Blessed Edmund Rice

Edmund Rice was a successful merchant in Waterford, Ireland, when his wife died and left him with an infant daughter and a question about what the rest of his life was for. His answer changed education on four continents.

Ireland at the turn of the nineteenth century pressed hard on its poor, and hardest on their children: humiliated, demoralised, and pressured to abandon their faith. In 1800, Rice handed over his business and devoted his wealth to them. In 1802 he opened his first school in a stable in New Street, Waterford.

He did not stop at lessons. He employed a baker and a tailor so the boys who came to learn would also eat and be clothed. He visited the imprisoned. Others joined him, and together they became the first Christian Brothers: the Congregation whose crest, motto and mission this College carries today.

The tradition at CBC

The Brothers reached Southern Africa in 1897 and Bulawayo in 1953. The tradition here is not a museum piece: the Brothers in Bulawayo help upgrade local schools and run a feeding scheme that serves nearly 2,000 underprivileged children daily, and every Lower Sixth boy at CBC gives community service. The Feast of Blessed Edmund Rice opens Term 2 with Mass each May.

Edmund Rice was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1996. His schools, the Edmund Rice Network, educate hundreds of thousands of young people in more than twenty countries.