On Higher Ground

July 30, 2026

Denver’s rich Catholic heritage provides the backdrop for the 144th Supreme Convention

By Columbia staff

July 30, 2026

Colorado Gov. Henry A. Buchtel signs a bill making Columbus Day a state holiday April 1, 1907. Front row (from left): P. Corte, Italian consul; the consul’s secretary; Gov. Buchtel; Casamira Barela, Colorado state senator and a Knight. Back row (from left): H.T. O’Reilly, member of Denver Council 539; T.M. Morrow, member of Council 539; Dr. Edward Delahanty, grand knight of Council 539; John J. Tobin, Colorado state senator and a Knight; State Deputy John H. Reddin; John Kennedy, Colorado state senator and a Knight; T.G. McCarthy, Colorado state senator and a Knight. (Knights of Columbus Multimedia Archives)

The annual Knights of Columbus Supreme Convention was first held in Denver in 1961, gathering Knights and their families in a city of flourishing Catholic faith beneath the rugged grandeur of the Rocky Mountains. The setting, with its tangible reminders of the beauty of God’s creation, was a fitting backdrop for the 79th convention, which focused on countering atheistic Communism through prayer and energetic works of charity.

Today, Knights of Columbus and their families from 75 jurisdictions around the world are gathered once more in the Mile High City for the 144th Supreme Convention, Aug. 3-6. Denver also hosted Supreme Conventions in 1984 and 2011.

The history of Denver’s rapid rise from a collection of mining camps in the mid-19th century to a city renowned for its urban charm and outdoor beauty is emblematic of the American West. It is also a deeply Catholic story, one intertwined with the history of the Order. From the start, the city offered opportunity for Catholic migrants, but it also presented dangers in the form of nativism and anti-Catholic prejudice that cast the faith as an enemy of civic virtue.

Both were vigorously opposed by John H. Reddin, Colorado’s first state deputy and the Order’s first Supreme Master: “Let the people know the true attitude of the Church toward this Republic and toward all civil government,” he said on the occasion of the Silver Jubilee year of the Fourth Degree in 1925. “Let them know that there can be no better, safer, saner citizen than the Catholic man or woman who lives up to the teachings and practices of the Catholic Church. Prejudice is dissolved by the spread of truth, and the heart of America being sound, the way is open for the Knights of Columbus to bring about religious concord and peace, and that amity contemplated by the founders of our country.”

Reddin’s understanding of Catholic patriotism continues to shape the Order today. It has been seen in the Knights’ celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, marked by the consecration of the United States and themselves to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. As Knights gather in Denver for the 144th Supreme Convention, it is seen too in the witness of charity, unity, fraternity and patriotism expressed by Knights throughout the world.

A RAPID CATHOLIC RISE

As abruptly as the Rockies rise from the plains, the city of Denver grew from makeshift mining encampments on the banks of the South Platte River on Cheyenne and Arapaho land, in what was then western Kansas Territory. The discovery of gold in the spring of 1858 drew fortune-seekers in droves. Many departed after the initial excitement faded, but others purchased tracts of land, and a more permanent settlement emerged. The new town was named Denver City after Kansas Territorial Gov. James W. Denver.

A number of Denver’s early settlers were Catholics, and a young French missionary from Santa Fe, New Mexico, Father Joseph Machebeuf, was assigned to minister to the region, arriving in October 1860 accompanied by Father John Raverdy. Father Machebeuf pitched his tent on a vacant lot among the mining claims in what would eventually become his episcopal see. Eight years later, Pope Pius IX appointed Machebeuf a bishop and named him vicar apostolic of the newly erected Vicariate Apostolic of Colorado and Utah. When Pope Leo XIII created the Diocese of Denver, which then encompassed all of Colorado, in 1887, he appointed Bishop Machebeuf its first ordinary. By the time of Bishop Machebeuf’s death in 1889, Denver had 64 priests, 102 churches, 10 hospitals, nine academies, a Jesuit college (today, Regis University) and an orphanage.

Denver’s first Catholic church, St. Mary’s, became a cathedral in 1868 when Father Machebeuf was appointed vicar apostolic. But it was his successor, Bishop Nicholas Chrysostom Matz, who in 1902 broke ground for the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, just a block from the Colorado State Capitol with its gleaming dome plated in Rocky Mountain gold. The Gothic Revival church, designated a minor basilica in 1980, is closely linked to the history of the Order in Colorado.

Just two years before the cathedral’s groundbreaking, the first Knights of Columbus council west of the Mississippi River, Denver Council 539, was instituted by a degree team from Chicago in November 1900. One of the council’s organizers, John H. Reddin, was chosen as its charter grand knight. A prominent lawyer from New York who settled in Colorado, Reddin later instituted councils in El Paso, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Salt Lake City and Butte after being appointed territorial deputy in the Far West.

THE ORDER TAKES ROOT

The council home of Denver Council 539 is pictured in 1911. The council later moved to its present location near the Colorado State Capitol, and the original building was demolished in 1964. (Photo courtesy of Denver Public Library Special Collections)

Reddin went on to serve as Colorado’s first state deputy from 1902-03 and again from 1905-08. In 1907, he was elected supreme director, serving in that capacity until 1940, and in 1910 he was appointed the Order’s first supreme master, a position he held for more than 30 years.

