The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-07-26
Bishop Feehan and Father Ryan.

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Bishop Feehan and Father Ryan.
| q GATHERED throughout the coun-
ia try may be found d few survivors
of the Army of the Cumberland
who were in Nashville at the time Fa-
| Their Feehan, afterward Archbishop
| Feehan, was consecrated bishop of the
Tennessee capital. The civil war was
over then and the only Catholic church
in the city was the cathedral The
church had been seized in 1854 by the
federal army and used as military
hospital and for some time the Cath
Ole residents of the city had to cross
the Cumberland river bridge and attend
mass in a little chapel in a suburban
town. However, this did not happen
during the time the Catholic General
Rosecrans was in command, and we
believe Bishop Feehan afterward put
in a claim which was awarded by con-
gress upon recommendation of the war
department.
Before Father Feehand came from
st. Louis and was consecrated bishop
of Nashville there dwelt in the rectory
a priest whose presence in the pulpit
no Catholic could ever forget. Tall and
spare. with hair brushed back and al
most falling to his shoulders, eyes that
flashed with the earnestness of his
words and cheeks aglow with the hec-
tic flush of consumption, the poet of
the Lost Cause urged sinners to love
of Christ in much the same language
as Father Faber uses in his book, All
for Jesus But there was a poem in
those sermons which Father Faber,
nor no other priest, no matter how gift
ed, could initiate. This man was Fa-
Their Ryan, beloved by the new bishop
and idolized by all the people of the
south. AS John Boyle O'Reilly gave his
best efforts in poetry to the land of MS
birth, so did Father Ryan throw halo
about the sunny south and its con-
quered heroes that will endure so long
as brave men and virtuous women live
to repeat to their children THE Con-
ouered Banner" and the Sword of
Lee" These two we regard as the
most striking of Father Ryan's poems
Bishop Feehan compassionately re-
moved the irksome parish duties from
his beloved priest and allowed the
dying poet to finish his days in the
work which has placed him in the fore
most ranks of American poets. We be-
lieve Father Ryan died before Bishop
Feehan was transferred to the arch
diocese of Chicago.
Prelate and poet-priest have gone to
their reward. Some say that person
on his deathbed loves to think of those
things which gave him pleasure in the
days of his youth an dearly manhood,
and the characters of such times rise
out of their graves in the same form
and speak in the same way and smile
with the same smile as they did in
vigorous life. 1t is happy transition
from pain to such thoughts. As the
great archbishop of Chicago lay pros
trate and calmly waiting the end, his
mind must rave wandered at times
from the majestic Catholic diocese
which began with his administration,
back to the modest cathedral at Nash
vile, Tenn: back to that consumptive
priest whom he loved as the apple of
his eye Back of that priest with the
same long hair, tall, spare figure, and
marveiously intellectual face, stood an
angelic choir chanting the "Magnifi-
cat Perhaps the sick prelate could,
in fancy, hear that same choir putting
the words of Father Ryan's lyrics to
music before the vision was shut out,
and he heard for the last time THE
Conquered Banner" and 1.-THE Sword
of Lee"
The writer who was printers ap-
prentice at the time, put 1.-THE Con-
quered Banner" in type from the origi-
nal manuscript. 1t was first published
in the Nashville Gazette, one of whose
proprietors was a devout Catholic.
Yet how few Catholics at this day
know aught of Father Ryan; how few
volumes of his OPENS do we see in
Catholic homes, in the northern states. |
But in the south his memory is cher
ished by the survivors of The Lost
Cause in the same spirit as the liter
airy Celt treasures the poems of John
Boyle OReilly.