Courtney Luciana photo
Father Michael McGivney.
“When the day finally came for Chip’s execution, Father McGivney was there,” said Father John Paul Walker of St. Mary’s Church. “The night before the execution, he spent essentially the entire night talking to him. It’s the power of charity, it’s the power of mercy, it’s the power of love that can change the heart of someone.”
Walker (pictured) joined local priests and church members on Hillhouse Avenue Friday night for a prayer vigil to kick start the beatification of Father Michael McGivney, who founded the Knights of Columbus in 1882.
Walker shared McGivney’s legacy through tales of heroic yet gentle gestures for others. Those included a story about 21-year old Chip Smith, who shot and killed a police officer while drunk in the late 1800s.
Before Smith was hanged to death, Father McGivney spent hours consoling him and orchestrating an entire mass with the church choir in the prison as a final send off.
“Don’t give up on anyone no matter how far off the path of virtue that they might be,” Walker said. “Now that you know the story of Father McGivney, bring them into your prayers. Maybe there’s someone that you know who needs their heart changed. That’s a prayer you can bring to the tomb tonight.”
Church members pray at McGivney’s tomb.
McGivney’s tomb is located in the back of the church, where members were encouraged to donate money in exchange for lighting a candle to pray.
Hundreds tuned into the ceremony both in person and online, where Archbishop of Hartford Rev. Leonard Blair led the vigil. Blair said McGivney was beloved by children, trusted by young adults, and regarded as a positive saint by the elderly in his New Haven parish.
“The Archdiocese of Hartford is devoted to commemorating the priestly life and ministry of Father McGivney,” Blair said. “McGivney’s model of heroic priestly virtue only enhances the preeminent place he has in the history of the Knights of Columbus and in the hearts and minds of its members.”
Supreme Chaplain of the Knights of Columbus Rev. William E. Lori (pictured) gave further insight to McGivney’s upbringing. He said that McGivney was born to Irish immigrant parents in 1852 in Waterbury.
McGivney founded the Knights in the basement of St. Mary’s Church after his father died while he was studying to be ordained around 1877.
During this time, it was state law that if the widowed could not prove their financial capability to support their families, then the children would be taken away by the state and designated into orphanages. This motivated McGivney to organize Catholic men to spiritually support each other after suffering the loss of the breadwinner in their families.
“Making ends meet was tough. The work was hard. But the faith came first,” Lori said. “It was there in the family circle that faith became Michael McGivney’s bedrock.”
Vice Postulator Brian Caulfield said McGivney’s holiness in founding the Knights of Columbus to provide for members has developed charity, unity, and fraternity into today’s age.
“Here we are, 138 years later and we have over two million members,” Caulfield said. “Throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the Philippines, some of the countries in Europe. It’s been 23 years to get McGivney to this point of beatification.”
A requirement to honor the holiness of a person into the sainthood tradition is the proof of a scientifically proven miracle.
This past May, Pope Francis approved McGivney into beatification after a family from Tennessee prayed to McGivney to save their unborn son, who doctors said was expected to die from hydrops fetalis. Knights of Columbus General Agent PGK Daniel Schachle said he and his wife named the baby after McGivney, in honor of the miracle.
“I remember turning to Father McGivney and asked him to pray for my son,” Schachle said. “I had turned to McGivney so many times in the past. I felt like he was always with me. I made a promise to him that I would name my son after him if he prayed for him.”
McGivney died of pneumonia in 1890 at 38 years old during a pandemic similar to the current coronavirus. Festival organizer and Associate Chaplain of Providence College Father Patrick Briscoe (pictured) said marking this occasion to celebrate McGivney’s holiness is fitting.
“We’re at a very contentious presidential election, we’re experiencing the pandemic, and Father McGivney was a person of great peace. When people would encounter him they would feel peace overcoming themselves. So for us, rather than being tossed by these things, we can look at figures like Father McGivney who were known for their compassion and be renewed in the search of those highest things.”
St. Mary’s Church altar.
On Saturday, the beatification for McGivney continued at the Cathedral of St. Joseph’s in Hartford with invitation-only attendance. On Sunday, a mass will be led by Baltimore Archbishop William Lori, supreme chaplain of the Knights of Columbus and Hartford Archbishop Leonard Blair. For more details click, here.