James Ryan (bishop)

James Ryan was born in Thurles, County Tipperary, and came to the United States with his parents at age seven, settling in Louisville, Kentucky.[1] He studied at St. Thomas' and St. Joseph's Colleges in Bardstown, and Preston Park Seminary in Louisville.[1] He was ordained to the priesthood on December 24, 1871.[2] He afterwards spent a few years as a missionary and teacher before accompanying John Lancaster Spalding to the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, in 1877.[1] After serving at Wataga and Danville, he was named rector of St. Columba's Church at Ottawa in 1881.[1]

On February 28, 1888, Ryan was appointed the third Bishop of Alton by Pope Leo XIII.[2] He received his episcopal consecration on the following May 1 from Bishop Spalding, with Bishops William George McCloskey and John Janssen serving as co-consecrators.[2] During his 35-year-long tenure, he established forty new churches and six hospitals, and increased the number of Catholics from 70,000 to over 87,000.[3] He held the first diocesan synod in February 1889.[1] He began raising funds for a new orphanage in 1919 but died before it was completed.[3]

Ryan died at age 75.