The Knights of St Columba is a fraternal

service Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a pu ...

order affiliated with the

Catholic Church in Scotland The Catholic Church in Scotland overseen by the Scottish Bishops' Conference, is part of the worldwide Catholic Church headed by the Pope. After being firmly established in Scotland for nearly a millennium, the Catholic Church was outlawed fo ...

and in England and Wales. Founded in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

in 1919, the Knights are named in honour of

Saint Columba Columba or Colmcille; gd, Calum Cille; gv, Colum Keeilley; non, Kolban or at least partly reinterpreted as (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is toda ...

, a 6th-century missionary descended from the

Gaelic nobility of Ireland This article concerns the Gaelic nobility of Ireland from ancient to modern times. It only partly overlaps with Chiefs of the Name because it excludes Scotland and other discussion. It is one of three groups of Irish nobility, the others being ...

in modern

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconne ...

, who successfully evangelized both the

Picts The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland (north of the Firth of Forth) during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from ea ...

and

Gaels The Gaels ( ; ga, Na Gaeil ; gd, Na Gàidheil ; gv, Ny Gaeil ) are an ethnolinguistic group native to Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man in the British Isles. They are associated with the Gaelic languages: a branch of the Celtic langu ...

of modern Scotland. The Knights describes themselves as dedicated to the principles of Charity, Unity and Fraternity. There are around 4,000 members of the KSC, in over 240 councils across Great Britain — it features in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. Membership is limited to Catholic men aged 16 and over, and promotes the social doctrine of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. The organisation is non-political and essentially democratic, does not admit women, and exists to support the mission of the Catholic Church. The KSC organisation is a member of the

International Alliance of Catholic Knights The International Alliance of Catholic Knights (IACK) is a non-governmental organization made up of fifteen Roman Catholic fraternal orders from 27 countries on six continents. The IACK was founded in Glasgow on 12 October 1979 at a meeting ...

. Founder of the Knights and first Supreme Knight was P. J. O'Callaghan. Admission ceremonies usually take place in a Catholic parish during the celebration of

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

. The group organises annual pilgrimages to

Aylesford Priory Aylesford Priory, or "The Friars" was founded in 1242 when members of the Carmelite order arrived in England from Mount Carmel in the Holy Land. Richard de Grey, a crusader, sponsored them, and conveyed to the order a parcel of land locate ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

and Carfin Lourdes Grotto near

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

North Lanarkshire North Lanarkshire ( sco, North Lanrikshire; gd, Siorrachd Lannraig a Tuath) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the northeast of the City of Glasgow and contains many of Glasgow's suburbs and commuter towns and villages. It also ...

Organisation

At local level, members belong to a Council or Charter Council, led by the Grand Knight. The Charter Councils in an area (often corresponding to a Catholic

Diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

) come together to form a Province, under the Provincial Grand Knight. Representatives of the Provinces meet at least once annually at the Supreme Council which governs the Order. The Supreme Knight presides over the Supreme Council.

Chronology of Supreme Knights

* 1919–1922 Patrick Joseph O'Callaghan * 1922–1929 Edward Henry * 1929–1933 William Bishop KSG * 1933–1936 Thomas Davis * 1936–1945 William Loughrey * 1945–1948 Thomas Leyland * 1948–1951 Laurie Arnold * 1951–1952 Daniel Kelly * 1952–1955 Thomas McMenemy * 1955–1958 James Mitton

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

* 1958–1961 Francis Mildner * 1961–1964 Stuart Harper * 1964–1967 William Austin * 1967–1970 P. N. Scott * 1970–1972 Michael May * 1972–1975 Martin Cairns * 1975–1978 Christopher Seneviratne * 1978–1981 Anthony Rouse KCSG KHS * 1981–1984 P. Layden KCSG KHS * 1984–1987 Walter Downey * 1987–1990 Francis Redmond KCSG * 1990–1993 Anthony Bateman KSG * 1993–1996 Anthony Britten KCSG KCHS * 1996–1999 Kenneth Hargreaves KSG * 1999–2002 Anthony Britten KCSG KCHS * 2002–2005 Anthony Doherty KSG * 2005–2008 John Doran KSG * 2008–2011 Jonjo McDonagh KSG * 2011–2014 Ron Lynch KSG * 2014–2017 Charlie McCluskey KSG * 2017–2021 Bertie M. Grogan KSG * 2021–present Henry Welsh

Ecclesiastical advisers

* Malcolm McMahon OP, Archbishop of Liverpool * Tom Neylon, Auxiliary Bishop of Liverpool (12th ecclesiastical adviser) Knights of St. Columba
New Ecclesiastical Advisor
accessed 20 August 2022

Sources

Notes

References

* *

External links

Knights of Saint Columba
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knights Of Saint Columba Saint Columbus Religious organizations established in 1882 Catholic Church in North America