Founders Day

Order celebrates 142 years on March 29th

Michael Joseph McGivney, born on August 12, 1852, was an Irish-American Catholic priest living in New Haven, Connecticut. He founded the Knights of Columbus on March 29th, 1882 at St. Mary’s, in New Haven, to serve as a mutual aid and fraternal insurance organization for working-class and immigrant Catholics in the United States. McGivney passed away in Thomaston in 1890 from pneumonia. In 1996, the Archdiocese of Hartford began the process of canonizing McGivney. He had been approved for beatification on May 27, 2020, meaning that McGivney could be declared ‘blessed,’ the step just before sainthood. A further miracle attributed to McGivney’s intercession will be necessary before he is canonized as a saint.

“Blessed Michael McGivney Pray for Us!”

Throughout the 20th century, the Knights of Columbus grew to become the world’s largest Catholic fraternal organization. It helps refugees, Catholic education, local parishes and dioceses, and global Catholic social and political concerns. The Knights advocate and promote the Catholic viewpoint on public policy issues such as the end of abortion and care for people with special needs. In addition, they provide financial services to individuals and institutional Catholic markets. Its financial advisors also invest in following Catholic social principles. The order is devoted to four principles, also known as degrees. These are charity, unity, fraternity, and patriotism. The members must possess these degrees to build a sense of communal brotherhood.

The Knights of Columbus Founders Day is observed to honor and remember how Knights are important to communities and parishes. Councils are to take part so that they are reminded of some of the accomplishments of the Knights of Columbus, what the ideals of the order are, and what the achievements of the local council are.