VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of Father Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus, clearing the way for his beatification. While the Vatican announced May 27 that Pope Francis had signed the decree, it did not announce a date for the beatification ceremony. During the COVID-19 pandemic, previously scheduled beatification Masses have been postponed. For beatification, the Vatican requires proof of a miracle attributed to the candidate’s intercession, unless the candidate was martyred for his or her faith. A statement from the Knights of Columbus said, “The miracle recognized as coming through Father McGivney’s intercession involved an unborn child in the United States who in 2015 was healed in utero of a life-threatening condition after prayers by his family to Father McGivney.” “A date will soon be set for the beatification Mass, which will take place in Connecticut,” the statement said. McGivney was born Aug. 12, 1852, the eldest of 13 children born to Patrick and Mary Lynch McGivney in Waterbury, Connecticut. Young Michael attended school in Waterbury’s working-class neighborhood, but he left school at 13 to work in the spoon-making department of a brass factory. At 16, he left the factory to begin seminary studies at the French-run College of St. Hyacinthe in Quebec. He also studied at Our Lady of Angels Seminary, attached to Niagara University in Niagara Falls, New York, and at the Jesuit-run St. Mary’s College in Montreal. He went home to Waterbury when his father died in 1873 and stayed there for a time out of concern for his family and because he lacked funds. At the request of Hartford’s bishop, he enrolled in St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, where he completed his priestly studies. In 1877, he was ordained in Baltimore by Archbishop James Gibbons for the then-Diocese of Hartford. A few days after his ordination, he said his first Mass in the presence of his widowed mother at Immaculate Conception Church in Waterbury. McGivney served as an assistant pastor at St. Mary’s Parish in New Haven, from 1877 to 1884. He founded the Knights of Columbus with a small group of Catholic laymen, in order to strengthen religious faith and to help families overwhelmed by the illness or death of their breadwinner. In 1884, he was named pastor of St. Thomas Church in Thomaston, a factory town about 10 miles from Waterbury. He fell ill during an influenza epidemic and died Aug. 14, 1890, probably from complications of pneumonia and tuberculosis.
Old St. Patrick’s celebrates 1,500th anniversary of Ireland’s ‘matron’ Quick, name a saint — not Patrick — whose feast day is a national holiday in Ireland. Need a hint? This saint is often depicted with a shepherd’s staff, or depending on how you look at it, a bishop’s crozier. As well as a cow, and a plain book.
Relics of St. Thérèse, her parents, visit national shrine in Darien Thousands of people made the trip to the National Shrine of St. Thérèse in Darien Sept. 17 through Oct. 1 to venerate the relics of St. Thérèse of Lisieux and her parents, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin.
Why do we exhume saints’ bodies and preserve their relics? Deacon David Keene is a canon lawyer who serves as chancellor of the Archdiocese of Chicago, but he also holds a doctorate in archeology and is an expert in the exhumation of human remains. Before he retired, federal, state, county and local officials regularly called him when remains were found and needed to be preserved or relocated.