Father Abram J. Ryan
The poet-priest of the South, born at Norfolk, Virginia, 15 August, 1839;
died at Louisville, Kentucky, 22 April, 1886. He inherited from his
parents, in its most poetic and religious form, the strange witchery of the
Irish temper. Fitted for the priesthood by a nature at once mystic and
spiritual, be was ordained just before the beginning of the Civil War,
entered the Confederate army as a chaplain, and served in this capacity
until the end of the war. In the hour of defeat he won the heart of the
entire South by his "Conquered Banner," whose exquisite measure was taken,
as he told a friend, from one of the Gregorian hymns. The Marseillaise, as
a hymn of victory, never more profoundly stirred the heart of France than
did this hymn of defeat the hearts of those to whom it was addressed. It
was read or sung in every Southern household, and thus became the
apotheosis of the "Lost Cause". While much of his later war poetry was
notable in its time, his first effort, which fixed his fame, was his finest
production. The only other themes upon which he sang were those inspired by
religious feeling. Among his poems of that class are to be found bits of
the most weird and exquisite imagery. Within the limits of the Southern
Confederacy and the Catholic Church in the United States, no poet was more
popular. After the war he exercised the ministry in New Orleans, and was
editor of "The Star," a Catholic weekly; later he founded "The Banner of
the South" in Augusta, Georgia, a religious and political weekly; then he
retired to Mobile. In 1880 he lectured in several Northern cities. As a
pulpit orator and lecturer, he was always interesting and occasionally
brilliant. As a man he had a subtle, fascinating nature, full of magnetism
when he saw fit to exert it; as a priest, he was full of tenderness,
gentleness, and courage. In the midst of pestilence he had no fear of death
or disease. Even when he was young his feeble body gave him the appearance
of age, and with all this there was the dreamy mysticism of the poet so
manifest in the flesh as to impart to his personality something which
marked him off from all other men. His "Poems, Patriotic, Religious, and
Miscellaneous" have reached dozens of printings.
HANNIS TAYLOR
Transcribed by John Mark Ockerbloom
From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the Encyclopedia Press,
Inc. Electronic version copyright � 1996 by New Advent, Inc., P.O. Box
281096, Denver, Colorado, USA, 80228. (
[email protected])
Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).
This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an effort
aimed at placing the entire Catholic Encyclopedia 1913 edition on
the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight, editor of the
New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to contribute to this
worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-mail at
(knight.org/advent). For more information please download the file
cathen.txt/.zip.
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