EDMUND RICE (1762 - 1844)

Edmund Rice - The Man    Edmund's Educational Legacy    Edmund's Spiritual Character      Blessed Edmund Rice Shrines 

Edmund Rice - The Man

    Edmund Rice was born at Westcourt, Callan, Co. Kilkenny on 1 June 1762. It was a time of political and religious oppression, when poverty and want affected the lives of the vast majority of the citizens of the land. 

    Edmund was the fourth of seven sons born to Robert Rice and Margaret Rice (nee Tierney). Edmund’s mother had two children, Joan and Jane Murphy, from a previous marriage. These children became part of the Rice household in Westcourt when Margaret Tierney re-married after the death of her first husband. 

    Edmund grew up in a devoutly Catholic home where he imbibed from his parents a deep faith and trust in God, and a love for his fellow men and women. Unlike most other Catholic families of that time, the Rices lived comfortably as tenant farmers in Westcourt, farming over 160 acres of good land.

    As there was no formal schooling available to Catholics at that time, Edmund was educated both at home and at the local ‘pay school’ in Moate Lane, where Catholics who could afford to pay sent their children to school. There is also a surviving tradition that Edmund received some further education at a private commercial institution in Kilkenny before moving to Waterford in 1779.  In Waterford, he worked for his uncle, Michael Rice, in the family business, provisioning ships calling at Waterford’s busy dockside. Edmund was a good businessman, and in due course inherited the family business from his uncle. Under his careful management, it prospered greatly. He became a wealthy man.

    In 1785, at the age of 23, Edmund married Mary Elliott a member of a well-to-do family operating a tanning business in Waterford. There is very little that history reveals about the marriage other than that it came to an abrupt end with the tragic death of Mary Elliott in 1789. With the death of his wife, Edmund found himself the sole parent of a small child who was delicate in health, and possibly suffering from a degree of mental retardation. Being a strong family man, Edmund initially entrusted the care of young Mary Rice to his stepsister, Joan in 3 Arundel Place in Waterford where he had set up house.

    The next twelve years of Edmund’s life were hidden years during which he coped with his sorrows, ran his business, and ensured the well being of his little daughter, Mary.

    In 1802, at the age of 40, Edmund took a very decisive step. He embarked on a spiritual journey that changed his life utterly. The inspiration for his decision probably came from the example of Nano Nagle, the founder of the Presentation Sisters. Like Nano, he decided to devote the remainder of his life, and all of his resources, to the education and care of the poor. He sold his victualler’s business in Waterford to a Mr. Quan. He arranged for his sep-sister, Joan Murphy, and his handicapped daughter to move to Callan. He himself moved to a large stable in New Street, which he opened as a free school for poor Catholic boys. To help him with his project, Edmund recruited some hired help.

    Edmund’s decision to educate the poor was seen by his friends as both foolhardy and unwise. Some advised against it arguing that the poor were better off ignorant. Technically, Edmund’s action was also illegal because, although the political scene had changed greatly and the Act of Union had been passed in 1800, many of the Penal Laws were still on the Statute Books, and educating poor Catholics could be interpreted as a seditious act.

    The beginning of Edmund’s educational project was tentative and inauspicious. The hired help evaporated early on, demoralised by the enormity and difficulty of the task. On his own again, Edmund trusted in God believing that if it was God’s work it would surely prevail. His faith was rewarded when two young men from his own town of Callan, Patrick Finn and Thomas Grosvenor, volunteered to join ranks with him in his new venture. The nucleus of a new religious congregation was forming, and Edmund was inspired to take the next step.

    In June 1802, Edmund began to build a monastery to accommodate his little community. This was another seditious act that left him vulnerable before the Law. The monastery was soon completed, and was blessed by Bishop Hussey 7 June 1803. The new monastery was called Mount Sion. By this time, a fourth member, John Mulcahy, had joined the little group.

    Word soon got around and, gradually, other volunteers came to Mount Sion offering their services freely for the realisation of Edmund’s dream. This little group formed itself into a small, religious community following a well ordered way of life inspired by the Rule of the Presentation Sisters, a way of life with which Edmund was familiar through his contact with the Presentation Sisters in Hennessy’s Road.

    As the number of volunteers grew so too did the capacity for service of the poor, and in due course a school was opened in Carrick-on-Suir in 1806, and another in Dungarvan towards the end of 1807. By 1808, the new movement had eight members, and Edmund believed that the time was right for formally establishing themselves as a religious congregation. He approached the Bishop of Waterford, Reverend Dr. John Power, to allow them to formalise their religious commitment by professing religious vows according to the Rule of the Presentation Sisters. Bishop Power agreed enthusiastically and on the 15 August 1808, the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Edmund and his seven followers made simple profession of vows in the chapel of the Presentation Sisters in Hennessy’s Road, Waterford. The Bishop, on behalf of the Church, formally received their professions.

