Church Roman Catholic Church Predecessor John Timon See Buffalo Ordination June 24, 1849 | Name Stephen Ryan Consecration November 8, 1868 Successor James Edward Quigley | |
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In office 23 April 1847 (1847-04-23)—16 April 1867 (1867-04-16) Born January 1, 1825
Almonte, Ontario, Canada ( 1825-01-01 ) Died April 10, 1896, Buffalo, New York, United States | ||
Stephen Vincent Ryan, C.M. (January 1, 1825 – April 10, 1896) was a Canadian-born American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Buffalo, New York from 1868 until his death in 1896.
Biography
Ryan was born in Almonte, Ontario on January 1, 1825, and later moved with his family to Pennsylvania, where he entered St. Charles Borromeo Seminary at Overbrook in 1841. On May 5, 1846, he joined the Congregation of the Mission (also known as the Lazarists or Vincentians) at Cape Girardeau, Missouri. He was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Francis Kenrick on June 24, 1849, and named Visitor General of the Congregation of the Mission in the United States in 1857.
On March 3, 1868, Ryan was appointed the second Bishop of Buffalo, New York, by Pope Pius IX. He received his episcopal consecration on the following November 8 from Archbishop John McCloskey, with Bishops John Loughlin and John Joseph Lynch, C.M., serving as co-consecrators, at St. Joseph's Cathedral. Ryan unified the Catholic school system and established a commission to supervise the work of parochial schools. He founded the diocesan newspaper called the Catholic Union (later known as the Catholic Union and Echo, the Magnificat, and the Western New York Catholic). He also engaged in a public controversy with Arthur Cleveland Coxe, the Episcopal Bishop of Western New York, over the issue of apostolic succession.
Ryan died at Buffalo, aged 71, and was interred next to Bishop John Timon at St. Joseph's Cathedral. His tenure as Bishop spanned 28 years, the longest in the history of the Buffalo Diocese.