This Goodly Land

Father Abram J. Ryan (February 5, 1838–April 22, 1886)

Other Names Used

• Matthew Abraham Ryan: birth and baptismal name
• Abram Joseph Ryan: name used as an adult
• Moina: pen name

Alabama Connections

• Mobile, Mobile County: adult residence

Selected Works

• Ryan, Abram J. Father Ryan's Poems. Mobile: J. L. Rapier & Co., 1879. An online version of Father Ryan's Poems is available from Documenting the American South.
• Ryan, Abram J. Poems: Patriotic, Religious, Miscellaneous. Baltimore: J. B. Piet, 1880. Rpt. New York: P. J. Kenedy, 1880. Rpt. Baltimore: Baltimore Pub. Co., 1888. Rpt. New York: P. J. Kenedy, 1896. An online version of Poems: Patriotic, Religious, Miscellaneous is available from Google Books.
• Ryan, Abram Joseph. Selected Poems of Father Ryan. Ed. Gordon Weaver. Jackson: University and College Press of Mississippi, 1973.

Biographical Information

Abram J. Ryan was born at Hagerstown, Md., where his father worked as a plantation overseer. His family moved to Ralls City, Mo., in 1840, then settled in St. Louis in 1846. Ryan attended Catholic schools and was encouraged to enter the priesthood. He studied theology at the Seminary of Our Lady of Angels (now Niagara University) in western New York State and was ordained a priest in the Vincentian Order in St. Louis in 1860. Traveling on missions for the Vincentians, he developed a reputation as an exciting preacher. However, Ryan’s Confederate sympathies clashed with those of his superiors. In 1862, he left the Order and became a parish priest at St. Mary’s Church in Peoria, Ill. A false story that Ryan was a Confederate spy destroyed his reputation, and he was sent to Tennessee. Ryan did parish work and ministered to Confederate troops, although he never enlisted as an official chaplain. After Lee’s surrender in 1865, Ryan wrote “The Conquered Banner,” the first of his “Lost Cause” poems. In 1867, Ryan was transferred to a parish in Augusta, Ga., where he was a popular speaker and was editor for the Catholic weekly Banner of the South. He used the paper to express his Anti-Reconstruction views, however, and was dismissed from the parish in 1870.

Ryan became a curate of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile, Ala., and also served as editor of the New Orleans diocese newspaper. His health failed, and he spent the winter of 1872/73 recuperating in Italy. Ryan’s bishop then sent him to New York State for a year to do parish fundraising. Back in Mobile, Ryan’s Anti-Reconstruction speeches led to his removal from the diocese newspaper and an end to his political lectures. In 1877, he was made pastor of St. Mary’s Church on the outskirts of Mobile. He collected his poems for publication in book form, and Father Ryan’s Poems was published in Mobile in 1879. A second edition, rearranged and with a new title and several new poems, was published the following year by a Baltimore firm. Travels associated with its publication and with fundraising strained Ryan’s fragile health. He retired from St. Mary’s to live in Biloxi, Miss., where he worked on a devotional book. After its publication, he began traveling again to raise funds for various charities. He was frequently ill, necessitating lengthy visits with friends to recover. Ryan died at a Franciscan monastery in Louisville, Ky., in 1886. His body was returned to Mobile for burial.

Interests and Themes

Father Abram J. Ryan wrote poems on political, religious, and personal subjects. His most famous poems assert the nobility of the “Lost Cause” of the Confederacy.

For More Information

Please check your local library for these materials. If items are not available locally, your librarian can help you borrow them through the InterLibrary Loan program. Your librarian can also help you find other information about this author.

There may be more information available through the databases in the Alabama Virtual Library. If you are an Alabama citizen, AVL can be used at your public library or school library media center. You can also get a username and password from your librarian to use AVL at home.

Reference Books

• Gleeson, Ed. Erin Go Gray!: An Irish Rebel Trilogy. Carmel: Guild Press of Indiana, 1997.
• O'Connell, David. Furl That Banner: The Life of Abram J. Ryan, Poet-Priest of the South. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2006.

Reference Articles

• Lipscomb, Oscar H. "Some Unpublished Poems of Abram J. Ryan". Alabama Review 25.3. (1972): 163-177.
• Williams, Benjamin B. "Alabama Civil War Poets". Alabama Review 15.4. (1962): 243-252.

Reference Book Chapters and Encyclopedia Entries

• Williams, Benjamin Buford. "Civil War Poetry"; A Literary History of Alabama: The Nineteenth Century. Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, . 124-130.

Location of Papers

• Spring Hill College, Mobile, Ala.

Photo from Poets of the South, 1903.

Last updated on Oct 10, 2009.