Kofc - Fondazione Cavalieri di Colombo - Knights of Columbus

Father McGivneywas born in Waterbury on August 12, 1852. His parents, Patrick and Mary (Lynch) McGivney, had arrived in the great 19th century wave of Irish immigration

Patrick McGivney became a molder in the heat and noxious fumes of a Waterbury brass mill.

Mary McGivney gave birth to 13 children, six of whom died in infancy or childhood.

So the first child, Michael, with four living sisters and two brothers, learned early about sorrow and the harsh grip of poverty.

He also learned about the powers of love and faith, and family fortitude. He went to the small district schools of Waterbury's working-class neighborhoods.

After the Civil War, he left school at age 13 to go to work. His job in the spoon-making department of a brass factory provided a few more dollars for family survival. When Michael reached the age of 16 in 1868, he left the factory.

With the priesthood clearly in mind, he traveled to Quebec, Canada where he registered at the French-run College of St. Hyacinthe.Two academic years followed at Our Lady of Angels Seminary, attached to Niagara University in Niagara Falls, New York. Young McGivney moved next to Montreal to attend seminary classes at the Jesuit-run St. Mary's College. He was there when his father died in June of 1873.

At the request of the bishop of Hartford, he entered St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland. On December 22, 1877, he was ordained in Baltimore's historic Cathedral of the Assumption by Archbishop (later Cardinal) James Gibbons. A few days later, with his widowed mother present, he said his first Mass at Immaculate Conception Church in Waterbury.

Father McGivney began his priestly ministry on Christmas Day in 1877 as curate at St. Mary's Church in New Haven. It was the city's first parish. A new stone church had been built, after the old one burned, on one of New Haven's finest residential streets, Hillhouse Avenue.

There was neighborhood objection which even the New York Times noted in 1879, under the headline: "How An Aristocratic Avenue Was Blemished By A Roman Church Edifice." So Father McGivney's priestly ministry in New Haven began with tension and defensiveness among the working-class Irish families he served.

Father McGivney worked closely with the young people of St. Mary's parish, holding catechism classes and organizing a total abstinence society to fight alcoholism. In 1881 he began to explore with various laymen the idea of a Catholic, fraternal benefit society. In an era when parish clubs and fraternal societies had wide popular appeal, the young priest felt there should be some way to strengthen religious faith and at the same time provide for the financial needs of families overwhelmed by illness or death of the breadwinner.