Father Michael J. McGivney's vision for the role of laypeople in the Church and a fraternal society to unite men in faith and service resulted in the founding of the Knights of Columbus, which today is the largest Catholic lay organization in the world.
The McGivney Gallery traces the priest’s early life in Waterbury, Connecticut, his call to the priesthood, parish ministry at St. Mary’s Church in New Haven where he founded the Knights of Columbus, and his death while a pastor in Thomaston, Connecticut.
A life-size bronze statue of Father McGivney, by Stanley Bleifeld, is central to the gallery, with the reliquary room adjacent. The reliquary contains the priest’s original burial vestments that were removed in 1981, when his body was re-interred in St. Mary’s Church.
