Edmund Rice’s founding charism gave birth to two congregations, The Congregation of Christian Brothers and the Congregation of Presentation Brothers. In the early days, when Edmund first began to attract followers to his way of life, they formed themselves into a little group of pious laymen. They lived together in community, and began to follow an adaptation of the Presentation Sisters’ Rule written for the Presentation Sisters by Fr. Laurence Callanan O.F.M.. The Holy See had already approved of this Rule when Edmund and his followers began to use their adaptation of it in 1809 to guide their first faltering steps along the path of religious life.  

The granting of the Apostolic Brief in 1820, allowing the infant Congregation to become an Apostolic Institute, was a defining moment for all of the early brothers. A few  men withdrew from Edmund’s enterprise at this point, another few wished to stay with their local bishops, the majority accepted the Brief and went on to become the Congregation of Christian Brothers.