The Roman Catholic Diocese of Knoxville has received permission from a local court to dig up the remains of a perished priest. Now, parishioners seeking sainthood status for Father Patrick Ryan just need approval from the Vatican.
In a court proceeding Monday, Chancellor Jeffrey Atherton ordered the Hamilton County Department of Health to issue a permit to the diocese. Atherton noted there was no legal opposition: Since the diocese first announced it wanted to exhume Father Patrick last fall, Hamilton County attorneys said they likely wouldn’t oppose the request. Indeed, in its official Dec. 20 response, County Attorney Rheubin Taylor wrote he “has no reason to dispute” it.
Father Patrick J. RyanAll of this is part of a two-year, first-time effort by the diocese to achieve sainthood status for Ryan, who died Sept. 28, 1878, at age 33 while volunteering to help the sick during a yellow fever epidemic in Chattanooga that claimed 366 lives and saw about 80 percent of the city’s population flee. That process requires the diocese to prove Ryan existed, hence digging him back up, as well as verifying two miracles associated with him. The ultimate plan is to relocate him from the Mt. Olivet Cemetery in East Ridge to the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul on Eighth Avenue.
Chattanooga attorneys for the diocese said they filed a petition against the Department of Health because they’d reached a roadblock. Though Tennessee law allows anyone to petition for permission to dig up and move a body, it also requires a living descendant. Here, the diocese said it didn’t have one. According to court documents, a review of emigration records and other correspondence, Ryan wasn’t known to have fathered any children.
Ryan’s body probably wouldn’t be unearthed and moved immediately. Terrance Jones, an attorney who filed the petition, said the diocese now must send an exhumation request to The Vatican for approval.