RYAN, PATRICK JOHN. - Bishop, b. 20 Feb. 1831 at Thurles (Ireland), d. 11 Feb. 1911 at Philadelphia. After attending St. Patrick’s College at Carlow, which he left in 1852 as a deacon, he emigrated to the United States.
Ordained priest in Sept. 1853 at St. Louis, he was curate at that Cathedral, parish priest of the church of St. John the Evangelist and, during the Civil War, chaplain to the Southern prisoners, a considerable number of whom he converted. He accompanied Bishop Kenrick as theologian to the Second Council of Baltimore; during the latter’s absence at the Vatican Council, he served as his vicar general. Kenrick’s coadjutor in 1872, he became widely known as a preacher. Having come to Rome in 1883, he returned to his country the following year as titular archbishop of Salamis, took part in the Third Council of Baltimore, and a few months later was transferred to the metropolitan see of Philadelphia, where he gave great impetus to the construction of new churches, founded a foundling hospital near Morristown, and concerned himself with the establishment of schools and recreational clubs for workers. From 1890 until his death he directed the American catholic quarterly review. Because of the zeal with which he supported missionary work among the Indians, R. was appointed by President T. Roosevelt to the « Board of Indian commissioners ».