James Ryan (bishop)

James Ryan (June 17, 1848 – July 2, 1923) was an Irish-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Alton from 1888 until his death in 1923.

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

On February 28, 1888, Ryan was appointed the third Bishop of Alton by Pope Leo XIII. 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. 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. He held the first diocesan synod in February 1889. He began raising funds for a new orphanage in 1919 but died before it was completed.

Ryan died at age 75.