Blessed Edmund Rice (1762-1844) advocate of the poor
Home in Callan, Co Kilkenny
Edmund Rice, founder of the Christian Brothers and Presentation Brothers, was born to Robert and Margaret Rice, prosperous tenant farmers, at Westcourt, Callan, Co. Kilkenny, on 1 June 1762.
He was the fourth of seven brothers, and had
two stepsisters, Joan and Jane Murphy, from his mother’s first marriage.
The Penal Laws against Catholics were still in force in Ireland. Co.
Kilkenny fared better than many places because of the tolerance of John
Butler, the Protestant Duke of Ormonde who resided in Kilkenny Castle.
As a result, enterprising Catholics, such as Robert Rice, were enabled
to rent farmland from tolerant Protestant landlords at reasonable rates.
So Edmund was fortunate in a land where and at a time when the majority
of Catholics were “hewers of wood and drawers of water”.
Apprentice businessman, married and widowed
After education at a “hedge school” in Callan and a commercial academy in Kilkenny, Edmund was apprenticed at the age of seventeen to his uncle, Michael, who was involved in the provisioning and ship’s chandling business in Waterford.
A born entrepreneur, Edmund quickly mastered the
importing and exporting trade and expanded his uncle’s business.
He
signed a lucrative contract to supply meat to the British Army and
explored trading connections with Bristol, Newfoundland, and
Boulogne-sur-Mer in France. He married at the age of twenty-three, and
the future looked rosy.
Then, in 1789, his pregnant wife died tragically
leaving him with a handicapped baby daughter, Mary. Edmund’s world was
turned upside down. So was the political world in that same year, by the
egalitarian ambitions of the French Revolution.
His uncle appointed him his heir, but his recent tragedy caused
Edmund to look for a deeper meaning in his life. He looked to God for
guidance and, unusual for a lay Catholic at the time, he turned to the
Scriptures for inspiration.
He became a daily Mass-goer and a reader of
the mystic, St Teresa of Avila. His commercial career still prospered.
The forward-looking principles of the French Revolution, if not its
crude methods, appealed to his generous heart.
‘Liberty, fraternity,
equality’, but with a more Christian overlay, were ideals that Edmund
dearly wished for his benighted fellow-Catholics in Ireland.
Education for poor boys
He became a frequent visitor to the other Waterford, which existed behind the facade of commercial prosperity and merry social life - the Waterford of narrow streets and dark alleyways where the miserable hovels of the poor were crowded together.
He was encouraged by a woman friend to turn his
attention to the plight of poor destitute boys.
He looked around for a
template for the way forward. Inspired by what Nano Nagle had achieved
by her Presentation convents for the plight of poor girls, Edmund at the
age of 40, turned his back on his business career in 1802 and opened a
temporary school for poor boys in New Street.
Having made provision with
his relatives for his daughter’s special needs, he deployed all his
energies and wealth in the new undertaking. He sank most of his assets
into the building of a permanent school and residence at Mount Sion.
There was to be no turning back.
Two paid assistants left him. He quickly realised that temporary
commitment to a full-time problem was no solution, and so he invited
young men to join him permanently in his work and prayer.
In 1808,
Edmund and his early companions gave total commitment to their new way
of life by the taking of vows in the presence of the local bishop, and
thus forming the Society of the Presentation. Edmund became “Brother
Ignatius”, named after the founder of the Jesuits.
The work soon spread
to other towns, in the diocese of Waterford first, and then to other
parts of the country where the local bishops, impressed at what they saw
in Waterford, hoped to spread the benefits of Catholic education in
their own dioceses.
In 1820, with the blessing of Pope Pius VII (Luigi
Chiaramonti 1800-23), the majority of the brothers under Edmund as
Superior General were organised into a pontifical congregation - the
Congregation of Christian Brothers [CFC], to make it more mobile not
only in Ireland but wherever the need for education was greatest.
A
minority retained the Presentation name as a diocesan group subject to
the Bishop of Cork and evolved into today’s Presentation Brothers [FPM].
Spread through Ireland and abroad
During Edmund’s lifetime, day and evening schools to meet the educational needs of the poor were opened by his followers in Ireland and England and a beginning was made in overseas missions that were to blossom after his death, in Gibraltar, India, America and Australia.
