Relic of Blessed Michael McGivney visits Utah

IC photo/Marie Mischel

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The relic of Blessed Michael McGivney is carried in procession from Saint Catherine of Siena Newman Center to Saint Ambrose Parish on Feb. 15.

SALT LAKE CITY — The Catholic faithful in Utah recently had the opportunity to venerate a relic of Blessed Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus. The relic was in Utah Feb. 15-16 as part of a tour sponsored by the Knights of Columbus, an international Catholic fraternal organization that empowers “Catholic men to live their faith at home, in their parish, at work and in their community,” according to the organization website, kofc.org.

Father McGivney, who was born in 1852, was a parish priest based in New Haven, Conn. He founded the Knights of Columbus to provide financial assistance to widows and orphans. From this beginning, the organization has grown into the largest Catholic fraternal organization in the world, with more than 2 million members who contribute to numerous charitable efforts; last year they donated more than $1 million to disaster relief and distributed 224,696 coats through their annual Coats for Kids program, among many other efforts, according to kofc.org.  

In Utah, the Knights contributed more than $79,000 to charity last year and conducted numerous charitable events that benefited their parishes, individuals and organizations.

Bringing the relic to Utah allowed the faithful the opportunity to pray for the intercession of Blessed McGivney, who “was a wonderful example – he was a humble parish priest” who founded the fraternal organization “to help families, people who didn’t have anyone else to defend them or to see to their needs, and all these years later, the Knights of Columbus are continuing his mission,” said Richard Green, district deputy for the Utah Knights of Columbus.  

The relic tour also allows the Knights to acquaint more people with Blessed McGivney’s virtues, he said.

Another reason for the national tour of the relic is that Blessed McGivney must have one more miracle attributed to him before he can be canonized, and to create opportunities for this, the Knights are collecting written prayer intentions from the faithful during each stop. These intentions will be laid on Blessed McGivney’s sarcophagus in St. Mary’s Church in New Haven, said Chuck Davlin, a regional director for the Knights.

During the rosary that was led at the veneration of the relic, information about Blessed McGivney and the Knights was read. For example, the introduction read in part, “Although he lived more than a century ago, Father McGivney’s life and work show him to be of particular relevance today. Faced with anti-Catholic bias, Fr. McGivney directed the Knights of Columbus to the path of authentic civil participation without compromising the Catholic faith. Inspired by our founder’s example, we have stood side by side with those whose dignity and rights have not been fully recognized or upheld by civil authorities.”

In Utah, the relic was available for veneration on Feb. 15 at Saint Catherine of Siena Newman Center in Salt Lake City, and then was carried in procession to Saint Ambrose Parish. The next day it was at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Orem, St. Joseph the Worker Parish in West Jordan and St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Holladay. These parishes offered to host the relic, Green said.

Among those who attended the Feb. 15 veneration times was Leann Rogers, who drove from Park City because she felt it might be the only opportunity she would ever have to be in the presence of a relic of Blessed McGivney.

Seeing the relic makes Blessed McGivney “more touchable, makes him more real,” rather than just a person of whom she has heard stories, she said, adding that oftentimes saints “are built up so much that they don’t seem real.”

Many of those at the Feb. 15 events were members of the Knights of Columbus.

“Being able to venerate the relic, being able to put the faith on display, being able to do a little bit of penance – all of these things are very good reasons to get out – and, of course, the fraternity,” said Hudson Leone, who joined the organization just a few weeks ago.

Kenneth Thompson, another Knight, said he had previously venerated the relic in New Haven, but here in Utah he appreciated the opportunity to write a prayer intention that would be taken back to Blessed McGivney’s sarcophagus. Thompson said he wrote some intentions for which he asked Blessed McGivney’s intercession.