Edmund Ignatius Rice
| Blessed Edmund Rice | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
1 June 1762 Callan, County Kilkenny, Ireland |
| Died | 29 August 1844 (aged 82) Waterford, County Waterford, Ireland |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 6 October 1996, Vatican City |
| Major shrine | "Westcourt", Callan, Ireland; International Heritage Centre, "Mount Sion", Waterford, Ireland |
| Feast | 5 May |
Blessed Edmund Ignatius Rice (Irish: [Éamann] Iognáid Rís; 1 June 1762 – 29 August 1844), was a Roman Catholic missionary and educationalist. Edmund was the founder of two religious institutes of religious brothers: the Congregation of Christian Brothers and the Presentation Brothers.
Rice was born in Ireland at a time when Catholics faced oppression under Penal Laws enforced by the British authorities, though reforms began in 1778 when he was a teenager. He forged a successful career in business and, after a tragic accident which killed his wife and left his daughter disabled and with learning difficulties, thereafter devoted his life to education of the poor.
Christian Brothers and Presentation Brothers schools around the world continue to follow the traditions established by Edmund Rice (see List of Christian Brothers schools).
Edmund Rice was born to Robert Rice and Margaret Rice (née Tierney) on the farming property of "Westcourt", in Callan, County Kilkenny. Edmund Rice was the fourth of seven sons, although he also had two half sisters, Joan and Jane Murphy, the offspring of his mother's first marriage.
Rice's education, like that of every other Irish Catholic of the day, was greatly compromised by the 1709 amendment to the Popery Act, which decreed that any public or private instruction in the Catholic faith would render teachers liable to prosecution, a measure that was not reformed until 1782. In this environment, hedge schools proliferated. The boys of the Rice family obtained an education at home through Patrick Grace, a member of the small community of Augustinian friars in Callan. As a young man, Rice spent two years at a school which, despite the provisions of the penal laws, the authorities suffered to exist in the City of Kilkenny.
...
Wikipedia