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FOURTEEN THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA FEBRUARY 2f, 1939
Centennial Year
« "
Father Tobin Recalls Famed
Poet-Priest of Confederacy
of Birth
Florence, S. C., Pastor Writes Most Interestingly of
Beloved Author of “The Sword of Lee”, “The Con
quered Banner” and Oth er Historic Poems ,
BY FATHER W. A. TOBIN
Father Ryan, the poet of the Con
federacy, was bom a hundred years
ago. “The Tom Moore of Dixie,”
Governor Bob Taylor, of Tennessee,
called him, “whose spirit shall keep
watch over the Stars'and Bars until
the morning of the Resurrection.”
A Baptismal certificate is about as
good a witness to the time and local
ity of a child's birth as th# average
man could desire; so the writer in
the Catholic Encyclopedia must stand
corrected. Hagerstown, Maryland is
the place where Abram J. Ryan first
saw the light, and the year was 1838.
The records kept by the Vincentian
Fathers of Germantown, Pennsyl
vania, (Father Ryan was a Lazarist
for a short time) verify the most re
cent findings.
The Ryans weren’t very long over
from Clonmel in Ireland (the name
is still common in that neck of the
woods) when the future poet was
born. It is clear from Father Ryan’s
poems that his mother, whose maiden
name was Coughlin, was a woman of
remarkably strong faith and charac
ter. Like the unhappy Cowper, her
image in later life was often before
him, and he sighed for her presence.
'“Oh! would that my mother were
here;
Is God like a mother? Has He _
Any love for a sinner like me?”
Father Ryan had a brother named
David, and a sister who became a nun
in the community known as the Sis
ters of St. Joseph of Carondelet.
Those Sisters, by the way, celebrated
the centenary of their foundation in
1936. and their membership is now
away up in the thousands.
Talking about this sister of Father
. Rvan reminds me of Robert Hugh
Benson’s statement, in one of his
many books dealing with mystical
subjects, that stories of haunted
houses are just that—stories; but that
there is good ground for believing
that individual dying men and wo
men have sometimes the power of
appearing to loved ones living many
miles aw'ay, and thus making known
their sad predicament. The writer
has talked to many men and women
of apparently sound faculties who
professed to experiences of this kind.
Father Ryan, a mystic if ever there
was one, was apprised of the death
of his sister (who died young) in this
mysterious fashion, and he narrates
the strange occurence in his lines'-
“Presentiment.”
The brother, David, was killed in
battle fighting for the Confederacy.
His death profoundly influenced the
career of Father Ryan, and increas
ed his passionate attachment to the
Lost Cause. In Memoriam (David J.
Ryan. C. S. A.) is a fine poem; but
“In Memory of My Brother is still
finer, and has a haunting, swinging
lilt to it . Hannis Taylor, once
America's minister plenipotentiary to
Spain, and probably our greatest ju
ristic historian, does not hesitate to
class the verses beginning "Young as
the youngest who donned the Gray,
True as the truest that wore it” with
Charles Wolfe’s immortal ode: "The
Burial of Sir John Moore".
Father Ryan's health was none too
good in his youth, and the melan
choly sentiments which he weaves
into many of his verses would seem
to argue that an advance in years
did not better it. Not precisely that
there is anything morbid about his
reflections on death and the fleetness
of earthly joys, but the possessor ol
an unclouded liver and a heart un
broken by the trials of life is never
quite so serious and downhearted as
Father Ryan can at times be: but
then there are some people to whom
“the sweet music of humanity” makes
an especial appeal.
So frail was Father Ryan's health
at the time of his elevation to the
priesthood that he was compelled to
sit during the ordination ceremony.
At forty, notes Hannis Taylor, who
knew the poet-priest well, he looked
like a man of seventy.
It is not good for man to be alone,
says the Good Book; and the young
Levite who abandons home and fam
ily ties for the sake of the Master is
certainly to be commended for his
spirit of sacrifice; but it is doubtful
jf the average young candidate for
'the priesthood ever views his abne
gation in the light of the heroic, and
feels much as Abraham felt when
about to draw the knife across the
throat of Isaac. If there is anything
autobiographical in “Their Story
Runneth Thus”, Abram J. Ryan in
his early teens was different. Ethel
and Merlin knew well what they
were about; and they fully realized
that ‘the crucifix’s wardens and
watchers like Him must be heart
crucified.”
