Connections between the Gospel text Matthew 25:35-36,40 and some instances or words from the life of Edmund Rice.

For I was hungry and you gave me food...    
‘I noticed the old Bake House where bread was baked and distributed to the poor and hungry. The buildings are all changed and improved with the progress of time but this old house stands alone to speak out after the lapse of ages of the charity of Brother Rice.’                      
James O’Rourke, 1912.

I was thirsty and you gave me drink...    
‘were we to know the merit and value of only going from one street to another to serve a neighbour for the love of God, we should prize it more than Gold or Silver.’
Edmund Rice, 1810.

A stranger and you welcomed me...   
‘Black Johnny’ was a slave boy purchased by Edmund Rice. Given his freedom he became a devout Christian and benefactor to the poor.
Presentation Sisters, Waterford, 1913.

‘No one would have a word to say to her [Poll Carthy “a notorious and turbulent woman and drunkard”]. Brother Rice saw good in her and gave her religious instruction... she was a source of edification in Waterford until her death.’                          
Presentation Sisters, Waterford, 1913.

Naked and you clothed me...   
‘Br Rice not only educated the poor but he also clothed them, and in every way administered to their wants.’
Mary Frances Burke, 1912.

Sick and you cared for me...  
‘Among the outstanding members of this organisation [Distressed Room-Keepers], Edmund Rice was the most generous …[for] those unfortunate people who lived alone, forgotten even by their neighbours, in dire poverty, but unwilling to seek from the public any assistance for the amelioration of their lonely and wretched condition.’
M C Normoyle, A Tree is Planted

Cholera Epidemic: see M C Normoyle, A Tree is Planted; Richard Brennan, Dungarvan, 1913; Patrick Finn, Thurles, 1913; Br Michael Virgilius Jones, Limerick, 1912

In prison and you visited me...   
‘In Brother Rice’s time the Christian Brothers used to attend and give religious instruction to prisoners and the condemned. The Christian Brothers went to prisoners who were being executed in the early morning to prepare them for death and thus to assist the priests.’
Cornelius Dempsey, 1912.

‘Brother Rice and one of his disciples, Br Murphy, used to instruct the condemned and helped them at the place of execution.’                                 
George Briscoe, 1912/1913.

Whatever you do for the least brethren of mine, you did for me.
‘No small portion of the [Founder’s] debts was caused by expenses incurred in suits to protect the poor, the friendless, the orphan and the widow, or to secure the rights of alms-houses, asylums, or whatever had been left for charitable purposes or pious uses with which he [Edmund Rice] was connected.’
Brother Thomas Joseph Hearn [Memoir]