Not only did Edmund and his
followers work in the classroom but they were to be found visiting the
hospital wards, the debtors’ prisons and even accompanying poor wretches
to the gallows.
Fighting for the legal rights of widows and orphans
occupied much of Edmund’s time, where he brought his knowledge of the
law learned during his business career to the defence of those in danger
of being deprived of their rights.
Edmund endured much hardship,
misunderstanding and opposition, even from some bishops and, more
hurtful, from some of his own confrères, but, nurturing his vision
through prayer and a wonderful trust in Divine Providence, he persevered
with his extraordinary mission until his death on 29th August 1844.
After initial neglect due to the Great Famine and to divisions among
his followers, Edmund’s reputation for holiness and care for the poor
and ignorant grew over the years. Prayer and apostolic groups - the
Edmund Rice Network - sprang up wherever there was a Christian Brother
or Presentation Brother presence.
There were repeated requests to Rome
for Edmund’s canonisation. In more recent years Edmund’s Brothers,
despite being fewer in numbers, have concentrated on the Third World
countries of Africa, South America, India and the West Indies, and on
the inner cities of the First World.
Their lay collaborators staff
hundreds of schools imbued by the spirit of Edmund on all five
continents.
Beatification
On 6 October 1996, at the end of a long process and after the acceptance of a miracle worked through his intercession, Edmund was declared ‘Blessed’ by Pope John Paul II at a memorable ceremony in Rome.
His feast-day is celebrated on 5th May each
year.
In 2003, Br Donal Blake, was appointed Postulator to lead the
process from beatification to canonisation and, if the Lord ordain it
so, it should not be too long before Edmund is declared ‘Saint Edmund’.
One further miracle is required.
Branches of a ‘League of Prayer’ are organised in many parts of the
world and monthly bulletins record both requests for and answers to
prayers for many intentions.
Edmund’s birthplace at Westcourt, Callan,
the O’Connell School, North Richmond Street, where he lived when in
Dublin, Mardyke House in Cork, where the founding Presentation name
lives on, and Mount Sion, Waterford, where he began his religious and
educational undertaking and where he died, are now centres of prayer for
his thousands of devotees.
The appeal of Edmund is wider than the
members of his two religious congregations - the Christian Brothers and
Presentation Brothers. He is now invoked as: Edmund the family man,
Edmund the widower, Edmund father of a handicapped child, Edmund
businessman of integrity, Edmund the humane teacher, Edmund the lay
Catholic activist, Edmund the lay religious, Edmund advocate for the
deprived, Edmund patron of the ordinary in daily life...
The direction of his long life is best summed up in an extract from
one of his letters, written in 1810 to a friend of his, the architect
Bryan Bolger:
“Let us do ever so little for God, we will be sure He will never forget it, nor let it pass unrewarded. How many of our actions are lost for want of applying them to this end. Were we to know the merit of only going from one street to another to serve a neighbour for the love of God, we should prize it more than gold or silver.... One thing you may be sure of, that whilst you work for God, whether you succeed or not, He will amply reward you.”
Prayer for the Canonisation of Blessed Edmund Rice
O God, we thank you for the life of Blessed Edmund Rice. He opened
his heart to Christ present in those oppressed by poverty and
injustice. May we follow his example of faith and generosity. Grant us
the courage and compassion of Blessed Edmund as we seek to live lives
of love and service. Grant that soon, if it be your will and for the
good of souls, he will be declared a saint of your Church. Amen.
Prayer for a Favour
O God, you inspired Blessed Edmund Rice to follow your Son in a life
of consecrated service of the poor and of all in need of a truly
Christian education. Grant through his intercession the petition I now
make … … … and so hasten the day when he will be declared a saint of
your Church. Amen.
Favours received
Please notify Br Donal Blake CFC, Postulator, Rome (blake.d@tiscalinet.it), or Br Donatus Brazil FPM, Vice-Postulator, Cork (jdb1802@yahoo.com),
or the Christian or Presentation Brothers nearest to you, of any favour
you attribute to the intercession of Blessed Edmund Rice.