Knights of Columbus - Timeline Event
Founder
Michael J. McGivney
Time Period
1882
Description
The Knights of Columbus, a fraternal organization for Catholic men, first met on October 2, 1881, in the basement of St. Mary’s Church in New Haven, Connecticut. It was part of a larger milieu of similar societies that emerged in a period of increased Catholic immigration to the United States and public displays of anti-Catholicism. New Haven priest Michael J. McGivney, the Knights' founder, saw the need for an organization that would provide insurance for Catholic men, allowing them to better provide for their families, and that would strengthen their ties to both their church and their country. This group eventually took Christopher Columbus as its patron and named itself the Knights of Columbus, which served to stake a claim for the Catholic Church as a founder of the American nation and which declared Catholics to be loyal Americans. The Knights of Columbus officially incorporated on March 29, 1882.
Interactive Timeline(s)
Browse Related Timeline Entries
Religious Groups
Catholicism (Western Liturgical Family): Other ARDA LinksCatholicism (Western Liturgical Family): Religious Family Tree
Photographs
Michael McGivney portrait- Hathi Trust- from The Knights of Colombus in Peace and War by Maurice Francis Egan and John B. Kennedy
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St Mary's Church, New Haven- Wikimedia Commons- photo by Eumenes12 (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Christopher Columbus statue- Hathi Trust- from A History of the Knights of Columbus in Illinois by Joseph J. Thompson
Knights of Columbus poster- Library of Congress, LC-USZC4-10131
Book/Journal Source(s)
Kauffman, C.J., 2003. Knights of Columbus Detroit: Thomson/Gale; Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America. (Notes: In New Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 8, 2nd ed.: 189-192.).Kauffman, Christopher J., 1992. Faith and Fraternalism: The History of the Knights of Columbus New York: Simon & Schuster. (Notes: Revised edition).
Koehlinger, Amy, 2004. "Let us live for those who love us": Faith, Family, and the Contours of Manhood Among the Knights of Columbus in Late Nineteenth-Century Connecticut Journal of Social History. (Notes: Vol. 38, no. 2 (Winter 2004): 455-469).
Web Source(s)
https://www.kofc.org/en//index.htmlKnights of Columbus Website
Web Page Contributor
William S. CossenAffliated with: Pennsylvania State University, Ph.D. in History
