4. Mary Power

But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask. John 11:22

 “Mary Power was the wife of a wealthy corn merchant of Waterford city. Mary’s advice was much valued by Edmund Rice. She was a devout woman whose wise counsel Edmund often sought as it was, she who helped him to discern God’s true call for him. A call to care for the poor, ragged boys in the city slums. She also left money in her will for the students at the Mt Sion Monastery school to feed and clothe them.” 

Mary’s words sink deep into Edmund’s heart. He hears God call to educate the poor against the advice of his  brother Father John Rice and without any companions to help him he set up his first school in a stable in Elliot’s yard  in New Street.

(Not the first venture to begin in a stable).

With his right hand, Edmund extends his fatherliness beyond the confines of family to a distressed young boy who is representative of a multitude of poor, illiterate and wretchedly disadvantaged children of Waterford. In this case, the gesture is one of friendship, an open invitation to a future of fulfillment and dignity through the development and proper use of God-given talents. To Edmund, education was an obvious and practical answer.