Bishop Salpointe, our Council's namesake.

Local Councils of the Knights of Columbus often select an honored Catholic leader as their Council's 'namesake'. Council #4584 is no exception and the leader whose name we bear is: Bishop Salpointe! Jean-Baptiste Salpointe was born in Auvergne, France, on February 22, 1825. As a newly ordained priest, he volunteered to come to the New Mexico Territory as a missionary. From 1860 to 1866, he ministered in northern New Mexico, and then in 1866 Fr. Salpointe and two other priests from Santa Fe arrived in Tucson. At that time the population of Arizona Territory was approximately 6,000, in a half-dozen settlements and mining camps, as well as the Native Americans who inhabited the area. Salpointe set about building churches, organizing parishes and founding schools and hospitals in the Territory. In 1868 Arizona Territory was given the status of a Vicariate Apostolic (Missionary Diocese) by the Church and Salpointe was appointed its first Bishop! In 1885 Bishop Salpointe succeeded Archbishop Lamy as Archbishop of Santa Fe. He retired in 1894 and moved back to his beloved Tucson, where he wrote a history of the Church in the southwestern United States. He died on July 15, 1898, and was buried in the crypt of the Cathedral in Tucson. (Salpointe High School in Tucson is also named in his honor.) Sierra Vista artist and St. Andrew's parishioner, Migdalia Diaz painted the beautiful portrait in oils of Bishop Salpointe, which now graces our Council Chamber. She created the portrait from old sepia-toned photographs of Bishop Salpointe from the 1890's. Because the Diocese of Tucson did not possess a portrait of our first Bishop, two more copies were made from Migdalia's painting, for the Diocesan Offices and Archives!

The Knights of Columbus was founded in 1882 by a 29-year-old parish priest, Father Michael J. McGivney, in the basement of St. Mary's Church in New Haven, Connecticut. Today, more than a century later, the Knights of Columbus has become the largest lay organization in the Catholic Church. Currently, there are over 15 thousand Councils and a total membership of over 1.7 million.

Christopher Columbus is our Organization's namesake.

Columbus was born around the end of October in 1451 and died on May 20, 1506. He was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator. His efforts lead to the European colonization of the western hemisphere. Columbus himself saw his accomplishments primarily in the light of the spreading of Christianity.