NEW HAVEN PILGRIMAGE

The “McGivney Triangle” in New Haven, Conn., describes three locations central to the life and legacy of Father McGivney. Easily walkable, the pilgrimage route starts at St. Mary’s Church, where Father McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus with a handful of Catholic men; proceeds to the plaza of the Order’s international headquarters, at the display of three statues that capture the vision and mission of the founder, and ends at the Blessed Michael McGivney Center, where the McGivney Gallery features artifacts and relics of the holy priest, and illustrates the history of his Order.

PILGRIM'S PATH

Entombed bodily remains of Father McGivney located at St. Mary's Church in New Haven, Connecticut.

Father McGivney's Tomb (5 Hillhouse Avenue)

A special place of prayer and pilgrimage is the sarcophagus where the bodily remains of Father McGivney are entombed, near the entrance of St. Mary’s Church in New Haven. Knights and families from many parts of the world, as well as visitors from New Haven and beyond, come to St. Mary’s to pay tribute to Father McGivney in the church where he founded the Order in 1882. They recite the prayer for canonization and thank God for favors received through the intercession of the holy priest.

The mortal remains of Father McGivney were reverently placed in the polished granite sarcophagus on March 29, 1982, the centennial of the founding of the Knights of Columbus. The remains had been exhumed from the McGivney family plot in his hometown of Waterbury, where his parents and some of his siblings are still buried in Old St. Joseph’s Cemetery.

For more information, visit the St. Mary’s Church website.

Statuary group by Stanley Bleifeld with Father Michael J. McGivney; a mother holding an infant against her chest; and a child.

International Headquarters (1 Columbus Plaza)

From the church, walk a few blocks to the plaza outside the Order’s international headquarters, where a tableau of three bronze figures tells the story behind the founding of the Knights of Columbus. Father McGivney is shown welcoming a widow and her children who seek help from the compassionate priest as the Protector of Christian Family Life.

The headquarters is a 23-story office building of distinctive brickwork and four exterior towers symbolizing the Knights’ principles of charity, unity, fraternity and patriotism. Here the daily work of the Order is conducted in various departments: fraternal mission, insurance, underwriting, investments, communications, technology, and every other section that a modern international company requires. As a place of business, the building is open to invited visitors only.

For more information, visit the Knights of Columbus website.

Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center (1 State Street)

In the Center is located the McGivney Gallery and the Reliquary Room. Among the first- and second-class relics on display are a fragment of bone and the cassock Father McGivney was buried in and other priestly garments and items he regularly used before his death Aug. 14, 1890. The Gallery features grade-school and seminary photos, devotional items and newspaper clippings from his days in New Haven.

For more information, visit the Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center website.

Next: MCGIVNEY INSTITUTIONS AND MEMORIALS