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29.03.

1882: The Catholic Knights of Columbus Founded

1882: The Catholic Knights of Columbus Founded
Photo Credit To Wikipedia Commons/ Knights of Columbus taking wounded soldiers out sightseeing around 1919

Story Highlights

  • Historical event:
  • 29 March 1882
  • An impressive fact is that the Knights of Columbus annually donate as much as 167 million U.S. dollars for charity, and perform over 70 million hours of volunteer work. Some years they donate over 400,000 doses of blood.

On this day in 1882, the Catholic organization called the Knights of Columbus was founded in the USA.



Today it is the largest Catholic fraternal organization in the world, with some 1.8 million members.

An impressive fact is that the Knights of Columbus annually donate as much as 167 million U.S. dollars for charity, and perform over 70 million hours of volunteer work. Some years they donate over 400,000 doses of blood. They give special attention to disabled people and disaster victims.

The Knights of Columbus were founded by Servant of God Michael J. McGivney, an American Catholic priest of Irish descent. The purpose of founding the Knights of Columbus was mutual support within the community, especially in cases when one of the members died (the colleagues of the deceased would then help their widow and orphans).

In time, the Knights of Columbus grew into a large and very respectable charity organization. They introduced the practice of donating blood, and donated over 413,000 doses of blood in 2010 alone. The Knights of Columbus’s insurance program today holds policies worth a total of over 90 billion U.S. dollars.




Some of the famous Knights of Columbus included John F. Kennedy, Sargent Shriver, Babe Ruth, St. Jose Maria Robles Hurtado, Archbishop Servant of God Fulton J. Sheen, Joyce Kilmer, Jack Reagan (President Reagan’s father) and many others. It is interesting that a total of seven Catholic saints were members of the Knights of Columbus, as were four Blessed.

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