Edmund Ignatius Rice

Edmund Ignatius Rice, F.P.M., C.F.C. (; 1 June 1762 – 29 August 1844) was a Catholic missionary and educationalist who founded two institutes of religious brothers: the Congregation of Christian Brothers and the Presentation Brothers.

Rice was born in Ireland at a time when Catholics faced oppression under Penal Laws enforced by the British authorities, though reforms began in 1778 when he was a teenager. He forged a successful career in business and, after an accident that killed his wife and left his daughter disabled and with learning difficulties, devoted his life to the education of the poor.

Christian Brothers and Presentation Brothers schools around the world continue to follow the traditions established by Rice (see List of Christian Brothers schools).

Early life and education

thumb|Rice's childhood home at Callan, c.2007

Edmund Ignatius Rice was born to Robert Rice and Margaret Rice (née Tierney) on the farming property of "Westcourt", in Callan, County Kilkenny. Edmund Rice was the fourth of seven sons, although he also had two half-sisters, Joan and Jane Murphy, the offspring of his mother's first marriage.

Rice's education, like that of every other Irish Catholic of the day, was greatly compromised by the 1709 amendment to the Popery Act, which decreed that any public or private instruction in the Catholic faith would render teachers liable to prosecution, a measure that was not reformed until 1782. In that environment, hedge schools proliferated. The boys of the Rice family obtained education at home through Patrick Grace, a member of the small community of Augustinian friars in Callan. As a young man, Rice spent two years at a school which, despite the provisions of the penal laws, the authorities suffered to exist in the City of Kilkenny.

His uncle Michael owned a merchant business in the nearby port town of Waterford. In 1779, Edmund was apprenticed to him, moving into a house in the market parish of Ballybricken, entering the business of trading livestock and other supplies, and supervising the loading of victuals onto ships bound for the British colonies. Michael Rice died in 1785, and this business passed to Edmund.

He was an active member of a society established in the city for the relief of the poor.

thumb|Plaque in memory of his daughter Mary at the cemetery of St. Molleran's Church, [[Carrickbeg]]

In about 1785, he married a young woman, perhaps Mary Elliott, the daughter of a Waterford tanner. Little is known about their married life. Mary died in January 1789 following an accident, possibly due to a fever that set in afterwards. Mary was pregnant at the time, and their daughter was born on her deathbed. Also named Mary, she was born handicapped. Edmund Rice was left a widower, with an infant daughter in delicate health.

Vocation and early developments

Following his wife's death, he began discerning a vocation to join a monastery, perhaps in France. One day, while discussing his vocation with the sister of Thomas Hussey, the Bishop of Waterford, a band of ragged boys passed by. Pointing to them, she cried:<blockquote>"What! Would you bury yourself in a cell on the continent rather than devote your wealth and your life to the spiritual and material interest of these poor youths?"</blockquote> After settling his business affairs in 1802, Rice devoted his life to prayer and charitable work, particularly with the poor and marginalised of Waterford. In 1802, when he established a makeshift school in a converted stable in New Street, Waterford, he found the children were so difficult to manage that the teachers resigned. That prompted him to sell his thriving business to another prominent Catholic merchant, a Mr Quan, and devote himself to training teachers who would dedicate their lives to prayers and to teaching the children free of charge. Despite the difficulties involved, Edmund's classes were so popular that another temporary school had to be set up on another of his properties, this time in nearby Stephen Street.

The turning point of Rice's ministry was the arrival of two young men, Thomas Grosvenor and Patrick Finn, from his hometown of Callan. They came to him with the desire to join a congregation, but had not decided which they would join. As it turned out, they remained to teach at Edmund Rice's school and formed their own. The subsequent success of the New Street school led to a more permanent building, named "Mount Sion", on which construction began on 1 June 1802.

The Mount Sion monastery was blessed by Bishop Hussey on 7 June 1803. Since the schoolhouse was not yet completed, Rice, Finn, and Grosvenor took up residence, and walked each day from Mount Sion to their schools on New Street and Stephen Street. On 1 May 1804, the adjoining school was opened and blessed by Hussey's successor, Bishop John Power. Their pupils transferred to the new building.

Thanks to the appeals of some of Rice's more influential friends, a request made to the local Church of Ireland bishop for a school licence was eventually granted. By 1806, Christian schools were established in Waterford, Carrick-on-Suir, and Dungarvan.

In the 1820s, further difficulties emerged, owing to the expansion of the society and its becoming two distinct congregations. From that time on, they were called Christian Brothers and the Presentation Brothers. The motto of the Christian Brothers was: "The Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord forever" (Job 1: 21).

In 1828, the North Richmond Street house and schools in Dublin were established by Rice. The foundation stone was laid by the politician Daniel O'Connell. The building housed the Brothers' headquarters for many years. The current residence incorporates the original house built by Rice, who lived there for several years, beginning in 1831.

Later life and death

thumb|upright|A depiction of Rice and a praying schoolboy on a stained glass window in [[Ireland: Rice holds a Douay Bible. In the background is a school building and two boys playing hurling]]

In February 1838, Edmund Rice left the North Richmond Street community and returned to Mount Sion in Waterford. Aged seventy-six, and by now in poor health, he wrote to the different communities calling for a General Chapter to elect a new Superior General. The chapter, which opened on 24 July 1838, elected Michael Paul Riordan as Rice's successor.

From that time on, Edmund Rice spent an increasing proportion of his time at Mount Sion and the adjoining school, showing a continued interest in the pupils and their teachers. He took a short walk each day on the slope of Mount Sion, but his increasingly painful arthritis led the community superior, Joseph Murphy, to purchase a wheelchair for his benefit. At Christmas time, 1841, Rice's health took a turn for the worse, and even though expectations of his imminent death did not turn out to be justified, he was increasingly confined to his room.

After living in a near-comatose state for more than two years, in the constant care of a nurse since May 1842, Rice died at 11 a.m. on 29 August 1844, at Mount Sion, Waterford, where his remains lie in a casket to this day. Large crowds filled the streets around his house in Dublin to honour him. His feast day is 5 May.

thumb|Edmund Rice postage stamp, 1944

On 29 August 1944, the Irish Department of Posts and Telegraphs released a postage stamp valued at 2½ pence, commemorating the centenary of Rice's death.

A segment of his kneecap, in a reliquary, is on display in the sports hall at St Joseph's College, Stoke-on-Trent, "part of the Edmund Rice family of schools, founded by the Christian Brothers and following the charism of Blessed Edmund Rice".

The Edmund Rice Centre is an Australian not-for-profit organisation established in 1996 that promotes human rights, social justice, and eco-justice, performing research, and using advocacy and community education to achieve its aims. It focuses especially on Indigenous Australians and other indigenous peoples, reconciliation in Australia, asylum seekers in Australia and elsewhere, and Pacific Islanders who are being affected by climate change.

References

External links

Presentation Brothers' official website
Edmund Rice Network International
St. Francis Xavier Province Australia
Edmund Rice Oceania
Presentation Brothers
Edmund Rice Network New Zealand
Edmund Rice Development Ireland