Abram Joseph Ryan (February 5, 1838 or
August 15, 1839 - April 22,
1886) was an American poet, an
active proponent of the Confederate States of America, and a
Roman Catholic priest. He
has been called the "Poet-Priest of the Confederacy."
Early life
Ryan was born in Norfolk, Virginia, to
Irish immigrants Matthew Ryan and Mary Coughlin Ryan of Clogheen, County Tipperary. He moved with his
family to St. Louis, Missouri, where he was
educated at the Academy of Christian Brothers, then studied for
the priesthood at Niagara University in New York
State. On November 1, 1856, he was ordained a priest in
the Vincentian order.
As a new priest, he taught theology first at the university and then the diocesan seminary in Cape
Girardeau, Missouri, until the start of the American Civil War. Ryan joined
the Confederate Army on September 1,
1862, and served as a chaplain throughout the conflict. His first attempts at poetry—"In Memoriam"
and "In Memory of My Brother"—came in response to his brother's death, killed fighting for the Confederacy.
Post bellum
Starting in 1865, after war's end, Ryan moved from parish to parish
throughout the South, with stays in Biloxi, Mississippi; Nashville, Knoxville, and Clarksville Tennessee; and Macon and Augusta, Georgia. On May 19, 1866, his most
famous poem, "The Conquered Banner", appeared in the pages of the Freeman’s Journal. Published thirteen months after Gen.
Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox,
it captured the spirit of sentimentality and martyrdom then rising in the South. Its exquisite measure was taken, as he told a
friend, from one of the Gregorian hymns. Within months it was being recited or sung
everywhere from parlors to public meetings.
In Augusta, Georgia, he founded The Banner of the South, a religious and political weekly in which he published most of
his poetry. He then retired to St. Mary's parish in Mobile, Alabama, where he continued to write poems in the Lost Cause style for the next two decades. Among the more
memorable are "C.S.A.", "The Sword of Robert E. Lee", and "The South". All centered on themes of heroic martyrdom by men pledged
to defend their native land against a tyrannical invader. As one line goes, "There’s grandeur in graves, there’s glory in gloom."
Within the limits of the Southern Confederacy and the Catholic Church in the United States, no poet was more popular. Ryan also
published several volumes of verse, including Father Ryan's Poems and A Crown for Our Queen.
Later life
In 1880 his old restlessness returned, and he headed north for the twofold object of publishing his poems and lecturing. He
spent December in Baltimore, Maryland, where his
"Poems: Patriotic, Religious, and Miscellaneous" were published. He also delivered his first lecture on "Some Aspects of Modern
Civilization". During this visit he made his home at Loyola College. In
return for the Jesuit fathers' hospitality, he gave a public poetry reading and devoted
the $300 proceeds to establish a poetry medal at the college. On the whole, however, his lecturing tour was not successful, and
in a few months he returned to the South, where he continued to lead a restless life.
Ryan died April 22, 1886, at a Franciscan monastery in Louisville, Kentucky, but his body was returned to St. Mary's in Mobile for burial. In recognition of his loyal service to
the Confederacy, a stained glass window was placed in the Confederate Memorial
Hall in New Orleans, Louisiana, in his
memory. In 1912 a local newspaper launched a drive to erect a statue to him. Dedicated in July 1913, it included a stanza from
"The Conquered Banner" below an inscription that reads: "Poet, Patriot, and Priest."
Tributes
- A memorial plaque has been erected at his former parish, Immaculate Conception Church, in Knoxville, Tennessee.
- Father Ryan High School in Nashville, Tennessee, is named for him.
- A memorial park with a statue of Father Ryan is in downtown Mobile, AL.
Selected works
- Father Ryan's Poems. Mobile, J. L. Rapier & co., 1879.
- Poems: patriotic, religious, miscellaneous. Baltimore, J. B. Piet, 1880.
- A Crown for Our Queen. Publisher and date unknown.
External links
Father Ryan High School website
Works by Abram Joseph
Ryan at Project Gutenberg
This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
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A land without ruins is a land without memories; a land without memories is a land without history.
