Henry Ignatius Dudley Ryder was a 19th-century English Roman Catholic priest, theologian, essayist, and hymnwriter who served as a notable intellectual figure within the English Catholic Revival. Born on January 12, 1837, he was the son of the Reverend George Dudley Ryder, Rector of Easton, Hampshire, and a grandson of the Right Reverend Henry Ryder, Bishop of Lichfield. Following his family's reception into the Catholic Church during the Oxford Movement era, Ryder joined the Birmingham Oratory under the leadership of John Henry Newman on December 8, 1856. He spent the remainder of his life as a priest of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, eventually succeeding Newman as its Superior upon the cardinal's death in 1890.

Ryder was widely respected for his theological acumen, authoring defense treatises on Catholic doctrine, papal infallibility, and church history, including his noted reply to William Ewart Gladstone's Vatican Decrees controversy (Catholic Controversy, 1880). Alongside his prose, Ryder was a gifted poet and translator who contributed significantly to 19th-century Catholic devotional literature. His sacred verse and metrical translations were published in his collection Poems Original and Translated (1882), Orby Shipley's Catholic anthology Annus Sanctus (1884), and the Birmingham Oratory Hymn Book (1906).

In hymnody, Ryder's work is recognized for its classical precision, theological clarity, and reverence for historic Latin liturgical texts. Among his notable translations is:

• "A Boy is born in Bethlehem, glad tidings for Jerusalem" — His graceful English rendering of the medieval Latin Christmas carol Puer natus in Bethlehem.

Fr. Ryder died at the Birmingham Oratory on October 7, 1907, at the age of seventy, leaving behind a distinguished legacy of theological scholarship, pastoral leadership, and devotional poetry.