The religious congregation which Edmund Rice founded in 1802 followed an adopted form of the rule of the Presentation Sisters founded by Nano Nagle in Cork in 1775. It was known for the next two decades as the Society of the Presentation.

Several Bishops requested Edmund Rice to set up communities of teaching Brothers in their dioceses. As early as 1804 Bishop Moylan of Cork wished to have Brothers in Cork city. However this did not become a reality until November 1811. New foundations were later established in Dublin, Thurles and Limerick.
 
Towards Central Government
It became apparent that the congregation would function better under a form of central government and, though all the bishops were not happy about this, the brief of Pope Pius VII which arrived from Rome in late 1821 opened the way for this move. In January 1822 a General Chapter was convened at Mount Sion. Edmund Rice was elected Superior General, and the Society, henceforth called the Christian Brothers, became a pontifical congregation.
 
General Chapter 1822
Bishop Moylan's successor, Bishop John Murphy, looked on the North Monastery as his own foundation. At his request the Brothers in Cork did not attend the Chapter in Mount Sion.
 
In the following years most of these Brothers had second thoughts about remaining apart from their Founder and other confreres. Despite the expressed wishes of Bishop Murphy they slipped away one by one to Waterford where they pronounce their vows according to the new Rule and then returned to Cork.
 

Br. Michael Augustine Riordan who was a close personal friend of Bishop Murphy, acceded to the Bishop's wishes. The Bishop provided him with accommodation and a school on the south side of Cork city. With some companions, he established a community at the South Monastery on the site where the Presentation Sisters had built their first convent. They continued to observe the original rule and retained the name Presentation Brothers.

The Presentation Brothers become a Pontifical Congregation
By the late 1870s there were about fifty Presentation Brothers in five communities: South Monastery, Killarney, Miltown, Birr and Dartford. For some time, as the Christian Brothers had half a century earlier the Presentation Brothers felt the disadvantages of being a diocesan congregation. Moreover, a letter from the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars written at the time of the first Papal approbation (1875) advised "that the Brothers unite under a Superior General of their own choice."
 
`In June 1884 Dr. Thomas A. O'Callaghan, a Dominican, was consecrated co-adjutor Bishop of Cork. This appointment by the Holy See was providential for the Presentation Brothers. Bishop O'Callaghan encouraged and advised the Brothers to overcome whatever fears they had about amalgamation. Moreover, as he had experience in Rome before his appointment and knew the ways of the Vatican, he was able to give valuable guidance on procedure.

Following the building of a Generalate and Central Novitiate at Mount St. Joseph in 1894 the Congregation continued to expand. New foundations were established in Canada in 1910, in the West Indies in 1947, in Ghana in 1968 and in Peru in 1969.

In response to present day needs the building at Mount St. Joseph has been re-designed to accommodate needy Senior Citizens. In 1991 the Congregation gifted a large part of the building to S.H.A.R.E., a student-powered voluntary housing organisation. The forty self-contained apartments at Mount St. Joseph form an important part of S.H.A.R.E’s service to the elderly.
 
The Associate Movement, established in recent years, has been a great grace to the Congregation as has been a new understanding of the Presentation Family which includes the Presentation Sisters as well as the Christian Brothers and Presentation Brothers.
 
The Patronal feast of the Congregation is the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Temple (November 21st.).