Los Angeles herald., 1906-11-30
THE POET PRIEST OF THE SOUTH
ny W. ST. CLAIR CREIGHTON
-ccc,t rneettnu of tbc Nt.,,s .t.t.

we Mcns tluhs thrtNt chuTchs
vows, there had been boys romance.
But that was a sacred confidence. All
YOU may know of it must be CLEANED
from the poem entitled Their story
Runneth Thus"
How well he loved the south! lie
knew her people-aristocrat "po' white
trash" negroes and all He had pene-
trated even the Tennessee mountains
and celebrated open-air mass on hill
side where they had never seen a
Catholic priest I'm his paraphernalia.
AN old woman watched me curiously
all through" he said, "and then came
UP and ventured the question, BE you
n Freemason2 ."
She had once witnessed the impress
sive rites OF q Masonic funeral.
Father Ryan was delicate and much
of an Invalid; but smiled through his
pain and made no sign of distress.
When he had surceased of suffering, he
could be gay and improvised words and
music at the piano. He liked a rigor-
Gus game of whist, and-yes, a relaxing
glass of wine and a sweet pipe. But
his sweetest pipe was indeed, the reed
pipe of the Pagan Pan
Whose notes were sylvan, and it's
heavenly air
More tunable than lark's to shepherds
ear
When wheat is green, when hawthorn
buds appear.
Very ready he was; a marvel I'm
promptu verses ran under his pen,
many of them of great merit, and are
scattered here and there i'm albums,
the cherished possessions of friends
with whom he was intimate.
Father Ryan was no proselyter-only
high-minded priest, a lover of man.
kind and of freedom. His liberal views
f4,1I N.g.. III,
Mother Church. His conception of the
priest life was naturally noble. To a
friend he wrote:
"Ah, me! Without trying, by merely
being gentle and human, and tender to
souls astray, what good priests can
do" Journalism in a priest
is what materialism is in a man. Cen
eral Lee has said that Duty is the
sublimest word in the English Ian
guage.' From that ! must dissent.
Love is the sublimest word in any
language Duty is a legal word, it is
statutory. 1t involves pain and penal
ties. Duty means I must Love means
L will!' Gods grandest name is God
is love- When man, His image, reaches
his highest, the name of the image is
the name of the original: Man is love-
Therefore, above all things-for highest
reasons-a priests life should not be a
mere duty-life; it should be love-
life. Mere duty Is cold. Love is warm.
Duty is a cross. Love is a crown. Duty
calculates. Love laughs at such mathe-
matfcs Duty creeps Love flies. Duty
bargains. Love knows nothing of bar
gains. Duty says, What shall 1 get?'
Love says, L give ALL"
Father Ryan gained ready remuner-
alton from his writings; but his hand
was ever open and he contributed to the
education of several orphans he had
picked up here and there. AS he had
been fearless in battle, so he awaited
death, ever impending for him, with
cheerful equanimity. He was yet under
fifty years of age when he died.
At Christmas time he was called from
Wilmington to Chillicothe, Ohio, to as
sist at some church function, and from
that place, on Christmas eve, 1 received
from him the following note, which is
in some sort expressive of the man:
st. Mary's Church, Chillicothe, o.,
Christmas eve, 'S5.
my Dear Friend:
Many thanks for your Christmas
greeting, and the beautiful fragment of
your poem I wonder why are frag-
ments' more beautiful and more mean
ingful than the full and complete? Par
don this paper Il could find no other)
and pardon my brevity, for l haye hard
work in church this evening. May you
and those you love have all the bless
ings which belong to Christmas day. is
the sincere wish of one who never
writes a thought he does not feel and
mean. Sincerely yours,
"ABRAM j, RYAN"
When spring came Father Ryan bade
adieu to Wilmington, but promised to
return, d. ", for Easter Sunday. He
did not come-in the flesh: for he was
lying dead in Louisville, Ky.,-the shell
of him. His remains were taken to Mo-
bile for burial, and there the children
poured lapfuls of flowers upon his cas-
ket until the grave was filled with
roses; and poets sung of him, orators
eXtoled MIN, orphans wept for him, and