John Tracy Ellis (July 30, 1905 – October 16, 1992) was a Catholic Church historian and priest, born and raised in Seneca, Illinois, US. Soon after he was ordained, he received a doctorate in history from Catholic University of America in Washington, where he researched with Peter Guilday to collect central documents of the American Catholic heritage. He spent most of his career as a faculty member at Catholic University, but he also taught at the University of San Francisco between 1963 and 1976. He was a long serving executive secretary of the American Catholic Historical Association and editor of the Catholic Historical Review (1941–62). Ellis is best known for his 1952 argument that American Catholic scholars have failed to measure up to European Catholic standards of scholarship and intellectual leadership.

Career

He wrote widely on church history, including a major biography of James Cardinal Gibbons. He attracted widespread attention in Catholic circles for his essay (1955) deploring an anti-intellectual "ghetto mentality" among American Catholics. In his book American Catholicism, first published in 1956, he wrote that a "universal anti-Catholic bias was brought to Jamestown in 1607 and vigorously cultivated in all the thirteen colonies from Massachusetts to Georgia." In 1978, Ellis received what is regarded as the highest honor for US Catholics, the University of Notre Dame's Laetare Medal.

Legacy

Several of Ellis's students at Catholic University went on to make contributions to church history, including: Fr. Patrick H. Ahern, Fr. William Au, Fr. Colman J. Barry, OSB, Fr. Henry J. Browne, Sr. Margaret Carthy, OSU, Fr. Joseph P. Chinnici, OFM, Fr. Michael Roach, Cardinal Archbishop Timothy Dolan, Sr. Alphonsine Frawley, Fr. James Hennesey, SJ, Archbishop Oscar Hugh Lipscomb, Anabelle Melville, Fr. Peter J. Rahill, Fr. David Sweeney, OFM, Fr. Thomas J. Shelley, and Msgr. Francis J. Weber. He was made a domestic prelate with the title monsignor by Pope Pius XII in 1955. In 1989, Pope John Paul II further elevated him to Protonotary Apostolic, the highest rank for a monsignor. He is interred in Mt. Calvary Cemetery on the north side of Seneca.

Published works (selection)

Works cited and further reading