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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 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 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. This turning point in his spiritual journey 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 step-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 on7 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 dioceses 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 Brothers 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 La Salle 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 on 6 October 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. (return to top)