The Knights of Columbus was founded on March 29, 1882 in New Haven , Connecticut in the basement of St. Mary's Catholic Church by Father Michael J. McGivney and several Catholic laymen. His particular concern was protecting the young families in his church. Most were immigrants. All too often, the father, faced with dangerous and unhealthy working conditions, would die young - leaving his widow and children destitute. The objective of its founder and its first members was to set up a lay organization that would implement a means to assure financial security for the families. From that basement in New Haven , the Knights of Columbus has become the world's largest organization of Catholic men and their families. Membership as of June 30, 2004 , stood at 1,680,472 Knights. Together with their families, the Knights are nearly 6 million strong. In addition, from the first local council in New Haven , the Order has grown to more than 12,480 councils in the United States , Canada , Mexico , the Philippines , Puerto Rico , Cuba , the Dominican Republic , Panama , the Virgin Islands , Guatemala , Guam and Saipan . The Knights of Columbus, at all levels of the organization, volunteered a record high 61 million hours of personal service to the Catholic Church, community projects and youth programs in 2003. Knights also reported raising and contributing $130 million to charitable efforts in 2003.
Fr. Michael J. McGivney :
http://www.kofc.org/un/eb/en/news/releases/detail/547428.html
Pope praises Fathyer McGivney
http://www.fathermcgivney.org/mcg/guild/news/index.do
and