Knights of Columbus
St. Patrick Council 8601
Baton Rouge, LA
St. Patrick Knights of Columbus Council 8601 is a single parish council of St. Patrick Catholic Parish located at 12424 Brogdon Lane in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The Council was chartered on St. Patrick’s Day in 1984 and currently has more than 140 members. The Knights of Columbus is an internationally recognized organization with over 2 million members worldwide.
Meetings are held the 1st Thursday of each month in the parish Family Center adjacent to the church. You are invited to join us in our good works done for the parish, for youth, for seminarians, for those less fortunate, and in the fight to respect life.
Being a Knight allows you to work with a team of men to give back to others in ways that many are unable to do as individuals. If you are interested in opportunities to impact your community and grow deeper in your faith, the Knights of Columbus is for you. As Catholic men we are called to do more and the Knights help answer that call. We need you to help us achieve our goals. We have a lot to do, but don’t worry about how much there is to do, you are just needed to do what you can. And remember, it’s not only the Knights that need you, also your family needs you, your neighbors need you, your community needs you, and God needs you. So consider becoming a Knight and share your time and talents to serve your fellow man. At the same time, you will enjoy the camaraderie of other men in the parish who share the same values and duty to God and family that you do.
If you are a practical (practicing) Catholic man, at least 18 years old and in agreement with the teachings of the church, now is the time to become a Knight! You can get additional information on the Knights of Columbus and Council 8601 by calling the Membership Director, Mike Giroir, 504-606-3934 or email him at DMGLSU@cox.net. Click the button below to learn more or click this link to the National Knights of Columbus website to complete an application: www.kofc.org/join
Recent Updates
BLESSED MICHAEL J. MCGIVNEY
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In the late 19th century, Catholics were regularly excluded from labor unions and other organizations that provided social services. In addition, Catholics were either barred from many of the popular fraternal organizations, or, as in the case of Freemasonry, forbidden from joining by the Catholic Church itself. Fr. Michael McGivney wished to provide Catholic men an alternative. He also believed that Catholicism and fraternalism were not incompatible and wished to found a society that would encourage men to be proud of their American-Catholic heritage. Thus, the Knights of Columbus was born.
The primary motivation for Father McGivney’s establishment of the Knights of Columbus was to be a mutual benefit society. As a parish priest in an immigrant community, McGivney saw what could happen to a family when the breadwinner died. He had to temporarily leave his own seminary studies to care for his family when his father died. It was this experience that made him want to provide insurance to care for the widows and orphans left behind.
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Charity is the KC’s first principle and its lifeblood. Through our charitable work we bring the love of God to our neighbors, to our communities and to those most in need. We speak through our actions to the truth that every life has dignity and meaning. Through charity, we strengthen our own faith through our love of neighbor and evangelize those around us through this witness. We show ourselves to be protectors of God’s gifts and we invite others to join us in protecting those gifts.
In 2012, volunteer time donated by Knights of Columbus climbed to a new record high, reaching 70,113,207 hours. Independent Sector values each hour donated in 2012 at $22.14. Knights last year donated an average of $91.33 and 38 hours of their time to charity with our Order. Time donated by Knights to charity in 2012 was worth over $1,552,000,000, and the value of the more than 673 million hours donated in the past decade totals more than $13,348,000,000
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The emblem of the Knights of Columbus dates from the 2nd Supreme Council meeting in May 1883, when James Mullen, who was then supreme knight, designed it. The emblem consists of a shield mounted upon the Formee cross (having the arms narrow at the center and expanding toward the ends). The shield is that associated with a medieval knight. The Formée cross is the representation of a traditional artistic design of the cross of Christ through which all graces of redemption were procured for mankind. This represents the Catholic spirit of the Order.
Mounted on the shield are three objects: a fasces (a bundle of rods bound together about an ax with the blade projecting) standing vertically and, crossed behind it, an anchor and a dagger or short sword. The fasces from Roman days, carried before magistrates as an emblem of authority, is symbolic of authority which must exist in any tightly-bonded and efficiently operating organization. The anchor is the mariner’s symbol for Columbus, patron of the Order, while the short sword or dagger was the weapon of the Knight when engaged upon an errand of mercy. Thus, the shield expresses Catholic Knighthood in organized merciful action, and with the letters, K of C, it proclaims this specific form of activity.
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McGivney had originally conceived of the name “Sons of Columbus”, but James T. Mullen, who would become the first Supreme Knight, successfully suggested that “Knights of Columbus” would better capture the ritualistic nature of the new organization. The Order was founded 10 years before the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival in the New World, and in a time of renewed interest in him. Columbus was a hero to many American Catholics, and the naming him as patron was partly an attempt to bridge the division between the Irish-Catholic founders of the Order and Catholic immigrants of other nationalities living in Connecticut.