Tea at Trianon: Father Abram Ryan, Priest and Poet

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Father Abram Ryan, Priest and Poet

Fr. Ryan was a priest of Irish descent who gave spiritual assistance to the Catholic soldiers of the Confederacy. He was also a poet and lecturer of note. It is beautiful how the Church goes beyond politics and the hatred of war to aid those in perilous circumstances. According to one article:

Father Abram Ryan was known as the poet-priest of the South. Abram Ryan was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on August 15, 1838, August 5, 1838, or August 15, 1839. His parents, Matthew Ryan and Mary Coughlin, were Irish immigrants. Abram was raised and educated at Christian Brothers School. After studying priesthood at Niagra University in New York State, he attended the Our Lady of Angels Seminary. He was ordained just before the beginning of the Civil War, and entered the Confederate army as a chaplain. He served in this capacity until the end of the war, delivering sacraments to the soldiers on both sides....

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.