John Banister Tabb (1845 -1909) was a poet, priest, and college professor. Born in Virginia to a wealthy and well-respected family, he was plagued with vision problems from an early age and, eventually, lost his sight completely. In his teens, John was a Confederate blockade runner during the Civil War; he ended up spending eight months in a Union prison. He became a member of the Catholic church in 1872, took a position teaching Greek and English a few years later and, ultimately, was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest just before he turned 40.