Congregation of Christian Brothers in New Zealand
Open-knowledge reference entry
The Congregation of Christian Brothers in New Zealand is part of the Congregation of Christian Brothers, a Catholic religious institute, and has been established in New Zealand since 1876. Its particular charism is the education of boys and in New Zealand it has been responsible for eight schools and has launched other educational initiatives.
Background
The Christian Brothers were founded in Waterford, Ireland in 1802 by Edmund Ignatius Rice who was beatified in Rome in 1996. He was a wealthy committed Catholic businessman noted for his charity toward the poor. The death of his wife shortly after the birth of a handicapped daughter was a catalyst in his life. It deepened his spirituality which made him more aware of the needs of the marginalised especially young boys who lacked education in faith, literacy, and numeracy and often lacked the basic necessities of life. He established schools for these boys despite the fact he had no teacher training and was in his early forties. Gradually other men, often businessmen like himself, joined him inspired by his charity and compassion. Other schools spread rapidly throughout Ireland.
By the time of his death in 1844 his considerable fortune had been spent in establishing schools.
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This entry incorporates text from “Congregation of Christian Brothers in New Zealand” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.