New Vision book tells the inspiring story of Fr. Michael McGivney

The story of the founder of the Knights of Columbus, says author Emily Tennant, “is proof that we don’t have to do incredible things to be a saint … he is holy because he loved God and strove to live God’s will every day of his life.”

May 23, 2025 Paul Senz Books, Features 0 Print

(Image: Ignatius Press / www.ignatius.com)

The Vision series of lives of the saints chapter books has been inspiring young people for decades now. The original series was published in the middle of the 20th century, featuring saints including Joan of Arc, Dominic, Kateri Tekakwitha, Bernadette Soubirous, John Bosco, Damien of Molokai, Frances Cabrini, Katharine Drexel, and many more.

Over the last few years, Ignatius Press has been publishing brand new volumes in this series, including books about Saint José Sanchez del Rio, Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, Father Willie Doyle, SJ, and more.

Emily Tennant is the author of one of the most recent entries in the Vision series, Father Michael McGivey and the Knights of Columbus (Ignatius Press, 2025). She is an artist, musician, and writer, and lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with her family, half of whom are members of the Knights.

This is the first children’s chapter book to tell the inspiring story of Blessed Michael McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus, son of poor Irish immigrants, who became one of the most influential priests the Church in America has ever produced.

The writing of Vision books has become a family affair, as well: Tennant’s sister, GinaMarie, is the author of Louis and Zélie: The Holy Parents of St. Thérèse and An American Little Flower: Blessed Miriam Teresa Demjanovich.

Tennant recently spoke with Catholic World Report about her new book, the legacy of Fr. McGivney, and the importance of getting young readers interested in the lives of the saints.

Catholic World Report: How did the book come about?

Emily Tennant: My sister, GinaMarie, having published her first Vision book with Ignatius Press, thought a book on Blessed Michael would be a nice addition to the Vision series. She, however, was more interested in writing a book on Blessed Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, so she mentioned the idea to me.

At first, I was not particularly interested. I am the type of person who likes martyrs, so the life of an ordinary parish priest did not excite me. Thanks to my family’s insistence, I began reading Parish Priest: Father Michael McGivney and American Catholicism by Douglas Brinkley and Julie M. Fenster. That book changed everything.

I remember dreading the end of the book because I knew Michael would die, and I had grown so attached to him that I did not want that to happen.

CWR: Father McGivney has become more well-known over the last several years, including being beatified in 2020. Why do you think there has been an increased interest? Why do people connect with his story?

Tennant: I suspect that for many people, the beatification of Father McGivney put him on the map. Also, as the Knights of Columbus continue to grow, there are more Knights, which means there are more people interested in him. Michael respected and protected the beauty of the family. During his life, he witnessed families torn apart by death and poverty. This was one of the reasons he founded the Knights of Columbus. In today’s world, the family is still under threat, although for different reasons.

Now is the perfect time for people to turn to Michael as a guide in our efforts to respect and protect the family structure God has given us. It is interesting to note that the miracle that led to Michael’s beatification was the healing of an unborn baby. In a world where unborn children are considered disposable, this miracle, stemming from Michael’s love for families and children, is a powerful witness. This is Michael’s time.

CWR: The Knights of Columbus, founded by Fr. McGivney, has become a large organization, growing significantly from the humble beginnings in Connecticut. Is there something about Fr. McGivney and the precedent he started that accounts for the tireless work of these men, now all around the world?

Tennant: With the help of a group of Catholic men, Michael put together an organization that is both unique and beneficial. In the 1800s, Catholic men were tempted to join secret societies that were forbidden by the Church. The Knights of Columbus was an alternative that provided fellowship and insurance while also promoting and strengthening the members’ Catholic Faith.

Although secret societies no longer have an allure, our society has other temptations, and the Knights of Columbus is still a great way for Catholic men to come together and support each other and their families. The Faith that caused Father McGivney to found the Knights of Columbus lives on in the men who continue to carry on his vision.

CWR: These Vision books are typically geared towards middle-grade readers and teens. What does Fr. McGivney’s life have to teach young people, in particular?

Tennant: Michael’s story is proof that we don’t have to do incredible things to be a saint. Although Michael is famous because he founded the Knights of Columbus, he is holy because he loved God and strove to live God’s will every day of his life. I hope children will understand that it is who we are, not what we do, that truly makes us great. Also, I hope Michael’s story will inspire boys and young men to discern if God is calling them, like Michael, to the priesthood.

CWR: Do you think the book has something to offer older readers, as well?

Tennant: I think the book offers older readers an opportunity to learn about the founder of the Knights of Columbus in a fun and easy-to-read style. There are not a lot of books available about Michael, so I hope this book can introduce adults, as well as children, to him.

CWR: The Vision books are chapter books, narrative lives of the saints, rather than just a factual telling of the biographical details. Is there something about this format that helps communicate the message to younger readers?

Tennant: I think so. For one thing, this type of format is fun and easy to read, so hopefully it will attract readers. Also, by putting Michael in the framework of a story, he comes across less like a historical person and more like someone you actually want to know.

CWR: What do you hope readers will take away from the book?

Tennant: I hope readers get to know Michael in the book and come away with a new friend. Michael is very real in my life, and I hope readers also experience that.

I also hope that the book gives readers a greater love of the priesthood, especially parish priests. While learning about Michael, I also learned about many priests he knew during his life. I was struck by the fact that these other holy priests were equally impressive, but there was no one to tell their stories.