    The good news of Edmund’s educational crusade on behalf of the poor soon spread beyond the boundaries of the diocese of Waterford. Other bishops got to hear about it, and because the social conditions of the poor were much the same in every diocese in the country, a number of bishops expressed the wish that Edmund would open a school for the poor in their diocese also. In 1811 the Brothers opened a school in Cork, in a location near to the present North Monastery. In 1812, at the invitation of Dr. Troy, Archbishop of Dublin, the Brothers opened at Hanover Street on the south quays. In quick succession the following schools were opened: Cappaquin (1813), Limerick (1816), Thurles (1816), Mill Street (Dublin, 1816), Francis St. (Dublin 1820), Preston (England 1825).  Preston was the first opening outside of Ireland, and constituted a major development in the missionary outreach of the new congregation.

    The poverty and deprivation with which some of these early foundations had to contend shocked even Edmund himself, and grounded him even more solidly in his trust in Divine Providence. “May the will of God be done in it (Hanover Street)”, he prayed.

    The spread of the new fraternity into several dioceses created huge administrative difficulties for the early Brothers. Since each community was under the jurisdiction of the local ordinary of the diocese in which it was located, the transfer of Bothers from one community to another, issues of finance, formation matters, and community policy generally all became fraught with difficulties. Edmund felt that these difficulties amounted to a serious constraint on the development of his burgeoning congregation, and he looked around for an alternative model of administration to the diocesan model which was proving so cumbersome. Very quickly, he discovered that the solution to these difficulties lay in getting papal approval for his congregation as an Apostolic Institute, a status enjoyed by the congregation of De LaSalle Brothers for many decades.

    To facilitate the move away from a diocesan structure, in 1817 Edmund and his Brothers with the approval of Dr. Troy OP, Archbishop of Dublin, and of Dr Murray, his Coadjutor, applied to the Holy See for an Apostolic Brief. In due course, and despite some opposition, His Holiness, Pope Pius VII granted Edmund’s request, and issued the formal brief establishing the Congregation as an Apostolic Institute in 1820. The Brothers formally accepted the brief in Mount Sion on the Feast of the Holy Name, 20 January 1822. Edmund Rice was elected Superior General of the new Apostolic Institute.

    Nineteen of the thirty Brothers eligible to vote were present in Mount Sion on that historic day. Of those early Brothers who did not sign, some withdrew from the congregation at that point, while others wished to retain their diocesan affiliations and consequently refused the Brief. One of these, Br. Michael Austin Riordan, became the nucleus around which the Presentation Brothers Congregation developed.

    The spread of the congregation from small beginnings in Waterford in 1802 to the worldwide organisation it is today, working in over thirty countries spread across the five continents, is a matter of history. The story of that development is too long, and too complex to be presented here. What the story does point to, however, is the resilient nature of Edmund’s founding charism, and its ability to incarnate itself in many countries, proclaiming its message of liberation through education in many languages and many cultures.

    Edmund continued to guide the Congregation as its Superior General until old age and vicissitude indicated to him that it was time for him to let go, and entrust the future of the Congregation which he had founded to other hands. He resigned at the General Chapter of 1838, and was succeeded by Br. Michael Paul Riordan, one of the founder members of the North Monastery community. Edmund lived out the remainder of his days in the Congregation as a member of the community in Mount Sion. He died there on 29 August 1844, lamented by his Brothers, and mourned by the thousands of Irish men and women who had come to admire his generosity of spirit, and to appreciate the wonderful contribution he had made to the welfare of their country. He was buried in the community cemetery adjoining the monastery at Mount Sion. Over the years, his reputation for holiness and virtue grew and became so widespread that the Church saw fit to recognise the heroic sanctity of his life. His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, beatified Edmund in Rome 6 October in 1996. Many thousands of followers from all over the world attended the Beatification Ceremony. The influence of this quiet, reserved man from Callan had spread around the whole world.

    The Feast Day of Blessed Edmund is celebrated on the 5 May.

Edmund’s Educational Legacy (back)

    While not attempting in any way to present here an adequate exposé of the quality of the education Edmund Rice provided in the schools he founded for the poor, a few comments on some of the more salient features of his educational approach will give us an indication of the convictions that motivated him, and gave particular his shape to his endeavours

    Edmund Rice lived in a period of great political upheavals. He witnessed bloody rebellions in his own land, and the dire consequences that followed them. He did not align himself in any way with the political movements of the day of which they were many. Yet for all his political reticence, what Edmund was attempting was a radical transformation of the society to which he belonged. 

