Retirement and Death
In February 1838, Edmund Rice left the North Richmond Street community and returned to Mount Sion in Waterford. Aged seventy-six, and by now in poor health, he wrote to the different communities calling for a General Chapter to elect a new Superior General. The Chapter, which opened on July 24, 1838, resulted in the election of Brother Michael Paul Riordan as Rice's successor.
From this time on, Edmund Rice spent an increasing proportion of his time at Mount Sion and the adjoining school, showing a continued interest in the pupils and their teachers. He would also take a short walk each day on the slope of Mount Sion, but his increasingly painful arthritis led the community superior, Brother Joseph Murphy, to purchase a wheelchair for his benefit. At Christmas time, 1841, Rice's health took a turn for the worse, and even though expectations of his imminent death did not turn out to be justified, he was increasingly confined to his room.
After living in a near-comatose state for more than two years (in the constant care of a nurse since May 1842), Rice died at 11 a.m. on August 29, 1844 at Mount Sion, Waterford, where his remains lie in a casket to this day. Large crowds filled the streets around his house in Dublin to honour him.
Read more about this topic: Edmund Ignatius Rice
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