About

Founded on the principles of charity, unity and fraternity, the Knights of Columbus was established in 1882 by Father Michael J. McGivney, assistant pastor of St. Mary’s Church in New Haven, Conn., and a group of parishioners. Their intent? To bring financial aid and assistance to the sick, disabled and needy members and their families. The perpetual watchword of our Order is “Tempus fugit. Memento mori,” meaning “Time flies. Remember death.”

The August 2011 issue of the Knights’ Columbia magazine explains our founder and priest, Blessed Michael J. McGivney “never lost the ability to trust in others as he formed an association of faithful men of action in a world often lost in its search for meaning.” Those same challenges face us today with the flood of information but lack of the sense of purpose.

More recently in the 2023 Annual Report of the Supreme Knight, “Last year, within 36 hours of Russia’s invasion, we established the Ukraine Solidarity Fund. We called on councils to host fundraisers and rallied others to support this worthy cause. Eighteen months later, we have raised over $21 million.”

In March 2024’s Columbia, “The Order has a long history of supporting the work of the pope and the Vatican, beginning with Pope Benedict XV’s request that the Knights open sports fields to serve the poor youth of Rome following World War I. Since 1980, the Knights has sponsored 17 Vatican restoration projects.”

The cause for our founder’s canonization started in the Archdiocese of Hartford in 1996, and in March 2008, Pope Benedict XVI declared McGivney “Venerable” in recognition of his “heroic virtue.” On May 27, 2020, Pope Francis announced that McGivney had been approved for beatification, which officially occurred on October 31, 2020.

The Knights of Columbus has grown to be the world’s largest Catholic fraternal organization with 2.1 million members spanning across the world including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Philippines, Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Guatamala, Lithuania, Poland, Panama, Saint Lucia, South Korea, Ukraine, and the military overseas.