Columba Ryan

Columba Ryan (born Patrick Ryan, 13 January 1916 in Hampstead – 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 Hampstead in 1916, the second son of Sir Andrew Ryan, a British diplomat who was the last dragoman in Constantinople, and his wife Ruth. Patrick was educated at Ampleforth in North Yorkshire. In 1935 he entered the Dominican Order at Woodchester Priory in Gloucestershire where he was given the name Columba. His uncle was Patrick Finbar Ryan OP, Archbishop of Port of Spain, Trinidad. At the age of 30 (in 1946) he completed his DPhil at Oxford University. He was one of the friars who was on the Peace Pilgrimage to Vézelay in Burgundy, selecting "30 strong men" to carry a heavy wooden cross across France in thanksgiving for the end of the Second World War. Ryan had an analytical mind and enjoyed philosophical controversy and debate. While teaching philosophy at the Dominican House of Studies at Hawkesyard Priory 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 and Peter Geach were among the first invited, remaining leading figures of the group for the 20 years. He was also bursar at the priory.