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. - battalions which are engaged for life in the Divine Service.
EDMUND IGNATIUS RICE.
m~
The words of the learned and versatile Leibnitz, in this
‘connection, are remarkable. “ How glorious,” he writes,
~ “that there are found in the Church ascetic and contem-
plative men who, abandoning the cares of life and tramp-
ling its pleasures under foot, devote their whole being to
the contemplation of the Deity and the admiration of His
works, or who, freed from personal concerns, apply them-
selves exclusively to watch and relieve the necessities of
others, some by instructing the ignorant and erring ; some
by assisting the needy and afflicted. Nor is it the least
among the marks which commend to us that Church,
which alone has preserved the name and the badges of
Catholicity, that. we see her alone produce and cherish
‘these illustrious examples of the eminent virtues of tho
ascetic life,”
IT.
Tue founder of the humble Institute of the Trish Christian
Brothers—the Venerable Edmund Ignatius Rice—likewise
commenced his labours for the instruction of the youth of
Ireland, in a simple and unostentatious manner. He was
of an ancient and respectable lineage, and was born in
_ June, 1762, at Westcourt, near Callan, in the County
_ Kilkenny, and was the third of six sons. His father, Robert
Rice, was held in high esteem on account of his probity and
_ disinterestedness; and his mother, Margaret Tierney—a
_ Woman of great strength of mind and refinement—was a
near relative of Valentine Maher, M.P., for Tipperary, and
_ of Valentine Smith, who was one. of the first Catholics in
the County Kilkenny that purchased an estate after the
relaxation of the penal code in 1782 3 he held the com.
mission of the peace for many years, and was in truth a
~model of honour and of every virtue becoming a high-
minded Catholic gentleman,
When Edmund Rice was born. those iniquitous laws
against the Catholics of Ireland still existed which the illus. -
_ trious Burke described as “a machine of wise and elaborate
contrivance; as well fitted for the oppression, impoverish-
- ment, and degradation of a people, and the debasement, in