RYAN, PATRICK JOHN. - Bishop, b. Feb. 20, 1831 at Thurles (Ireland), d. Feb. 11, 1911 at Philadelphia. After attending St. Patrick's College at Carlow, from which he left as a deacon in 1852, he emigrated to the United States.
A priest in Sept. 1853 at St. Louis, he was a curate in that cathedral, pastor of the church of St. John the Evangelist and, during the Civil War, chaplain of the Confederate prisoners, a good number of whom he converted. He accompanied Bishop Kenrick, as theologian, to the II Council of Baltimore; during the absence of the latter, who had gone to the Vatican Council, he was his vicar general. Coadjutor of Kenrick in 1872, he became widely known as a preacher. Having come to Rome in 1883, he returned to his homeland the following year as titular archbishop of Salamis, took part in the III Council of Baltimore and was transferred a few months later to the metropolitan see of Philadelphia, where he gave great impetus to the construction of new churches, founded an orphanage near Morristown, and took an interest in the establishment of schools and recreation centers 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 called by President T. Roosevelt to be a member of the "Board of Indian commissioners."
Bibliography
Silvio Furlani