Father Michael McGvney was born in Waterbury, on the 12th of August, 1852. He was the eldest of a family of thirteen children of which six died at a young age. His parents, Patrick and Mary (Lynch) McGivney, arrived in the United States during the great 19th century Irish migration.

Michael J. McGivney attended working class schools in Waterbury. And, after the Civil War, when the Connecticut metal industry was in full expansion, he quit school at the age of thirteen to go to work. His work in a copper spoon factory, helped to supplement his family's income. In 1868, at the age of sixteen, he quit his job at the factory.

Wishing to enter the priesthood, he travelled to Quebec in the company of Waterbury's pastor. Enrolled at the College in St-Hyacinthe , he worked hard on the subjects which would prepare him for the seminary. Two academic years followed, at the Our Lady of the Angels seminary· and then, a year at St. Mary's College in Montreal.

Short of money and worried about his family, he returned to live in the United States. Then, at the invitation of the Bishop of Hartford, he entered St. Mary's seminary in Baltimore, Maryland. After four years of study, on December 22nd, 1877, he was ordained as a priest in the historic Cathedral of the Assumption, in Baltimore by Archbishop Monsignor James Gibbons. A few days later, accompanied by his mother, he celebrated his first Mass in the Church of the Immaculate Conception, in Waterbury.

Father McGivney began his ministry on Christmas Day, 1877, as Curate of St. Mary's Church in New Haven. He devoted himself tirelessly to the young people of the parish, giving catechism classes and organising a group devoted to total abstinence from alcohol.

In 1881, he started to explore, with a group of laymen, the possibility of founding a Catholic, fraternal benefit society. In a period when parish clubs and fraternal organisations were very popular, the young priest thought he had discovered a way to work at the same time, for the affirmation of faith and assistance to poor families, decimated by sickness and the death of their bread winner.

He shared his idea with Monsignor Lawrence McMahon, Bishop of Hartford, who approved it. He travelled to Boston, Massachusetts to discuss his ideas with representatives of the Massachusetts Catholic Order of Foresters; then he went to Brooklyn, New York to talk with the Catholic Benevolent Legion. He also spent time talking with other priests in his diocese. Wherever he could, he collected information which would assist Catholic laymen in organising a benefit society.

Seeing the possibility of linking Catholicism with Americanism by using the faith and audacious vision of the discoverer of the New World, Father McGivney first suggested the name "Sons of Columbus" for the new Order but, at the suggestion of others, the name Knights of Columbus was adopted and, on March 29,1882, the Connecticut Legislature issued a charter to the Knights of Columbus, establishing them as a legal corporation.

After seven years of ministry in St. Mary's Parish, he was named Pastor of St. Thomas Parish in Thomaston, Connecticut, an industrial town situated sixteen kilometres from the town of his birth. While working fiercely to wipe out the parish deficit and devoting himself to his flock, he continued at the same time to serve the Columbian Order as Supreme Chaplain. He became more and more involved in promoting the Order in the other States of the Union.

Of frail health, Father McGivney came down with a serious case of pneumonia in January of 1890. The illness persisted and he died the 14th of August that same year, at the age of thirty eight years.

Presided over by the Bishop of Hartford, and attended by seventy priests, his funeral Mass was heavily attended, Attendees included many civic leaders, and Knights from almost all of the then existing fifty seven Councils.

In the thirteen years of his priesthood, the devotion and compassion of Father McGivney made him loved by those whom he served. His profound piety, his leadership and his natural administrative abilities, brought him the loyalty and affection of thousands who knew him both as a priest and as founder of the Knights of Columbus.

The Knights work on with the aim of having the saintliness of this faithful servant recognised by the Church.