Msgr. John Ellis: Historian of Catholicism

WASHINGTON — Msgr. John Tracy Ellis, widely known as the dean of American Catholicism historians, has died. He was 87.

The apparent cause of death Friday was complications from a fractured hip, according to a statement from the Catholic University of America.

Ellis’ best-known work is a two-volume account of the life of Baltimore Archbishop James Cardinal Gibbons, which is recognized as the basic work for students of late 19th- and early 20th-Century American Catholicism.