Reddin was a major contributor to the construction of the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, as was another grand knight of Council 539, John K. Mullen, an Irish-born landowner and cattle magnate who served on the cathedral’s four-man building committee. Once construction was complete, Knights from Council 539 again rallied to support the cathedral after lightning struck one of its spires, knocking off 20 feet just before the dedication. Then, on Oct. 27, 1912, the first division in the cathedral’s dedication-day parade included Reddin and other prominent Knights, the Fourth Degree Assembly of Denver, and members of Council 539 and visiting councils.

Knights were as instrumental in Colorado’s civic growth as they were in its ecclesial development. In 1907, when Colorado became the first state to make Columbus Day a statewide holiday, then-State Deputy Reddin was present when Gov. Henry A. Buchtel signed the bill, along with several members of Council 539 and four Knights serving in the state Senate.

Critical to securing the statewide observance of Columbus Day were members of Denver’s burgeoning Italian immigrant community, a group served by America’s first canonized citizen, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. Like Blessed Michael McGivney, Mother Cabrini was moved by the plight of orphans from immigrant families. In 1904, her order founded Queen of Heaven Orphanage in Denver, which remained in operation until 1967.

But the newcomers were not welcomed by all. In the 1920s, as anti-immigration sentiment swept the country, the Knights of Columbus became both targets of and fierce opponents of the Ku Klux Klan in Denver. The two groups clashed in the city’s streets, and when the Klan threatened to burn Regis Jesuit High School, Knights and students stood shoulder to shoulder to protect the school.

A PAPAL FIRST

St. John Paul II greets young people at Denver’s Mile High Stadium during World Youth Day in August 1993. (CNS photo/Joe Rimkus Jr.)

As Denver grew, so did its Catholic community. In 1993, the city hosted World Youth Day — the first held in North America and the English-speaking world — from Aug. 10-15. Four hundred Colorado Knights, wearing K of C-branded straw cowboy hats, coordinated transportation, including for people with disabilities, while others distributed rosaries, water bottles, prayer cards and information about receiving the sacrament of confession.

Colorado Knights also staffed St. John Paul II’s Aug. 15 Mass at Cherry Creek State Park, coordinating emergency medical assistance and water deliveries when the high elevation and dry climate caused widespread dehydration among pilgrims.

In his homily that day, St. John Paul II called for boldness in evangelization and for building a culture of life: “Young pilgrims, Christ needs you to enlighten the world and to show it the ‘path to life’ (Ps 16:11). … The struggle will be long, and it needs each one of you. Place your intelligence, your talents, your enthusiasm, your compassion and your fortitude at the service of life!”

To commemorate the Holy Father’s visit, the Fourth Degree presented a $100,000 gift — a tribute to the late Supreme Master John Reddin — to help defray the cost of renovations to the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception before World Youth Day. The Colorado State Council also launched a fund drive to help repair the cathedral’s organ.

Today, about 14% of Coloradans are Catholic, worshipping in the state’s three dioceses: the Archdiocese of Denver and the dioceses of Colorado Springs and Pueblo. Since the founding of Council 539 in 1900, the Order in Colorado has grown to nearly 20,000 members in 154 councils. Demonstrating the Knights’ charitable impact in the state, Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly presented the millionth jacket through the Knights of Columbus Coats for Kids program at Annunciation Catholic School in Denver on Nov. 6, 2023.

TOURING CATHOLIC COLORADO

During the 144th Supreme Convention, Knights and their families can explore the natural beauty surrounding Denver while visiting sites central to Colorado’s rich Catholic history.

Prior to the convention, Knights and their families had the opportunity to attend a Colorado Rockies game at Coors Field during the team’s annual Faith Day observance and participate in several tours, including a visit to Red Rocks Amphitheatre and the Mother Cabrini Shrine in the foothills west of the city. The shrine stands on the property where St. Frances Xavier Cabrini and her order built a summer home for residents of Queen of Heaven Orphanage in 1912. According to one account, when the sisters despaired over the lack of water on the property, Mother Cabrini tapped a rock with her cane, revealing a plentiful spring.

Another tour included Chapel on the Rock, a church built atop a natural rock formation and dedicated to St. Catherine of Siena in 1935. During his 1993 visit to Colorado, St. John Paul II prayed, hiked, rested and read poetry on the surrounding property.

A third tour headed south toward Colorado Springs to Holy Rosary Chapel in Cascade, one of two mission churches of Sacred Heart Parish in Old Colorado City. Built in 1930 of native red sandstone in the Romanesque style, the chapel is dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary. Its grounds feature a rosary walk designed to inspire meditation on the mysteries of the rosary.

The convention’s opening Mass will be celebrated on Tuesday, Aug. 4, at 11:30 a.m., and the opening business session will begin at 3 p.m. For more information about the 144th Supreme Convention and to follow the proceedings, visit kofc.org/convention.

On Higher Ground

A RAPID CATHOLIC RISE

THE ORDER TAKES ROOT

A PAPAL FIRST

TOURING CATHOLIC COLORADO

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