January 25 is the anniversary of Michael A. Ryan.

Michael Aloysius Ryan, son of James Ryan and Mary Kinsella, was born in Chestnut Hill, PA, on April 29, 1871. He entered Villanova College in 1888 and was received into the novitiate at Villanova on September 3, 1891. Following his philosophical and theological studies he was ordained to the priesthood in the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, Philadelphia, by Archbishop Ryan on May 30, 1896, and he offered his first Mass the next day.

It was as a member of and eventually director of the Augustinian Mission Band that Father Ryan devoted twenty-two years of his fruitful apostolate. A striking figure with his powerful physique, snow-white hair from his novitiate days, and his clear, incisive, and pleasing voice, Father Ryan was known for the cheeriness of his smile and his cordial manner with priests and people alike. Tireless in preaching mission in the diocese of Buffalo, Hartford, Boston, Rochester, Philadelphia, New York, Brooklyn, and Chicago, he would on occasion give a two-week mission in the Black Church of Saint Benedict the Moor in Manhattan, and immediately follow up by ministering to the first Catholic Mission at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining.

At the close of his labors in the mission field, Father Ryan was appointed rector of Good Counsel Parish, Staten Island (1918-1921). He was then transferred to Saint Joseph Parish, Greenwich, NY. There, he installed a magnificent bell in the church tower. Suddenly thereafter, he caught pneumonia and was dead in four days, not yet 53 years of age, on January 25, 1924.

Father Ryan is buried in the monastery cemetery at Villanova University.

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