil War veteran, was elected the first supreme knight. Father McGivney accepted the office of supreme secretary. Two years later, he resigned and that position and became supreme chaplain.
In November 1884, Father McGivney was named pastor of St. Thomas Parish in Thomaston, Connecticut, about 30 miles from New Haven. He spent six years there and also ministered to the faithful at a mission parish.
His ministry continued until he fell ill with severe pneumonia in January 1890, during a pandemic likely caused by a coronavirus that killed an estimated 1 million people.
Father McGivney was confined to bed in the rectory and continued to pray for his parishioners as he struggled with his health. He died on Aug. 14, 1890, two days after his 38th birthday.
His funeral, which took place in Waterbury, was the largest at that time with more than 70 fellow priests and civic leaders in attendance. Delegations from almost every one of the 57 Knights of Columbus councils chartered in the first eight years of the organization’s existence sent a delegation to his funeral.
After his death, some 5,000 Knights from throughout the region staged a pilgrimage to Waterbury to pay tribute to Father McGivney.
Two of his brothers, Patrick and John, followed in his footsteps and became priests, with each also serving the Knights as supreme chaplain.
During the Knights’ centennial in 1982, his body was removed from the family plot in Waterbury and reinterred in a marble sarcophagus in St. Mary’s Church, New Haven, where he founded the organization. Initial steps also were taken to begin his cause for sainthood.
On Dec. 18, 1997, the Archdiocese of Hartford opened his cause for canonization. The Vatican announced on March 15, 2008, that his cause for sainthood had moved forward and he was declared venerable by Pope Benedict XVI.
Pope Francis recently recognized a miracle attributed to him, which clears the way for his beatification. One more verified miracle is needed for his canonization.
“Father McGivney has inspired generations of Catholic men to roll up their sleeves and put their faith into action,” said Carl A. Anderson, leader of the Knights of Columbus, in a statement. “Today, his spirit continues to shape the extraordinary charitable work of Knights as they continue to serve those on the margins of society as he served widows and orphans in the 1880s.”
Today, there are more than 2 million Knights of Columbus worldwide.