Michael J. McGivney

Childhood and youth

Michael McGivney was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, on August 12, 1852, to Irish immigrant parents, Patrick and Mary (née Devine) McGivney. He was the eldest of 13 children, six of whom died in infancy or childhood. Patrick worked as a molder at a brass mill in Waterbury.

McGivney attended public school in Waterbury. Termed a well behaved and proficient student, he was able to graduate high school in 1865 at age 13. McGivney then started working in one of brass mills in Waterbury, making metal spoons. While still a teenager, he decided that he wanted to become a priest.

Studies for the priesthood

In 1868, at age 16, McGivney entered the Séminaire de Saint-Hyacinthe in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, in Canada. He continued his studies in 1871 at Our Lady of Angels Seminary in Lewiston, New York. While at Our Lady, he and other seminarians formed a baseball team; McGivney was described as a "naturally talented ballplayer."

A year later, McGivney enrolled in the Collège Sainte-Marie de Montréal, operated by the Jesuits in Montreal, Quebec. Patrick McGivney died in 1873, forcing his son to leave Sainte-Marie. At this point, he could not afford more seminary training. However, seeing McGivney's potential, Bishop Francis Patrick McFarland of the Diocese of Hartford elected to pay for the seminarian's remaining education at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland.