John Arnold: Cork priest who built a mighty community in San Francisco

The year 1885 was a very important time in the lives of two men who never met for another quarter of a century.

They were Edward Joseph Hanna and Richard Ryan - one born to Irish parents in America and the other born in County Cork.

For 25-year-old Hanna, born in Rochester, New York, to Irish parents, 1885 was the year of his ordination to the priesthood. For 17 years, until 1912, he was Theology Professor at St Bernard’s Seminary.

Elected as Auxiliary Bishop of San Francisco by Pope Pius X, he was appointed Bishop in 1914 when Bishop Patrick William Riordan died. Bishop Riordan’s father Matthew was from Kinsale and his mother from Stradbally in Laois.

Getting back to 1885, it was on July 25 of that year that Richard Ryan was born in the family’s thatched farmhouse at Ballinakilla, Bartlemy. His parents were Richard and Bridget (O’Connell).

Ten days after his birth, Daniel Ryan, Richard’s grandfather, died in the same house. Daniel was 85, born in the year 1800 - he was present in the family haggard on December 18, 1834, when his own brother Richard was one of the nine men shot dead in what became known as ‘The Massacre of Gortroe’, the bloodiest and most tragic conflict in the Tithe War.

Young Richard was one of a family of six. He was born just four decades after the Great Famine of the 1840s, so between tales of the woeful killings outside the family home and the memory of death and hunger, he grew up with a profound sense of right and justice.

Richard attended the local National School in Monannig which was about three miles ‘across the fields’. In his class was a girl named Maggie Farrell. They were the same age and classmates used to tease her, saying she was ‘Richard’s girlfriend’!

Richard went on the be a priest and in 1915 Maggie married Richard’s brother, Patrick (Pad) Ryan!

After attending St Colman’s College, Fermoy, Richard studied for the priesthood in the seminary in Thurles and was ordained there in 1910. His father died in 1902.

Like so many other young priests at the time, and for decades after, Fr Ryan was ordained for ‘overseas duties’. He sailed from Ireland to America to take up his priestly duties in Petalooma, San Francisco.

He was assistant pastor in the Church of the Visitacion in 1912 when a local baker, Louis Hildebrand, made ‘defamatory accusations’ against Fr Ryan. A court case was initiated but Hildebrand made a public written apology admitting what he had said was completely false.

Later, the young priest served in Cazadero. In the early 1920s he travelled home to Ireland. A newspaper reported thus:

“Priest is Touring In His Native Land; Cazadero, April 23 - Rev Richard Ryan, former pastor of the Russian River parish, has reached Rathcormac, Ireland, after touring Europe , according to word received yesterday. He will remain for several months in his native land, and upon his return will be assigned to a pastorate in San Francisco’.

It may well have been on his return trip to the U.S that Fr Ryan smuggled despatches across the world for Éamon de Valera. He got a local shoemaker to create a ‘false bottom’ in his shoe and therein the precious messages were hidden.

After a term in Guerneville parish, the priest born in 1885 was summoned before Archbishop Hanna, who was ordained in that same year.

Hanna gave Fr Ryan the task of forming a Catholic Parish Community for the 125 families in the Sunset District of San Francisco. He accepted the challenge and Fr Ryan devoted the rest of his life to a ministry of religion and education in an area that was quickly expanding.

He decided on a name for his new patch, ‘The Holy Name of Jesus Parish’. There was no ‘ecclesiastical’ building of any sort so he rented a premises – a community hall at Kirkham Street and 45th Avenue.

On Monday October 26, 1925 -100 ago last Sunday - Fr Ryan celebrated the first Mass in the Holy Name parish. Twelve months later, a custom-built church was erected at 38th Avenue. His mother died in 1935 at the age of 90.

Fr Ryan was a man of vision and determination. As he saw his parish population grow rapidly, further building and expansion took place on an ongoing basis. In 1938, a new church was started and opened for Mass in 1941.

Two of Fr Ryan’s sisters were nuns (Sister St Richard and Sr Catherina) and he placed great value on the role of Religious Sisters in Catholic education.

Along with eight Mercy Sisters, he founded the Holy Name School which, within a decade, had 900 pupils. An illustration of the parish growth is the fact that during World War II, more than 500 men from the Holy Name served in the U.S army.

Despite the problems of travel during the war, Fr Ryan made regular trips home to Ireland. Soon after it ended, in July, 1946, he was in St Mary’s Cathedral in Kilkenny for the ordination to the priesthood of his nephew Richard Colbert and assisted his nephew celebrating his first Mass in Dungourney.

Back in the Holy Name Parish, Fr Ryan realised that as the populace was growing, an even bigger Church was needed as well as further schools. In the post-war years money was scarce but Fr Ryan was a great organiser and delegator and gathered very good people around him to help with his work.

By the early 1950s, the expansion plans were drawn up and in early 1954 a huge fund-raising campaign was started with the hope of a new church being built in a few years.

Fr Ryan visited Ireland again in 1954 and 1955. He bought a washing machine for his niece Nora Hoskins in Bluebell, Bartlemy – though the ESB and running water were not yet in the house.

His grand nephew recalls seeing Fr Ryan smoking a large, aromatic cigar - a rarity in rural Ireland in the 1950s! On his departure, he left the unfinished cigar on an ashtray, still glowing - one of the boys took a few ‘pulls’ and thought ‘twas heavenly!

His last visit home to Bartlemy was in July, 1955. On his return to San Francisco he devoted huge effort and time to the fundraising effort in the parish. Then, in January, 1956, he got seriously ill. He carried on as best he could but died on November 5.

Eight years later, the magnificent new Holy Name Church was opened. Truly ‘from little acorns are mighty oaks grown’ and Fr Richard Ryan’s 1925 ‘request’ from Archbishop Hanna to ‘go forth and create a parish’ has indeed become a reality.

Last Saturday night, the Holy Name Parish community came together for a Gala Dinner. The next morning, the Most Rev. Salvatore J. Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco, followed in the footsteps of Fr Richard Ryan by celebrating Mass exactly a century after the story began.

He said: “In 2025, we look forward to a renewed spirit of faith and fellowship. With dedication and a shared commitment to our parish community, Holy Name of Jesus continues to grow, welcoming both longtime parishioners and new families.

“As we embark on the next century of Catholic Faith, we remain steadfast in living the Holy Name of Jesus in the heart of the Sunset”.

Ah yes indeed, it’s a long, long way from Bartlemy to San Francisco.