Civil strife was in the air around
the time of Father Ryan's ordination,
and he speedily volunteered for a
chaplaincy in the Confederate forces.
There wasn’t a trace of fear in his
composition, and bullets and bayonets
and the disease that stalks in the
wake of armies all came alike to him.
At Gratiot State Prison, during a
small-pox epidemic in 1862 after the
regular chaplain had fled Father
Ryan pitched in, and comforted the
dying and buried the dead. It was all
in a day’s work for his beloved
South.
He gave a somewhat similar sample
of his fearlessness and charity in lat
er life. A notorious courtesan, strick
en during one of the yellow fever
epidemics that once ravaged mosquito
infected lands, was left to her fate by
her companions. Father Ryan
smoothed her dying pillow, prepar
ed her for the final journey, and then
preached a sermon over her remains,
so eloquent that someone has said it
were not unworthy of Bossuet. Not
for nothing had Father Ryan written
his poem “At Last” about another
Magdalen.
Here is a theme fit for the medita
tions of a Massenet: but Father
Ryan was too devoted a clergyman
ever to risk the rash madness of an
Athanael
“I want no name, no other fame.
Than this, a priest of God.”
“Poeta nascitur non fit.” This was
pre-eminently true of Father Ryan.
He wrote easily and usually hur
riedly. Poetry was merely a side
line with him. Souls were always
more to me than songs he tells us,
and “my feet know more of the hum
ble steps that lead up to the Altar
and its Mysteries than of the steps
that lead up to Parnassus and the
Home of the Muses’ . His position
with posterity would be much more
assured if there were evidences of
the patient craftsmanship of the poet
Gray, for instance; and he might have
ranked—such was his genius—even
with Edgar Allan Poe if stern neces
sity had driven him to seek his live
lihood from his pen.
Take, for example, what is prob
ably his most brilliant effort, "The
Conquered Banner”. “I wrote it in
little over an hour and out of a
broken heart,” he informs us. The
news of Lees surrender at Appomat
tox had just come in, and the Knox
ville Church choir were practicing
a Gregorian hymn in the rectory
parlor. Father Ryan seized the first
bit of paper at hand, and dashed off
the lines that were to make his name
a household word overnight in the
South:
"Furl that banner, for 'tis weary.”
Sir, Richard Houghton, the emi
nent British critic, considered “The
Conquered Banner” the finest thing
that came out of the internecine
struggle between North and South.
Father Ryan's love of Ireland
seems to have been about on a par
with his devotion to Dixie. The way
he finds fourteen words in his “Erin's
Flag” to rhyme with ‘ tread”, and in
a rousing crescendo ends it all up
with “Dell lift up the screen, and
we'll tear down the Red” is enough
to delight the heart of the most ard
ent Fenian. Canon Sheehan's “An
Ancient Rebel” is hardly more stir
ring.
The following is a verse from Fath
er Ryan’s: The Song of the Death
less Voice:
“Aye, this very hand that trembles
thro’ this my line
Lay hid, ages gone, in the hand of
some forefather Celt,
With a sword in its grasp, if strong
er, not truer than mine
And I feel, with my pen, what the
old heroes’ sworded hand felt.”
Father Ryan was making an eight
day's Retreat in a Franciscan mon
astery when Death found him. At
the time, too, he was working on
a prose life of Christ. His hands
clasped a crucifix.
Fourteen years before his death,
Father Ryan paid a visit to the Eter
nal City. For one reason or another
his lines, In Rome, have always ap
pealed to me: and, as I haven’t found
much space for quotations from his
writings in this letter, let me cull a
quatrain from this particular poem:
“Here Pagan pride, with sceptre,
stood,
And fame would not forsake it.
Until a simple cross of wood
Came from the East to break it.”
