History of the Fourth Degree
The Knights of Columbus was founded in the basement of Saint Mary's Church in New Haven, Connecticut. There, on October 2, 1881, The Venerable Father Michael J. McGivney and a small group of parishioners organized a Catholic fraternal society. On March 29, 1882, the Knights of Columbus was incorporated by an act of the Connecticut State Legislature.
The first Fourth Degree Exemplification was held in New York City on February 2, 1900, with over 1,400 Sir Knights exemplified. Originally, Sir Knights were active as uniformed members of their Councils, but a 1910 reorganization of the Order established that Sir Knights should be gathered into their own groups, known as Assemblies.
Portola Assembly was founded on April 1, 1923. We are named after Gaspar de Portolà, the first Spanish Governor of Alta California from 1769—1770. Portolà led the Sacred Expedition to bring a permanent Christian presence to Alta California, which included Blessed Junípero Serra as its chaplain. Portolà founded the Presidios of San Diego and Monterey and discovered the San Francisco Bay during his short time in California.
In our more than eighty years of service to the San Jose area, we've seen the growth of San Jose from a sleepy little farming town to the tenth largest city in the United States and the center of the technology industry.
Today, there are over 300,000 Sir Knights in the Patriotic Degree, in over 2,900 Assemblies.
