Stephen V. Ryan

Who was Stephen V. Ryan?

Stephen Vincent Ryan, C.M. was a Canadian-born American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Buffalo from 1868 until his death in 1896.

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 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.