David Allen Bawden (September 22, 1959 – August 2, 2022), who took the name Pope Michael I, was an American

conclavist A conclavist was a personal aide of a cardinal (Catholicism), cardinal present in a papal conclave. The term is sometimes used to refer to all present with a conclave, including the cardinal-electors, but is more properly applied only to the non-c ...

claimant to the

papacy The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...

. Bawden believed that the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

had apostatized from the Catholic faith since

Vatican II The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent Catholic ecumenical councils, ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilic ...

, and that there had been no legitimate popes elected since the death of

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...

in 1958. In 1990 he was elected pope by a group of six laypeople, including himself and his parents. In 2011, he was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

a priest and consecrated a

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

by an

Independent Catholic Independent Catholicism is an independent sacramental movement of clergy and laity who Independent Catholicism#Appeal of Independent Catholicism to Catholic and Christian tradition, self-identify as Catholic (most often as Old Catholic or as Ind ...

bishop.

Early life and education

Bawden was born in 1959 in

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...

, Oklahoma, to Clara ( Barton) and Kennett Bawden. He attended elementary school and high school in Oklahoma City. He had one brother. Bawden's parents were

traditionalist Catholics Traditionalist Catholicism is a movement that emphasizes beliefs, practices, customs, traditions, liturgical forms, devotions and presentations of teaching associated with the Catholic Church before the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). ...

who rejected

. In the mid-1970s, he and his family became followers of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX). Bawden entered the SSPX seminary in

Écône Écône is an area in the municipality of Riddes, district of Martigny, in the canton of Valais, Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by It ...

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, in 1977, then transferred to Saint Joseph's Priory in Armada, Michigan. He was dismissed in 1978. His family subsequently moved to

St. Marys, Kansas St. Marys or Saint Marys is a city in Pottawatomie County, Kansas, Pottawatomie and Wabaunsee County, Kansas, Wabaunsee counties in Kansas of the United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 2, ...

, where the SSPX ran

Saint Mary's Academy and College Saint Mary's Academy and College is a religious school of the Society of St. Pius X located in St. Marys, Kansas. The original St. Mary's College The original college at this location, St. Mary's College, was founded by the Jesuits in 1848 ...

. Bawden worked for the school and his brother attended it. In 1981 Bawden broke with the SSPX. Prior to claiming the papacy, he worked as a real estate agent and furniture maker.

Claim to the papacy

Bawden believed that all the popes since the death of

on October 9, 1958, were

modernists Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and social issues were all aspects of this moveme ...

, heretics, and

apostates Apostasy (; ) is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that is contrary to one's previous religious beliefs. One who ...

, and that their elections were

invalid Invalid may refer to: * Patient, a sick person * one who is confined to home or bed because of illness, disability or injury (sometimes considered a politically incorrect term) * Invalid (film), a 2023 Slovak black comedy movie * .invalid, a top-l ...

. On July 16, 1990, Bawden, his parents, and three other laypeople held what they claimed to be a

papal conclave A conclave is a gathering of the College of Cardinals convened to appoint the pope of the Catholic Church. Catholics consider the pope to be the apostolic successor of Saint Peter and the earthly head of the Catholic Church. Concerns around ...

at the Bawden family's thrift store in

Belvue, Kansas Belvue is a city in Pottawatomie County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 177. History Belvue was laid out in 1871. The first post office in Belvue was established in May 1871. Geography Accordi ...

. Bawden, then aged 30, was elected pope. One of the "electors", Teresa Stanfill Benns of

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, co-authored a book with Bawden entitled ''Will the Catholic Church Surivive the Twentieth Century?'' (1990). Bawden subsequently styled himself "Michael 1" after Saint Michael the Archangel. Bawden had invited hundreds of

bishops and

sedevacantists Sedevacantism is a traditionalist Catholic movement which holds that since the 1958 death of Pius XII the occupiers of the Holy See are not Validity and liceity (Catholic Church), valid popes due to their espousal of one or more Heresy in the ...

to the election, but none attended. As Bawden was not

until 2011, he was unable to celebrate

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

or confect the

sacraments A sacrament is a Christian rite which is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence, number and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments to be a visible symbol of ...

as a priest.

Later years and death

After the election, Bawden continued living at home with his parents. In 1993, they relocated to Delia, Kansas. His father died in 1995. In 2007, Theresa Benns and 2 other members of the conclave accused him of heresy and started a petition to have him abandon his claim to the papacy. Bawden established a presence on the internet as an alternative claimant to the papacy; in 2009 he stated that he had approximately 30 "solid followers". He supported himself through donations and by republishing out-of-print religious literature. In 2010, the independent filmmaker Adam Fairholm released a feature-length documentary about him, ''Pope Michael''. Bawden announced that he had been ordained a priest and then consecrated a bishop on December 11, 2011, by an

episcopus vagans In Christianity, an (plural ; Latin for 'wandering bishops' or 'stray bishops') is a person consecrated, in a "clandestine or irregular way", as a bishop outside the structures and canon law of the established churches; a person regularly con ...

'', Bishop Robert Biarnesen of the Duarte-Costa and

Old Catholic The terms Old Catholic Church, Old Catholics, Old-Catholic churches, or Old Catholic movement, designate "any of the groups of Western Christians who believe themselves to maintain in complete loyalty the doctrine and traditions of the Great C ...

episcopal lineages. Bawden said that he was able to validly celebrate Catholic sacraments, offer the

, ordain other men to the priesthood, and consecrate them as bishops, since he believed that the Duarte-Costa and Old Catholic lineages were recognized as valid by the Catholic Church. In a 2022 interview released posthumously, Bawden said that his church had grown to more than 100 members. On July 10, 2022, his church's Twitter account posted that Bawden had to have emergency surgery and was in a coma. Bawden died on August 2, 2022, in Kansas City, Missouri. On July 29, 2023, some of his followers elected Rogelio Martinez, a bishop from the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, as his successor. He took the name Michael II.

Early life and education

Claim to the papacy

Later years and death

References

Further reading