Life
1762-1844; b. Callan, Co. Kilkenny; ed. hedge-school, and two years in
Kilkenny boarding school; joined uncle’s exporting business in Waterford
shortly after wife’s death and birth of daughter, 1779 [var. 1789];
relieved poor and imprisoned at own expense; est. school at Mount Sion,
1802-03; taught English to his friend Charles Bianconi; est. schools at
Clonmel, Dungarvan, and Cork, 1806-11; secured Papal recognition for Order
of Religious Brothers of Christian Schools (Christian Brothers), having
taken vows with eight others, 1820; elected superior of the Order, 1822;
ended his days at Mount Sion; case for beatification opened 1863; d. 29
Aug., Waterford; beatified at ceremony in Vatican, 6 Oct. 1996. DIB
DIH
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Criticism
J. D. Fitzpatrick, Edmund Rice: Founder of the Christian Brothers (1945).
Desmond Rushe, Edmund Rice, The Man and His Times ([1981] Gill & Macmillan 1995).
Daire Keogh, Edmund Rice, 1762-1844 (Dublin: Four Courts 1995) [reiss.? 1996], 128pp.
Matthew Feheney FPM, Edmund Rice: The Presentation Tradition (Veritas 1996) [essays of past pupils incl. Sean O’Faolain and John McGahern].
Fintan
O’Toole, ‘Blessed Among Brothers’ (Irish Times,
Weekend feature, 5 Oct. 1996).
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Notes
Hyland (Cats. 219, 224): ‘A Christian Brother’, Edmund
Ignatius Rice & the Christian Brothers [1st ed., 1926)
[var. 1929]; J. D. Fitzpatrick, Edmund Rice: Founder of the Christian
Brothers (1945).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)