College Founders

Edmund Ignatius Rice

On 6 October 1996, Br Edmund Rice was beatified. This was in recognition of the work that Edmund had achieved through his own heroic and virtuous life, and through the work of the Christian Brothers that he founded. Edmund Rice was born in Callan, Ireland in 1762. He was a rich, well-educated man who had a very comfortable lifestyle. He was a successful businessman, yet all his material possessions did not distract him from his spiritual nature. He spent much of his wealth and time working with the poor and the oppressed.

Edmund lived in Ireland in a time of very bad social conditions and enormous poverty. At the age of forty, Edmund decided to dedicate his life to issues of justice, particularly among young boys. These children were often impoverished, illiterate and without a future. They lived in appalling conditions without anyone to provide for them. They had no access to education and Edmund realised that they may end up victims of alcohol or crime. So, Edmund started his first school for these young boys.

The first school was in a stable. Soon other young men who shared his vision joined him, and schools for poor boys' sprang up all over Ireland.

Edmund Rice died in 1844 on August 29. The work he had started continued in Ireland, England and Gibraltar. Irish immigrants who came to Australia were anxious to have access to the style of education that had been set up by Edmund Rice. Schools in Australia in the 19th century had to be 'secular' - they were not allowed to have any religious instruction. This was partly a carry over from the English settlers who feared an educated Irish population gaining control of the Australian Colonies.

All Catholic schools had to be paid for by Catholic people, and because the Catholic people in Australia were amongst the poorest, they found this very difficult. The Catholics begged their Bishops to invite the Christian Brothers to Australia and so that is how the Christian Brothers came, as the first order of teaching men, to be in Australia.

In 1874 the Brothers came to WA. They had a school in St George's Terrace. In 1942 the Christian Brothers came to Leederville, and the school opened with one hundred and forty boys. In 1986 the school, known as CBC Leederville, amalgamated with St Mary's to become Aranmore Catholic College.