Background
He was born in 1811 in Philadelphia to Episcopalian minister, the Review William Bryant. His mother, was a daughter of John Delavau, a shipbuilder of Philadelphia. His early education was under his father and in the Episcopalian Academy.
He was born in 1811 in Philadelphia to Episcopalian minister, the Review William Bryant. His mother, was a daughter of John Delavau, a shipbuilder of Philadelphia. His early education was under his father and in the Episcopalian Academy.
After one year he left the seminary to travel in Europe. He graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1848. In 1855, during the yellow fever epidemic in Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia, he volunteered for duty and returned only after the epidemic had subsided.
Foreign two years in the early sixties he was editor of the Catholic Herald.