Waterford, Ireland
Edmund Rice & the Christian Brothers
Humble beginnings
Edmund Rice was a successful business person who lived in the southeast of Ireland. Having seen the poverty which existed around him, he wanted to provide an education to young children who didn’t have access to schooling. His desire was that all children have the best quality of life available to them.
This continues to be the basis for Christian Brothers, devoted to the Edmund Rice charism, who work in ministries today.
“All of the 18th and 19th century visitors marvelled at the Quay of Waterford. Its beauty, its elegance and expanse, comparing it to the finest quays in Europe. Its river full of masted ships, it’s beautiful exchange, where the merchants conducted their business, it’s bowling green, where the gentry took their evening stroll and their wives paraded in their finery. However this was the veneer of Waterford and beneath that veneer, was a warren of filthy lanes, of disease ridden hovels, bereft of furniture, toilet facilities, and the means to sustain life…” Dermot Power ‘Housing for the labouring class of Waterford City from 1800 to 1940’
The Christian Brothers are founded
Edmund sold his shipping business and began a night school for the impoverished children of Waterford. Edmund’s first helpers deserted him leaving him desperate, but then two men from his native Callan joined him, not only to teach, but to help Edmund found a religious order to educate poor boys. By 1825, Edmund Rice and his team of thirty Christian Brothers were educating, free of charge, 5,500 boys in 12 different towns and cities. Many were then clothed and fed.
Currently, 1,700 Christian Brothers are educators and carers of the poor in thirty countries around the world.
The Quay of Waterford, Ireland
Br Sean McManus recounts the life and times of Br Edmund Rice.
Who was Edmund Rice?
“Edmund's vision is best seen in education and also the way you do it - how you help people to flourish that extends beyond classrooms...”
~Br Sean McManus
~Br Sean McManus
Today the Brothers of Edmund Rice are working in 30 countries across five continents. In addition to education the Brothers encourage people to develop their skills and God-given talents and to become self-sufficient.
“The world and everything in it is continually changing”
~ Edmund Rice
~ Edmund Rice
Learn about our history
The Oceania Province assists people wishing to source material about the Christian Brothers and more specifically about the Brothers in the Oceania Region.
Since 1802 the work that Edmund Rice started has spread to 30 countries….
The Christian Brothers first came to parts of the Oceania Province in 1843. The presence of the Christian Brothers in Oceania began in Sydney and quickly spread throughout Australia, to New Zealand and then later through Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Timor Leste.
A key figure in the history of the Christian Brothers in the Oceania Province is Br Patrick Ambrose Treacy – most notable for his selflessness and determination. In short, secondary education for ordinary people in Australia owes its beginning to Br Ambrose.
Bay of Fire, Tasmania, Australia