Blessed Michael McGivney and the Brave Men of the Knights of Columbus
How one small act began a Catholic movement with 2 million
What difference can one very young man make in a few short years? A simple parish priest who died in a pandemic just two days past his 38th birthday?
“The only difference between the saints and us is that they took action,’’ — Father Mike Schmitz.
Blessed Michael McGivney (1852–90) teaches the ripple effect: one small act inspires countless others: one stone thrown into a lake starting a small wave, building more — then growing larger — going farther than anyone imagined.
Often, you have no idea — even in your own lifetime — how great the impact of a few simple, yet holy, actions can have for generations to come.
At age 29, Father Michael McGivney invited two dozen men down to the Church basement, starting a new group he called the Knights of Columbus. Fourteen decades after that first meeting, look at what they became:
- More than 2 million members in 15,000 local councils are in more than a dozen nations.
- In 2019, Knights donated $187 million to charity and provided 77 million hours of volunteer work.
- Over the past decade, the Knights have donated more…
