The Knights of the Holy Eucharist

We are a Franciscan community whose mission is to promote reverent devotion to Our Lord in the Eucharist. Jesus is the Eucharistic King whom the Knights have pledged to serve.

Working Today in the Vineyard for an Eternal Harvest

Why We Exist

We exist to serve the Church and the wider community. Ultimately, what matters is that all men and women reach eternal salvation. People today are hungering for a close relationship with Our Lord, but many don’t even know they have this desire. Our goal is to show them the beauty of the Christian life fully lived. As men living a consecrated life in community, professing the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, we pray that through the example of our life and distinctive habit, others will see beyond this earthly existence and strive for holiness.

The Knights want to help others realize what a great Treasure the Eucharist is: Our Lord Himself! Like St. Francis, the Knights strive to be instruments of renewal and reform by helping others become aware of and experience the Lord’s Eucharistic presence among us.

Our Prayer and Work in the Vineyard

No two days are alike! A sampling of our life would include:

Most importantly, daily Mass, adoration (at least one hour of silent prayer), and the Liturgy of the Hours (the Divine Office)
Assistance with youth retreats and summer camps, thus providing a solid foundation for young people to strive for purity and holiness
Training of altar servers to reverently serve Mass
Spiritual talks to help children, youth, and adults mature in their faith
Assistance to the poor—spiritually through our prayers and materially through our work with an organization distributing food to those in need
Evangelization through radio talks, events, and social media

Our Origins

Our Foundress

Mother Angelica in 1981 founded EWTN, the largest privately owned Religious Network in the world. In 1987, she founded her first male religious community, the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word. Then on July 25, 1998, she founded her second male religious community known as the Knights of the Holy Eucharist. It was she who gave our fledgling community its primary mission. Mother Angelica’s life of dedication to adoring Our Lord naturally spilled over into her founding of the Knights, and we are blessed to be part of carrying on her mission and legacy.

Our Father

St. Francis of Assisi was a man with a chivalrous heart. When he loved, he loved without reservation. As a young man, he was enthralled with the things of the world; but seized by the call of God, Francis progressed to higher things. Making God his only patrimony and entrusting himself to God alone, Francis stripped himself of all possessions.

With St. Francis as our model, the Knights are directed toward incarnating the noble virtues of spiritual knighthood: deep faith, fiery enthusiasm for Christ, and readiness to battle spiritually for His Kingdom on earth.

Our Coat of Arms

Our Coat of Arms was designed by Mother Angelica. The shield contains four emblems: wheat, a fleur de lis, a flame, and a book inscribed with the word veritas. The wheat represents the Holy Eucharist, Whom the Knights have pledged themselves to adore, protect, and defend. The fleur de lis represents the Blessed Virgin Mary under whose special patronage the Knights have placed themselves. The flame is a symbol of the fire of charity which is the motivation behind the Knights’ service of God and the Church.

Finally, veritas is Latin for “truth” and signifies that the Knights seek always to bear witness to the truth in both word and deed. Blue and gold are papal colors and represent the Knights’ fidelity to Holy Mother Church.

The white symbolizes the purity to which they are to be witnesses both in the orthodoxy of their beliefs and the innocence of their lives.

The shield is supported by two angels that represent all the angelic hosts upholding those who fight for the honor and glory of God. The crown of thorns above the helmet calls to mind Christ the King, Who in this world was content with suffering and humiliation. The crest on this coat of arms is the monstrance, which is a sign of the Holy Eucharist, whom the Knights are dedicated to protecting and serving. The motto “For God and the Church” epitomizes the Knights’ single-hearted desire to serve God and, for His sake, to spend themselves in the service of His Church.

Duties to countrymen and fellow Christians:

This encompasses virtues such as mercy, courage, valor, fairness, protection of the weak and the poor, and servanthood of the knight to his lord. This also brings with it the idea of being willing to give one’s life for another, whether he would be giving his life for a poor man or his lord.

Duties to God:

This would encompass being faithful to God, protecting the innocent, being faithful to the Church, being the champion of good against evil, being generous, and obeying God above the feudal lord.