All things considered, poets have a
difficult furrow to hoe. Here in
America, anyhow, they must live in
a pragmatical atmosphere, where
dreams are at a discount, and it's dol
lars to doughnuts that a banker or
mill owner ranks higher than a seer
or a professor. Then too it seems to
me that the young like poetry 'bet
ter than the old, and women are
keener on it than men: but, handi
caps or no handicap, Father Ryan is
one of the brightest jewels in our
diadem, and his memory should be
kept green.
DR. STEPHEN MAHER, nationally
known as a tuberculosis authority,
who received the Laetare Medal from
tire University of Notre Dame in 1932,
was named a Knight of St. Gregory
by Pope Pius XI, one of the last hon
ors conferred by the Holy Father.
The Rev. W. A. Tobin, pastor
of St. Anthony’s Church, Flor
ence, S. C., the author of the
accompanying article on Fath
er Abram Ryan, is a regular
contributor to The Southern
Cross. Capetown, South Africa,
cf which he is American cor
respondent, and other leading
publications in the United
States, Europe and South Afri
ca. The article on Father Ryan,
in addition to being publish
ed in Catholic publications,
has been printed in full in the
Morning News of Florence, s.
C. There is some doubt nhout
the date of his birth; the Cath
olic Encyclopedia gives it Au
gust 15, 1833, at Norfolk, Va.
Other authorities say Hagers
town, Md. At any rate, wheth
er he was bom in 183S or 1839,
this may be considered his
centennial year.
CHAMBERLAIN LAUDS
PIUS XI IN GOMMONS
Deeply Moved by His Cour
age and Humanity, British
Premier Says
(By N. C. W. C. News Service)
LONDON.—The House of Commons
cheered as Premier Neville Cham
berlin paid a tribute to the Holy
Father when he reported to the
House on his recent visit to Rome,
the day before the death of the Pope.
“No account of this visit of ours
would be complete without some
reference to our reception by His
Holiness the Pope and the Cardinal
Secretary of State at the Vatican.
“It was a privilege which neither
of us will easily forget to hear from
the lips of His Holiness the expres
sion of admiration and affection
which he entertained for their Ma
jesties the King and Queen and for
the peoples of the British Empire
“Nor could we doubt the sincerity
and depth of His Holiness's pre-oc
cupations with many of the problems
which are troubling in these days
the peace of Europe and the con
science of mankind.
“We were deeply moved by the
courage and humanity which ani
mated his bearing and outlook.”
Pope Gave $5,000 for
Refugees Only Two
Days Before Death
(By N. C. W. C. News Service)
LONDON.—Just two days before
his death. His Holiness Pope Pius
XI gave ?5,000 for the relief of Cath
olic refugees from Germany and
Austria, it was revealed here.
The President of the Council
of the Ireland Society of St.
Vincent de Paul told of the re
ceipt of the donation to aid the so
ciety’s relief work among Central
European victims.
Solons of Maryland
Honor Pope Pius XI
Legislature There Adjourns
for the Week-End
(By N. C. W. C. News Service)
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — As a gesture
to “record its sense of the great loss
which the world has suffered" in the
death of Pope Pius XI, the Legisla
ture of Maryland, a state known as
the “Cradle of Catholicism” in
America, adopted resolutions “of
sorrow” in the death of the Pontiff
and adjourned for the week-end.
A senate resolution said in the
death of Pope Pius “the world has
lost one of its most powerful leaders
in behalf of peace, piety, tolerance
and justice.”
Father Tobin
KING AND MUSSOLINI DEATH IS GREAT LOSS,
AT MASS FOR POPE TO LABOR, SAYS A.F.L
Nine Requiems Offered at
St. Peter’s for Repose of
Soul of Supreme Pontiff
(Radio, N. C. W. C. News Service)
VATICAN CITY. — King Victor
Emanuel III and Queen Elena of
Italy attended a Solemn Pontifical
Mass of Requiem celebrated in the
Church of Sant’Andrea della Valle
in Rome, for the repose of the soul
of Pope Pius XI. Premier Benito
Mussolini also attended as d'd other
national leaders.
