Organization of the Knights of Columbus
The Supreme Council governs the Order and is composed of
elected jurisdictional representatives. It acts in similar manner to
shareholders at an annual meeting and each year elects seven members to
the Supreme Board of Directors for three year terms. The twenty-one
member board then chooses from its own membership the senior operating
officials of the Order, including the Supreme Knight.
State Councils in the United States, each province in Canada, and other
jurisdictions carved out of member countries are led by State Deputies
and other officers elected at state conventions. Territorial Deputies
are appointed by the Supreme Knight and lead areas not yet incorporated
into State Councils.
Councils are numbered in the order in which they chartered into the
Order and are named by the local membership. San Salvador Council #1
was named for the first island Columbus landed on in the New World.
The title "Knight" is purely fraternal and is not the equivalent to a
sovereign accolade. Therefore Knights of Columbus do not rank with
Chevaliers and Commanders of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, the Order
of Malta, the Order of St. Gregory the Great, or members of any other
historic military or chivalric orders.