Father McGivney entered Saint-Hyacinthe's Seminary in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada in 1868. He continued his studies at Niagara University (1871-1872) and at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland in 1873, but had to leave the seminary and return home to help finish raising his siblings, due to the death of his father. He later returned to the seminary and was ordained a priest on December 22, 1877 by Archbishop James Gibbons at the Baltimore Cathedral.