    In the Ireland of 1802, the poor had no voice, no economic clout, no political clout; they had no levers of power to pull. They simple existed at the bottom of the social hierarchy.  Edmund, by championing their right to an education, and by providing the means to make it happen, was initiating a change that would lead to a radical transformation of society.

    He could read the signs of the times, and he knew that because the poor lacked education, they were fated to remain imprisoned by their poverty. He saw their lack of education as condemning them inexorably to a life of social deprivation. Without education, they had no role to play in the society to which they belonged. They would continue to be the men and women of no property in their own land. Their helplessness moved him. He knew in his heart of hearts that things could be different, and he felt compelled to do something about it. It was this desire for radical change in society in order to bring about justice for the poor which inspired him and his followers to do the things they did.

    Poverty is a multifaceted human condition, and Edmund was not blind to the complexities of chronic poverty. He was a shrewd businessman who was deeply aware of the social circumstances in which he conducted his business. He could see at first hand the dehumanising effects of ignorance, chronic unemployment, economic poverty, poor housing and the lack of any adequate moral formation. He was aware of the attendant social evils of drunkenness, violence and petty crime that inevitably burden the lives of the poor, particularly the urban poor. For Edmund, education held the key. Education was the road to salvation out the dehumanising consequences of grinding poverty.

    Merely unbinding the chains of economic and social poverty was not Edmund’s fundamental goal. For Edmund there were even greater deprivations than the deprivations resulting from economic and social poverty. Included in the long catalogue of deprivations which affected the people Edmund cared for, one deprivation grieved him most of all – their spiritual deprivation. For Edmund, there was no greater poverty than the poverty of the spirit that resulted from depriving people of the opportunity to appreciate and grow in their Faith, and in their facility to know, love and serve their God as members of a believing community. This spiritual deprivation Edmund saw as the greatest deprivation of all.

    Edmund appreciated the inadequacy of offering only things of the spirit to people whose stomachs were empty and aching for food. But he also saw the absolute inadequacy of a programme of education which addressed only material needs, and ignored the life of the spirit. For Edmund education was about the development of the whole person, body, mind, and spirit. He would not have used the word holistic. It was not part of educational parlance at that time, but the concept of a holistic education underpinned everything he did.

    Edmund also had a clear understanding of the role education played in giving people a sense of their cultural inheritance and identity. A healthy self-concept was not a term that people were familiar with in those far off days. The human sciences had yet to make their impact in 1802, but that is not to say that people did not understand the things that crushed the human spirit and robbed people of their self-respect. Edmund knew instinctively the need for his people to be rooted in a cultural tradition, and he knew how important it was for people to appreciate the cultural inheritance that their ancestors had bequeathed to them, and which gave them their identity as a people. That their religious cultural inheritance was an intrinsic part of that inheritance was, for Edmund, a non-negotiable.

Edmund’s Spiritual Character (back)

   It would be a gross distortion of the vision of Edmund to focus only on the social dimensions of his work. Edmund, the founder of two religious institutes, was first and foremost a man absorbed and beguiled by the experience of God in his life. The twelve long years that followed the death of his wife were for him the years in which his spiritual character was formed. It was formed in the crucible of human pain and desolation, in the shattering of dreams, in numbness of loss, in the search for a meaning that could make sense of all that had happened, in the gradual acceptance of his loss, and in the recognition that even in this woeful experience there was the possibility of hope and resurrection. In this dark experience, God touched Edmund’s soul to such an extent that his whole life was changed. Nothing could ever be the same again.

    The man who emerged from that period of spiritual testing was a man transformed. For him now, God was everything. He had developed over those years a deeply contemplative heart attuned to the ways of God, drawn to search for God in all things. Edmund’s constant reading of the Scriptures, his daily commitment to prayer, his devotion to the Eucharist, his love for the Mother of God, and his practice of regular spiritual reading, with a particular attachment to the writings of St. Teresa of Avila, nurtured in him this contemplative heart.

    After his period of spiritual testing, not only did Edmund emerge with a passion for God and the things of God, he also emerged with a clear focus on where God was to be encountered. Not for him the seclusion of a contemplative monastic life on the continent. Not for him the quiet routine of an enclosed monastery.  No, God was drawing him in another direction. For Edmund, God had something different in mind. God led Edmund to conduct his search for the Divine Encounter among the least of his brothers and sisters. This is what Edmund did for the rest of his life.

Blessed Edmund Rice Shrines (back)