Young Knight credits God, McGivney for recovery

By DAWN PROSSER
Director of Communications 
 
Late evening Dec. 4, 2021, Benedictine College sophomore Christopher Holzman and his friends were going to take one last ride on their longboards before calling it a night. The Gehlen Catholic alumnus took a photo at the top of the steep hill because “the sky looks very cool.” Four years later, he still doesn’t remember what happened next.
 
No one saw him fall off of the board because it was dark, his friends found him unresponsive at the bottom of the hill and called 911. Holzman was transported to the hospital in Atchison, Kansas, with two temporal bone fractures and traumatic brain injury. His friends called Holzman’s parents, Kevin and Mary, with the devastating news.
 The sky photo Holzman took just minutes before his accident.“It’s the bone around your ear on the skull. It’s one of the hardest bones to break – you have to hit things just right … Two temporal bone fractures typically only happen in a car accident,” Holzman said, noting he learned months later that statistically he had only a 10% chance of survival from the injuries he sustained. 

In the hospital, he was in a coma/medically sedated for 2 ½ weeks after the accident. Holzman learned that his father, who will be ordained a permanent deacon in August 2026, was praying to Blessed Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus, for his intercession.
 
“He said he prayed that prayer 100 times a day,” Holzman said, noting at first, his survival was not certain. “We didn’t know exactly how my life would be different with the brain injury.”
 
He wasn’t sure if his future was being bedridden in a care facility or permanently using a walker or some other impediment to a normal life.
 
The sophomore was discharged Dec. 28, preparing to spend his spring semester recovering at his parents’ home in Orange City. The 19-year-old had several months of physical therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy ahead of him. He lost his hearing from the injuries and now uses two cochlear implants to hear.
 Prayer card for Blessed McGivneyThe college student only missed one semester of school to recover. Once back on campus he used a scooter for a short time to navigate the college campus. 

“Surviving was miraculous itself but also being able to finish school and still be able to live independently,” he said.
 
Holzman’s story was featured in a Knights of Columbus Supreme Council video - Faith, Recovery and Leadership where he credits his faith and the Knights’ founder for his unexpected survival and recovery. (The video was released Nov. 20, 2025, and has been viewed over 18,000 times on YouTube.)
 
“I firmly believe my recovery and where I’m at now is all glory to God – but McGivney was right there,” he said.
 
Young Knight
Having joined the Knights as a high schooler in 2019, Holzman became familiar with McGivney and the KCs initiative to have their founder canonized. The teen had transferred to the Benedictine KC council and was looking forward to continuing his work with the KCs upon his return to the Atchison campus.
 
“I had taken an officer position and wanted to begin doing more things with it and then my accident happened,” Holzman explained. “I was spending my recovery time working on things for next year. Somehow, everyone trusted me to elect me Grand Knight for the following year.”
 
Before the accident, the sophomore had applied to serve on the college council advisory board, student representatives that would work with the supreme council. Returning to campus in the fall of 2022, he was ready to rejoin the campus community and to lead his KC council.
Holzman and his friend Alexander 'Gator' Buman after serving a KC breakfast in October 2021. Holzman – along with his brother Tom – traveled that fall to New Haven, Connecticut, for the first Knights College Council Conference held since Covid-19. 

He said the experience at the conference solidified his belief that he was called to be a Knight. He was impressed to learn how Knights support one another, “praying for brothers in distress who we may or may not know.” 

“To think about the prayers I was probably receiving without ever knowing,” he said of the time of his accident. “The state of Iowa and Kansas caught wind of things, the supreme friends out there were all praying for me and it kept spreading. It was cool to learn about that solidarity with others. It showed me at the time what McGivney meant by starting the order, a band of brothers there for each other, supporting one another.”
 
While in Connecticut, Holzman and his brother met with Brian Caulfield, the vice postulator for the sainthood cause of Blessed McGivney. Holzman submitted his testimony about his accident for the cause.
 
Closer connection
Holzman said his time in New Haven deepened his devotion to Blessed McGivney and the priest’s vision of service for the Knights of Columbus.
 
“From the time I was out there, I really began to feel connected to McGivney in different ways, but also in that this is someone I feel a personal connection with. Someone who sees the needs of his time and always wants to find the solution,” Holzman said, noting he also likes to consider how he can address the needs around him. “It’s cool to think of the impact he could have and I was trying to live up to that legacy.”

 Holzman family photo January 2022. Front - Mary and Kevin. Back - Matthew, Thomas and Christopher.He said he also began to pray every night for McGivney’s intercession for his continued healing and for his brother Knights who may be in need. Holzman said McGivney has impacted his life in various ways. In the fall of 2023, he prayed for the priest’s intercession to regain a normal sense of taste, lost in the accident.
 
A month later, he ate an omelet for breakfast and was surprised that it tasted as he remembered before the injury.
 
“My taste was back for whatever reason,” he said with a smile. “It doesn’t entirely make sense.”
 
More leadership 
Holzman continued his leadership in the college Knights council, serving as Grand Knight and recruiting other young men to the Knights, setting records for recruitment. He didn’t want to just be remembered as the young man who survived an accident but “this person who really has a passion for what the order stands for.”
 
Holzman graduated from Benedictine in December 2024 with a degree in theology, evangelization and catechesis with an emphasis in youth ministry and minor in philosophy.
 
He now lives in Orange City, is a member of St. Donatus Parish and works for EZ Liner Arrow but hasn’t ruled out graduate school or the seminary. He assists the parish’s youth ministry.
 
Holzman transferred his KC membership from the Benedictine College council. Last summer, he was asked to take on a new responsibility with the Knights.
Physical therapist Dan Foreman and Christopher on his last day of PT June 2, 2022. “The state guys here called and said we need a district deputy for your area. Would you be interested?” Holzman shared. “It seemed like a great way to keep up with my passion for things… I’m learning a different level of leadership.” 

The district deputy said he looks forward to growing councils in his district and perhaps work with Iowa college councils.
 
Evangelizing
In addition to his passion for the service work of the Knights, Holzman is passionate about sharing his story, whether in front of a group or one-on-one. Oftentimes, someone noticing his cochlear implants provides a lead-in to sharing his story and the power of prayer and faith.
 
“I told one of my friends that God didn’t give me my hearing back because there wouldn’t be anything to ask me about to lead into my talk to evangelize them,” he said with a laugh.
 
Holzman stressed that he wanted “as many people as I can” to know his story in order to help them grow in their faith.
 
“The big thing I talk about is how I went to confession a day and a half before my accident. I went on Friday afternoon and (the accident) was on a Saturday night. Looking back, if I had died, I don’t know where I would have gone,” he said. “I wasn’t going out committing every moral sin possible … but it really put me into perspective on earth. Now it makes me think before I do anything.”
 
He is concerned with the number of young people leaving the church nationally and in the diocese. He hopes to somehow support them on a peer level, acknowledging that youth are discouraged that they “can’t put up the fight” against sin.
 
His miraculous survival from the traumatic brain injury and nearly full recovery has provided “a real big reality check” for the nearly 24-year-old, which he shares with others when talking about his experience.
 
“When I give my testimony, I say, if you close your eyes and imagine when you die, you’re thinking I will be in a hospital room, 80 years old. I’ve got my grandkids all around, that is such a blessing. It’s not how it is going to be for most of us, I would say. All of a sudden, it makes you start living with perspective. It puts it in this mindset that I want to live every day to the fullest. We’ve heard this all before, but I want to live to the fullest this day,” he said.

HOME