Edward Francis Ryan

Edward Francis Ryan (March 10, 1879 – November 3, 1956) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Burlington from 1945 until his death in 1956.

Edward Ryan was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, to Simon Joseph and Mary (née Breen) Ryan. After graduating from Ingalls Grammar School, he attended Lynn Classical High School and Boston College. He furthered his studies at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, where Ryan was ordained to the priesthood by Patriarch Giuseppe Ceppetelli on August 10, 1905. He then did pastoral work in the Archdiocese of Boston, and served as a chaplain in the United States Army from 1919 to 1920.

On November 11, 1944, Ryan was appointed the fifth Bishop of Burlington, Vermont, by Pope Pius XII. He received his episcopal consecration on January 3, 1945 from Archbishop Richard Cushing, with Archbishop Francis Spellman and Bishop Francis Patrick Keough serving as co-consecrators. He was installed at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on the following February 7. During his 11-year-long tenure, Ryan established the first Carthusian monastery in the United States (at Whitingham) in 1951, as well as the Benedictine Priory at Weston in 1953, and the College of St. Joseph at Rutland in 1954. He erected almost two dozen new churches, established the Vermont Catholic Tribune in 1956, and provided a camp and a school for boys in Burlington.

Ryan died in 1956, at age 77. He is buried at Resurrection Park in South Burlington, Vermont.