This biography of Blessed Father Michael J. McGivney gave a good insight into Catholicism in America during the Antebellum period. It details Fr. McGivney's life in Connecticut and his travels to seminary in Maryland and Niagara University in Western New York. It is a glimpse of the hardships those first members of the Knights of Columbus would have burdened. It explains why the order was created and how would benefit from it's creation.
It's amazing the characters in the council chambers today seem similar to those who huddled in St. Mary's near Yale almost 140 years ago. The hard-working, gruff wardens, the erudite parlimentarians, and the smooth and savvy leaders. It paints a picture like a Dickens novel of how life might have been for a minority population in a hostile world.