His Excellency the Most Rev.
Francesco Borgongini Duca, Papal
Nuncio to Italy, was celebrant of
the Mass. Following the Mass His
Excellency gave absolution at the
catafalque. It was a day of national
mourning in Italy. Schools were
closed and everywhere flags were
flown at half-staff.
At the Vatican Basilica there were
celebrated nine requiems of which
the Vatican Chapter had charge. The
last three Novendials were in charge
of the Sacred College of Cardinals.
Present at the requiem Mass in the
Church of Sant'Andrea della Valle
were United States Ambassador
William Phillips, Edward L. Reed,
Counselor of the American Embassy;
Col- George H. Paine. Military At
tache of the United States Embassy,
and Capt. Thomas C. Kinkaid, Naval
Attaches at the United States Em
bassy.
CHARLESTON MASS
FOR HOLY FATHER
Bishop Walsh Officiates,
Monsignor O’Brien Deliv
ers the Sermon
(Special to The Bulletin)
CHARLESTON. S. C. — The Most
Rev. Emmet M. Walsh, D. D., Bishop
of Charleston, officiated at the Ponti
fical Mass of Requiem Febti^ury 15
for the repose of the soul of the Holy
Father at the Cathedral of St. John
the Baptist; the parochial schools and
Bishop England High School closed
the day of the Mass, tire Cathedral
was filled to its capacity for the cere
mony.
The Rt. Rev. Msgr. Joseph L.
O'Brien, S. T. D.. LL.D., rector of
Bishop England High School, deliv
ered the sermon. The Rt. Rev. Msgr.
James J. May, V. G., rector of the
Cathedral, was arch-priest, the Rev.
Jeremiah Ward Cleary. S. C., Sp., and
the Rev. Alexis J. Westbury deacons
of the Mass, and the Rev. John J.
McCarthy, master of ceremonies.
Executive Council Adopts
Resolution at Miami
Meeting
(By N. C. W. C. News Service)
MIAMI.—The death of Pope Pius
XI was a great loss to the working
classes, it is stated in minutes adopt
ed at the meeting here of the Ex
ecutive Council of the American
Federation of Labor.
“The Executive Council,” the
minutes state, “was shocked and
greatly grieved by the sudden pass
ing of Pope Pius XI. It joins with all
our people—regardless of faith or of
religious affiliations — in expressing
deep sorrow for the loss of this great
religious and spiritual leader.
“Pope Fius was not alone the lead
er of the Catholic world, he was
likewise a great champion for and
defender of wage earners the world
over. His life's work for humanity,
for peace, for democracy, for relief
to the suffering and oppressed will
long be remembered by all classes
and by none more than the working
people. His death is a great loss and
is received by labor in America in
terms of deepest sympathy.”
Augusta Printer on
Makeup for News of
Passing of 3 Popes
AUGUSTA, Ga. —Joseph Atkinson,
veteran printer in the composing
room of The Augusta Chronicle, had
the front page of the. February 10 is
sue practically made up when the
news flash of the Pope’s death came.
Then for the third time he made up
the page for the death of a Pope. The
first time was in 1903. when he made
up the issue of The Chronicle which
announced the death of Pope Leo
XIII, who died at 4:04 the afternoon
of July 30 of that year. This did not
require the front page to be made
over. But Pope Pius X died at 1:30
in the morning of August 20, 1914, Au
gusta time, and Mr. Atkinson ripped
open tr.e front page to remove sto
ries to make room for the sad news
from the Vatican. It was an exciting
day in the office, for the news sharing
the front page with that of the death
was the election of Nat Harris as gov- -
ernor and Hoke Smith as United
States Senator. Mr. Atkinson was
having a day off the day Pope Ben
edict XV died, back in 1922.
PRAYERS for the Pope were re
quested for February 12 in all
churches by the National Conference
of Christians and Jews by the nation
al secretary, the Rev. Dr. Everett R.
Clinchy, a Protestant minister, when
news of his serious illness was an
nounced.
of Father Ryan
Church at Florence, S. C.
St. Anthony’s, the Rev. W. A. Tobin, Pastor