Knights of Columbus history

The emblem of the Order dates from the second Supreme Council meeting on May 12, 1883, when James T. Mullen, who was then supreme knight, designed it.

By the time of the first annual convention in 1884, the Order was prospering.

The first ritual handbook was printed in 1885 but contained only sections teaching Unity and Charity.

1886: By the end of his four-year tenure as supreme knight, James T. Mullen personally presides at the institution of 22 of the first 38 councils.

After six years as pastor of St Thomas, McGivney contracted tuberculosis and eventually succumbed, at the age of 38, to the disease in August 1890.

Supreme Knight Mullen, along with primary ritual author Daniel Colwell, believed that the initiation ceremony should be held in three sections "in accord with the 'Trinity of Virtues, Charity, Unity, and Brotherly love.'" The third section, expounding Fraternity, was officially adopted in 1891.

1892: 6,000 Knights march in the New Haven Columbus Day parade to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ discovery of the New World.

1895: The Vatican’s first acknowledgment of the Knights comes when Archbishop Francesco Satolli, apostolic delegate to the United States, writes a letter extolling the “merits of this splendid Catholic organization” and giving the Order his apostolic blessing.

25, 1897, Canada’s first council — Montreal Council 284 — is chartered.

The first Fourth Degree exemplification followed in 1900 with 1,100 Knights participating at the Lenox Lyceum in New York City.

In 1910, the Knights had councils operating throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Philippines, Cuba and Panama, and had opened its first college council at the University of Notre Dame.

The state is dotted with lakes, the largest of which, Lake Candlewood, lies north of Danbury in the western part of the state and covers 8.5 square miles (22 square km). It was created in 1929 by impounding the Rocky River.

In 1937, the University of Illinois became the first public university with a Knights of Columbus Council, The Illini Council Number 2782.

Following the end of the war in 1945, the Order turns its attention to the growing threats of communism and fascism.

In 1954, the words "under God" are added to the United States Pledge of Allegiance completing an effort the Knights began three years earlier.

The Vicarius Christi Fund has a corpus of $20 million and has earned more than $35 million, since its establishment in 1981, for the Pope's personal charities.

Days after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 the Order established the $1 million Heroes Fund.

Insurance sales grew 19% in 2004, more than three times the rate of industry at large.

The Order holds $13 billion in assets and had $1.5 billion in revenue and $71 million in profits in 2005.

Today the Order offers a modern, professional insurance operation with more than $70 billion of life insurance policies in force as of 2009.

As of 2020, the Knights of Columbus has 16,424 councils worldwide, comprising over two million members.