Education & Edmund

Edmund Rice was a human being with a great and expansive heart. He was a man of creative vision, practical wisdom and energetic know-how. He was in many respects a bridge builder. He wanted to build a bridge from what had been his experience of life in eighteenth century Ireland, and before, to what needed to emerge in the nineteenth century and beyond.

Christian Brothers' Constitutions

Edmund Rice was born in 1762 in Callan, county Kilkenny, Ireland. Following his early education he moved to Waterford where he was apprenticed to his uncle, Michael, who supplied the numerous shops visiting the expanded port.

Edmund eventually succeeded his uncle and became a prosperous businessman. He married in 1785 and a daughter was born to the marriage but soon after his wife died in 1789. Edmund cared for his daughter with the support of his step-sister, Joan.

After much discernment and seeing the lack of Christian education among the boys of Waterford, Edmund commenced his great work of Christian education, which over time spread across the globe.

Two religious congregations, the Christian Brothers and the Presentation Brothers, developed from the foundation which he laid in 1802. Edmund led the Brothers for many years before dying in Waterford in 1844.

In 1996, he was declared "Blessed" by the Church - the first step in the Catholic Church towards sainthood.