walking in edmund’s footsteps As part of the educational and spiritual experience at CBC Fremantle, a series of seven stainless steel columns installed at the front of the campus on Ellen Street tell the story of Blessed Edmund Rice and the women who inspired him with prayer, enlightenment, love and compassion. The founder of the Christian Brothers was motivated by service and faith to break the cycle of poverty and provide education to boys in need on the streets of Waterford in Ireland more than 200 years ago. The story of Edmund is one of courage and love and the elegant columns illustrate seven stages of his life from a childhood on his family farm in County Kilkenny to the incredible venture of launching a school for boys in need, resulting in a legacy of providing liberating education to many thousands of children. Another side of Edmund Rice is that he was hugely inspired by the women in his life, which is aptly conveyed on the opposite panels of the steel artwork, commencing with his mother, Margaret Tierney, a woman of deep faith and service. Her shining light stayed with Edmund throughout his whole life, helping him come to terms with deep personal despair and providing him with a path to God’s will. He sought to build his own family life based on the modelling of his parents, and it was the love of his wife and daughter that fully formed the young man. The loss he suffered
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touchstone | Vol 8 No 1 Winter 2020
when he became a widower after only four years of marriage truly opened his heart to experiencing deep compassion. Other feminine influences that can clearly be seen in Edmund’s life were Nano Nagle, St Teresa of Avila and Mary of Nazareth, contributing a profoundly spiritual, intellectual and human aspect to his values and faith. Capturing the incredible evolution of a farm boy to the founder of a global religious order, the stainless steel columns are etched with illustrations produced by CBC past student, Yusef Hourani (Class of 2016). The talented illustrator took time out from his art studies in Italy in 2019 to sketch the 14 panels and was back on hand for the installation of the piece this year. Aligned along the lawn at the front of the College, the columns can be viewed at either end, and from the correct perspective reveal the faces of Edmund and Jesus Christ, signifying the sense of oneness that can be discovered when one lets God’s will fall into place. The collective artwork is part of an extended Edmund Rice Walk that also takes in the EREA Apology Wall, the Touchstones mosaic and bronze sculpture in the centre of the Cloisters and culminates in the Chapel as the epitome of the College’s faith and history. Future installations for the walk are planned, including a Roll of Honour to commemorate CBC alumni who served and died in military conflict.