Michael has a network of devoted Knights pushing his cause. These other priests have no advocates, so they are more or less lost to history. Learning about Michael and his priest friends has given me a new respect and love for the parish priests in my life. I hope readers also experience this. After all, many of us know priests like Michael.

CWR: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Tennant: Learning about Michael as I researched and wrote the book was amazing. The experience taught me never to underrate saints—or blesseds—just because at first glance they do not seem interesting. I hope readers of Father Michael McGivney and the Knights of Columbus also look beyond their usual interests in saints and make some new friends. And I hope we all use the examples of these friends to inspire us to aspire to sanctity.

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About Paul Senz 157 Articles
Paul Senz has an undergraduate degree from the University of Portland in music and theology and earned a Master of Arts in Pastoral Ministry from the same university. He has contributed to Catholic World Report, Our Sunday Visitor Newsweekly, The Priest Magazine, National Catholic Register, Catholic Herald, and other outlets. Paul lives in Elk City, OK, with his wife and their four children.

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How this Mother Teresa documentary sheds new light on a beloved saint

September 5, 2022 Catholic News Agency 2
Mother Teresa in the year 1980. / L’Osservatore Romano.

Rome Newsroom, Sep 5, 2022 / 06:40 am (CNA).

The so-called “definitive movie” about Mother Teresa of Calcutta will be in theaters in October. It sheds new light on — and delivers powerful images of — the life of this venerated Albanian-Kosovar nun.

Sept. 5 is the feast day of the St. Teresa of Kolkata. She died on Sept. 5, 1997, and was beatified only six years later, on Oct. 19, 2003.

John Paul II proclaimed her blessed in 2003, only six years after her death. Her life inspired thousands of books. Her life, witness, and legacy have been studied and written about in depth.

Pope Francis canonized Mother Teresa on Sept. 4, 2016. 

For this reason, it doesn’t seem easy to add anything to the many biographies and stories about Mother Teresa of Calcutta. But the film “No Greater Love”, produced by the Knights of Columbus, achieves this feat. 

The film premiere took place in Rome on Aug. 29, while on Aug. 31, there was a press conference about the movie. 

Divided into chapters that tell the salient moments of Mother Teresa’s life, the film is fragmented with interviews with missionaries, members of the order she founded, and biographers of Mother Teresa. 

“Mother Teresa” is not only a reflection on the life of the saint but also gives a general perspective of the great work that the Missionaries of Charity founded by Mother Teresa do all over the world, in Brazil, in the fields on the border between Mexico and the United States, in the Philippines.

The story of Mother Teresa is well-documented. Born in Skopje to an Albanian-Kosovar family, a minority of the minorities in the Balkan region, she soon felt the missionary impulse, entered the Missionary Nuns of Our Lady of Loreto, and left for India, where she began to work as a teacher. 

After witnessing the shocking impact of local suffering in the streets of Calcutta after some riots, she realized her mission was, first and foremost, to be with the poor. 

Indeed, with the poorest of the poor.

From this vocation was born a work that has touched the entire world. It spread from the slums of Calcutta (Kolkata) to the Bronx, helping those stricken with another kind of poverty: marginalized AIDS patients, who, at the end of the previous century, was at first treated like lepers at the time of Jesus.

Eventually, her vital work was recognized by the world. In 1979, Mother Teresa won the Nobel Peace Prize, and in Oslo, she delivered a touching speech in which she labeled the nations that legalize abortion as “the poorest nations.” 

Mother Teresa’s friendship with Saint John Paul II bore many fruits, including a house of the Missionaries of Charity right in the Vatican, where they are today. 

Part of this saint’s enduring legacy is her spirituality, her struggle with the “dark night of the soul.” 

What is powerful in the film is, above all, the images. The producers had full access to the Missionaries of Charity’s archive, finding unpublished or little-known footage, including that of Mother Teresa acting as an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist.

Patrick Kelly, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, emphasized that the film was born “thanks to the relationship of trust between the Knights of Columbus and the Missionaries of Charity.”

After all, Virgil Dechant, the predecessor of Kelly’s predecessor as Supreme Knight, was a personal friend of Mother Teresa. They collaborated, sharing the mutual value of charity, at the foundations of the Knight of Columbus, considering that “charity is the fundamental principle of the Knights of Columbus.”

In a letter sent to Kelly, Pope Francis thanked for initiatives that “help, in a creative way, to make zeal for evangelization accessible especially to the younger generations.”

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, archbishop of Boston, talked about his friendship with Mother Teresa. Although he asked her to send nuns to his diocese on two different occasions “to bring healing and consolation,” Mother Teresa always fulfilled the requests.

Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, the postulator of the cause of the canonization of Mother Teresa, stressed that the film helps to remember the great work and vocation of the saint. 

The movie’s message is that “Calcutta is everywhere” — because there are those in need everywhere: “There is a work of charity yet to be done.”

Sister Myriam Therese, regional superior of the Missionaries of Charity, said it was “nice to see people who changed their lives because they were affected by God’s love” and that Mother Teresa was “a carrier of that love.”

Finally, David Naglieri, the movie’s director, underlined that “they did not want only a biography, we wanted to show her radical call, but also to show how the mission of Mother Teresa continues.”

[…]

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