Michael Ellis (bishop)

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Michael Ellis OSB (1652–1726) was an English Benedictine monk and a Catholic church leader. Born Philip Ellis in Waddesdon, Buckinghamshire, he left Anglicanism as a schoolboy and joined St Gregory Priory in Douai, France, at age 18, taking the name Michael and becoming a monk in 1670. He was ordained soon after and worked on the English Mission, later becoming a royal chaplain.

In 1688 he was named the first Vicar Apostolic of the Western District of England and Wales and was consecrated a bishop on 6 May 1688 by Ferdinando d’Adda. During the Glorious Revolution he was imprisoned, escaped, and eventually lived in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye in France and then in Rome. In 1696 he was made Assistant at the Pontifical Throne, but he did not return to England and resigned his vicariate in 1704.

In 1708 Pope Clement XI made him Bishop of Segni in Italy, and he was enthroned on 28 October 1708. He rebuilt the ruined Monastery of Santa Chiara in Segni and opened it as a diocesan seminary, leaving a generous legacy. An inscription in Segni still notes his English origin as “Ph. M. Mylord Ellis.” He died on 16 November 1726 in Segni and was buried there.

Ellis had earlier held the titles Titular Bishop of Aureliopolis in Asia (1688–1708) and Vicar Apostolic of the Western District (1688–1704). He came from the Ellis family of Kiddall Hall, Yorkshire; his father was John Ellis, rector of Waddesdon, and his mother was Susannah Welbore. His brothers included prominent English figures such as John, William, Welbore, Samuel, and Charles.