The Poet-Priest of the Confederacy

Today marks the death of Abram J. Ryan, the “poet-priest of the South.” Born in Maryland, he was ordained a priest in St. Louis in 1860. An ardent supporter of the South, during the Civil War he served as an un-commissioned chaplain with Confederate troops. His brother’s death in battle affected him deeply. After the war he served in various parishes throughout the South, becoming a major proponent of the “Lost Cause” myth. In addition to editing several Catholic newspapers, he was a popular preacher and writer. But it was as a poet that he was most famous. His poems paid tribute to the Confederacy and its hero dead, including “The Lost Cause” and “The Conquered Banner.” The Catholic Encyclopedia writes:

In the hour of defeat he won the heart of the entire South by his “Conquered Banner,” whose exquisite measure was taken, as he told a friend, from one of the Gregorian hymns. The Marseillaise, as a hymn of victory, never more profoundly stirred the heart of France than did this hymn of defeat the hearts of those to whom it was addressed. It was read or sung in every Southern household, and thus became the apotheosis of the “Lost Cause”. While much of his later war poetry was notable in its time, his first effort, which fixed his fame, was his finest production.

Every schoolboy in the South knew “The Sword of Robert Lee” by heart:

Ryan died on retreat in 1886 and was buried in Mobile. He has a stained glass window in his honor at New Orleans’ Confederate Museum.