Knights Of Columbus

Knights of Columbus is a global Catholic fraternal service order founded by Michael J. McGivney on March 29, 1882. The organization is named after the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus and was initially established as a mutual benefit society for working-class and immigrant Catholics in the United States. The organization has grown to support refugee relief, Catholic education, local parishes and dioceses, and global Catholic social and political causes. The Knights of Columbus also provides certain financial services to the individual and institutional Catholic market. Its wholly owned insurance company, one of the largest in the world, underwrites more than two million insurance contracts, totaling more than $114 billion of life insurance in force as of 2021. The order also owns the Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors, a money management firm which invests in accordance with Catholic social teachings. As of 2019, there were nearly two million members around the world.