Duties to women:

This is probably the most familiar aspect of chivalry. This encompasses what is often called courtly love, the idea that the knight is to serve a lady, and after her all other ladies. Most especially in this category is Our Lady, Queen of Heaven and earth.

These areas overlap quite frequently and are often indistinguishable from one another. One similarity is honor, the foundational and guiding principle of chivalry; thus, for the Knight, honor is one guide of action.

The Knights’ Code of Chivalry

To fear God and maintain His Church

“For God and the Church” (K.H.E. Motto).
To always have a holy fear of God that spurs us on for love of Him.
Like St. Francis, we are to rebuild and maintain the spiritual and physical Body of Christ.
Be mindful of Mother Angelica’s legacy of building up the Church.

To serve the liege lord in valor and faith

“[A Knight] is one who has made the interests of the King his own” (K.H.E. Customs).
With valiant trust and self-sacrifice, a Knight faithfully pours himself out for his Lord.
He is willing to die to himself and sacrifice his life for his Lord, like St. Francis and the saints.
As spiritual sons of Mother Angelica, a Knight is to have her faith and valor ever before his eyes

To protect the weak and defenseless

A Knight sees his King in the weak and defenseless around him and must fight for their legitimate rights.
We must help those whose faith is weak.
After the example of St. Francis, we are called to perform corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
Defending the dignity of the human person, especially the unborn and the elderly, is to be foremost in the chivalrous heart.

To give help to widows and orphans

As sons of so loyal a Mother, we are to console the Sorrowful Heart of Mary, our Queen.
St. Francis loved the lepers, who were “orphans” of society.
As Knights, we are to bring comfort to exhausted priests who come to our door seeking a place to lay their heads.
“To open one’s home or one’s heart to those sent by God is to receive God Himself” (K.H.E. Customs).

To refrain from the wanton giving of offense

The Knight is always to be courteous and merciful toward others.
Having great charity and respect for all persons is to be our rule of life.
St. Francis’ compassion for the lepers, the poor, and the neglected manifested the love of Jesus Christ.
“A house filled with charity becomes above all a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity. Yet more profoundly, the Most Holy Trinity becomes the true home of all those who live in love” (K.H.E. Customs).

To live by honor and for glory

“Like a city set upon a hill, the follower of Christ is elevated as an example to other men” (K.H.E. Customs).
A faithful Knight does all for his Lord and God’s honor and glory.
“Living always in the presence of God, the Knight strives to ever live uprightly. Like a lamp raised aloft, he sheds light upon a darkened world simply by the holiness of his life” (K.H.E. Customs).
We are the “salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” (cf. Mt. 5:13-16); and Jesus has called us to become “great saints” (Mother Angelica).
Like the great Knight of Christ, St. Francis, we strive to follow and serve Our Eucharistic King with total dedication.

To despise pecuniary reward

A Knight serves and protects his “Lord not for profit, but from the kind of selfless loyalty that can only be called noble” (K.H.E. Customs).
Like St. Francis, seeking treasure in the heavenly court of our King is to be the regal desire of our hearts.

To fight for the welfare of all

First and foremost, the Knight battles for the salvation of all souls, especially his own.
In imitation of our blessed Lord, St. Francis’ heart burned for souls, and so must ours.
As friends of the Great King, we must storm Heaven with our prayers for an outpouring of abundant graces from the hands of our Heavenly Queen, Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces.

To obey those placed in authority

A Knight submits himself in all things to the authority of those placed over him.
In loving imitation of Christ our King, we are to have a great love for the Pope, Holy Mother Church’s Magisterium, the Church’s hierarchy, and all legitimate superiors placed over us.
Even to his death, the Knight is ever to defend the Supreme Pontiff of Holy Mother Church.
“Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing right you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Live as free men, yet without using your freedom as a pretext for evil; but live as servants of God. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor” (1 Pt. 2:13-17).
In imitation of St. Francis, the Knights are to be imbued with a filial devotion to Mary, the Queen of our hearts, of whom we are slaves of love.

To guard the honor of fellow Knights

The Knight seeks always to protect the good name and reputation of his Brother Knights.
As brothers in Christ our Eucharistic King, we are to be ever vigilant against the wiles of the devil as he seeks to destroy the souls and vocations of our fellow Knights.
As an act of dying to himself, each Knight should lovingly and selflessly strive to place the needs and concerns of his fellow brothers in the first place at all times.
In all things, charity!

