David Bawden

Bawden was born on September 22, 1959, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to Clara (née Barton) and Kennett Bawden.^[1][2][3] He attended elementary school and high school in Oklahoma City.^[2] He had one brother, Brian.^[3][4]

Bawden's parents were traditionalist Catholics who rejected Vatican II.^[5] In the mid-1970s, he and his family became followers of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX).^[6] Bawden entered the SSPX seminary in Écône, Switzerland, in 1977, then transferred to Saint Joseph's Priory in Armada, Michigan because of difficulties learning French.^[4] He was dismissed in 1978, "without cause" according to Bawden;^[7][5] he would later in 2012 state it was because of seminary "infighting" he became involved with.^[8] His family subsequently moved to St. Marys, Kansas, where the SSPX ran Saint Mary's Academy and College. Bawden worked for the school and his brother attended it.^[9] In 1981, Bawden broke with the SSPX.^[6] Prior to claiming the papacy, he worked as a real estate agent and furniture maker.^[10]

By the mid-1980s, Bawden and his family came to believe that all the popes since the death of Pope Pius XII on October 9, 1958, were modernists, heretics, and apostates, and that their elections were invalid.^[11]: 220 On July 16, 1990, Bawden, his parents, and three other laypeople held what they claimed to be a papal conclave at the Bawden family's thrift store in Belvue, Kansas.^[6][3] They elected Bawden, then 30 years old, as pope, on the first ballot.^[12][4] Bawden subsequently styled himself "Pope Michael" after Saint Michael the Archangel.^[13][10] Bawden had invited hundreds of Independent Catholic bishops and sedevacantists to the election, but none attended.^[11]: 222 Since he was not ordained at the time of his election, he was unable to celebrate Mass or confect the sacraments as a priest. He hoped that some bishop in the USSR or China "behind the curtain and Bamboo curtains" and unaware of Vatican II, might one day hear of him and ordain him.^[5][7]

After the election, Bawden continued living at home with his parents.^[3] His brother, Brian, expressed confusion about the situation, stating "I'm not for him; I'm not against him; and I don't understand what he's doing."^[4] In 1993, Bawden and his parents relocated to Delia, Kansas.^[6] His father died in 1995.^[14] Bawden established a presence on the internet as an alternative claimant to the papacy;^[15] in 2009, he stated that he had approximately 30 "solid followers".^[16] He maintained a website for his papacy called Vatican in Exile,^[15] and supported himself through donations and by republishing out-of-print religious literature.^[17] In 2010, the independent filmmaker Adam Fairholm released a feature-length documentary about him, Pope Michael.^[18]

Bawden announced that he had been ordained a priest and then consecrated a bishop on December 11, 2011, by an Independent Catholic episcopus vagans, Bishop Robert Biarnesen of the Duarte-Costa and Old Catholic episcopal lineages, who himself had been consecrated a bishop only a month prior.^{[19][20][21][22]} Bawden then considered himself able to celebrate the Mass and the sacraments of confession and Holy Orders.^[21]

On July 10, 2022, his church's Twitter account posted that Bawden had to have emergency surgery and was in a coma.^[23] Bawden died on August 2, 2022, in Kansas City, Missouri.^[1][24] At the time of his death, he had been serving as the president of the Neighborhood Improvement Association of Oakland, Kansas, and was a member of the Citizen Advisory Council. His obituary simply called him "Father David" and made no reference to his papal claims.^[25]

He was succeeded by Rogelio del Rosario Martinez, who chose the papal name Michael II.^[26]