Presentation Brothers
In the early part of the
nineteenth century when the Penal Laws were relaxed, and the ban
which was placed on the Catholic education of youth in Ireland
during a long period of persecution was removed, great efforts
were made to employ the opportunities which a comparative freedom
placed within the reach of Irish Catholics, and several new
religious congregations of both men and women sprang into
existence. Amongst these was the Institute of Presentation
Brothers founded [in 1802] by Edmund
Ignatius Rice. The Brothers continued a
diocesan congregation approved of by Rome until 1889, when a
change was effected in the constitution of the body with a view to
its more rapid development. With the sanction of the bishops under
whom the Brothers then laboured, all the houses of the Institute
were united under a superior-general and Leo XIII approved and
confirmed the new constitutions. The rapid spread of the order
since then has been very marked. It now has several branches in
each of the provinces of Ireland, and is also established in
England and Canada. The Brothers conduct colleges, primary
schools, industrial schools, and orphanages. A new novitiate and
training college has been erected at Mount St. Joseph, Cork. The
superior-general resides there. The Commissioners of National
Education, after investigating the methods of training adopted by
the institute, fully approved of them and recognized the training
college. In the colleges, special attention is paid to the
teaching of experimental science. Classes are taught in connection
with the Intermediate Education Board and Technical Department.
Students are prepared for the Civil Service as well as for the
National University. In the industrial schools and orphanages, in
addition to the ordinary school studies, various trades are
taught, as also agriculture and horticulture. Moreover, all the
boys get a two years' course in manual instruction.
BROTHER
DE SALES
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