To shun unfairness, meanness and deceit

The Knights are to avoid all that goes against charity, kindness, justice, and the truth, whether in thought, word or deed.
“Knights should strive always to be cheerful and pleasant to all with whom they have contact, radiating the peace and joy that come from following Jesus” (K.H.E. Customs).
“Courteousness and consideration should be exercised at all times” (K.H.E. Customs).
The Knights’ “residence should be a place of peace. It should be a place where virtue habitually conquers vice, where pride yields to humility and charity covers a multitude of sins. It should be a place where truth is spoken, deceit shunned, and corrections gently offered and graciously received” (K.H.E. Customs).

To keep faith

With ardent and prudent zeal, the Knight is to always be ready to defend and explain the faith which he professes.
We are to profess and live out our faith in charity, for St. Paul tells us, “Faith without love is nothing” (1 Cor. 13:2).
Being always in combat against Satan and his minions, a Knight is to ever have before his eyes the victorious crucified Jesus who has overcome all to ransom us from the claws of him who has been a liar from the beginning.
We must daily pray to persevere in the Faith until our last breath.
“Although it is faith and not vision that enables us to see that glory [of Heaven now, still, before the Eucharistic King, we partake even now in this life of that heavenly beatitude” (K.H.E. Customs).

At all times to speak the truth

“A Knight of the Holy Eucharist should be mindful at all times of the obligation he has, as both a Christian and a Knight, to bear witness to the truths of the Gospel” (K.H.E. Customs).
“Standing before Pilate, Jesus proclaimed that He had come as a witness to the Truth. And so the Christian after Him must take up the standard that He carried and bear witness as well” (K.H.E. Customs).
A Knight is to live an asceticism that “is directed to freeing [him] from that which would hinder him from living in the truth” (K.H.E. Customs).
We are always to speak the truth in charity.
As we see in the life of St. Francis, “peace comes through the words of truth that cut through the devil’s dissimulations and the world’s entrapments” (K.H.E. Customs).
“[T]ruth carries with it the joy and splendor of spiritual beauty. Truth is beautiful in itself” (Catechism of the Catholic Church).
“[T]hat you should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, created in God’s way of righteousness and holiness of truth” (Eph. 4:22-24).

To persevere to the end in any enterprise begun

We are to daily pray for the grace to persevere in our vocation and in the Faith, and thus become “great saints” in God’s eyes.
With a diligent love, the Knights are to fulfill their daily tasks in unwavering service to our Eucharistic King and His interests.
“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Without having seen Him you love Him; though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome of your faith, you obtain the salvation of your souls” (1 Pt. 1:6-9).
Like St. Francis and Mother Angelica, we must never compromise on issues of faith and morals.

To respect the honor of women

The Knights are to have a great and true devotion to Mary, the Mother of our Eucharistic King.
As Knights of our Eucharistic King, we are to have a great respect for the honor of sisters, who are His spouses.
In the age in which we live, the Knights, through the faithful living out of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience, especially chastity, manifest the beauty of celibate love and thereby help others to realize their own dignity as children of God.

Never to refuse a challenge from an equal

The Knights are always to build up their fellow brothers and all those with whom they come in contact.
In imitation of St. Francis, the Knights are to humbly accept the words of correction which are offered to help them grow as persons and as children of God and sons of the humble Virgin Mary.

Never to turn the back upon a foe

As a soldier of Christ, the Knight must remain always vigilant against the temptations of Satan, the powers of the world, and the flesh.
“Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world” (1 Pt. 5:8-9).
By imitating, to the extent our Customs allow, St. Francis’ life of penance and mortification, we are better able to combat the attacks of the devil.
By faithfully living a sacramental life, the Knights are continually strengthened to live out their vocations in a state of noble sanctifying grace.
To face the infernal enemy of our souls, the Knights are led in battle by the Prince of the Heavenly Host, St. Michael the Archangel. With knees ever bent before Our Eucharistic King, we fight on toward that great Day of victory which is Christ’s.