Columba Ryan (born Patrick Ryan, 13 January 1916 in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...

– 4 August 2009) was a British priest of the Dominican Order and a philosophy teacher, university chaplain, and pastor. He was the brother of John Ryan, the British animator and cartoonist.

Life

Patrick Ryan was born in

in 1916, the second son of Sir Andrew Ryan, a British diplomat who was the last

dragoman A dragoman was an Interpreter (communication), interpreter, translator, and official guide between Turkish language, Turkish-, Arabic language, Arabic-, and Persian language, Persian-speaking countries and polity, polities of the Middle East and ...

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

, and his wife Ruth. Patrick was educated at

Ampleforth Ampleforth is a village and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, north of York. The village is situated on the edge of the North York Moors National Park. The parish has a population of 883 according to the 2001 census, increasing to 1, ...

in North Yorkshire. In 1935 he entered the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...

at Woodchester Priory in Gloucestershire where he was given the name Columba. His uncle was

Patrick Finbar Ryan Patrick Finbar Ryan, TC, O.P., (1881–1975) was an Irish Dominican priest who served as Archbishop of Port of Spain, Trinidad (1940–1966). On 4 March 1881, Patrick Ryan was born in Rochestown, County Cork to Edward Ryan and Matilda Ryan. ...

OP, Archbishop of Port of Spain, Trinidad. At the age of 30 (in 1946) he completed his DPhil at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

. He was one of the friars who was on the Peace Pilgrimage to

Vézelay Vézelay () is a Communes of France, commune in the Departments of France, department of Yonne in the north-central French region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. It is a defensible hill town famous for Vézelay Abbey. The town and its 11th-century Ro ...

Burgundy Burgundy ( ; ; Burgundian: ''Bregogne'') is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. ...

, selecting "30 strong men" to carry a heavy wooden cross across France in thanksgiving for the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Ryan had an analytical mind and enjoyed philosophical controversy and debate. While teaching philosophy at the Dominican House of Studies at

Hawkesyard Priory Hawkesyard Priory was a Dominican priory off Armitage Lane Brereton, Rugeley, Staffordshire, England, built between 1896 and 1914 which included the Roman Catholic Priory Church of St Thomas. History Spode House Originally named "Hawksyard", i ...

in 1954, he set up a Philosophical Enquiry Group, an annual meeting for Catholic philosophers held at the nearby Spode House. The Catholic philosophers

Elizabeth Anscombe Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe (; 18 March 1919 – 5 January 2001), usually cited as G. E. M. Anscombe or Elizabeth Anscombe, was a British analytic philosopher. She wrote on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of action, philosophi ...

and

Peter Geach Peter Thomas Geach (29 March 1916 – 21 December 2013) was a British philosopher who was Professor of Logic at the University of Leeds. His areas of interest were philosophical logic, ethics, history of philosophy, philosophy of religion and ...

were among the first invited, remaining leading figures of the group for the 20 years. He was also bursar at the priory. He was briefly in charge of studies at

Blackfriars, Oxford Blackfriars Priory (formally the Priory of the Holy Spirit) is a Dominican religious community in Oxford, England. Its primary work is the administration of two educational institutions: Blackfriars Studium, a centre of theological studies in th ...

, where he was pro-regent of studies, then became chaplain to the Catholic students at the

University of Strathclyde The University of Strathclyde () is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal charter in 1964 as the first techn ...

. Ryan's contribution to philosophy and theology was more through his influence on the people he taught, although a short piece 'The Traditional Concept of Natural Law: an Interpretation' (which he claimed to have written on the train before he gave it as a lecture) has been influential. His students included Herbert McCabe and Timothy McDermott, both translators of the Blackfriars Summa, and

Fergus Kerr Fergus Gordon Thomson Kerr (born 16 July 1931) is a Scottish Roman Catholic priest of the English Dominican province. He has published significantly on a wide range of subjects, but is famous particularly for his work on Ludwig Wittgenstein and ...

. He was an early pioneer of religious broadcasting, producing and narrating films about the religious life.Catholic Herald 2009 He died, aged 93, on what was then the Feast of

St Dominic Saint Dominic, (; 8 August 1170 – 6 August 1221), also known as Dominic de Guzmán (), was a Castilian Catholic priest and the founder of the Dominican Order. He is the patron saint of astronomers and natural scientists, and he and his orde ...

References

Obituary

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

, August 19, 2009.
Independent Catholic News
August 10, 2009 * Anthony J. Lisska, ''Aquinas's theory of natural law: an analytic reconstruction''
The Catholic Herald
September 2009

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryan, Columba 1916 births 2009 deaths English Dominicans People from Hampstead Catholic philosophers Thomists University and college chaplains in the United Kingdom