On Monday morning, January 17, the monks of Portsmouth Abbey elected Fr. Michael Brunner OSB as their fourth abbot.  A native of Rochester, N.Y., Abbot Michael, 71, was until recently a monk of the St. Louis Abbey where he had held the positions of pastor of St. Anselm's Parish and Headmaster of the St. Louis Priory School, both located on that monastery's campus.  In 2021, Abbot Michael, along with two other monks of St. Louis, transferred their vows of stability to Portsmouth where he also serves as chancellor of Portsmouth Abbey School.

Monday's election was overseen by Abbot President Christopher Jamison of the English Benedictine Congregation who began the process on Sunday afternoon by opening the traditional tractatus during which the solemnly professed monks gathered, recited prayers in the monastery's calefactory, and put forth names as possible candidates.  (The closest English word for the Latin tractatus is 'treatise'.)

It is entirely possible that the name or names of monks not of the Portsmouth community are allowed to be entered into the discussion.  The election itself took place Monday morning following a Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit in the Abbey Church at which Abbot Christopher presided as the main celebrant.

Previously, Abbot Michael held the title of Prior Administrator of Portsmouth while the abbey was undergoing a period of congregational support from the EBC, in this case from the St. Louis community.  His new term as abbot extends for 8 years.

In 2008, a chapter written by Abbot Michael was included in the book, Touched by God: Ten Monastic Journeys (Burns & Oates).  In it, he details a most unorthodox vocational journey which began with him turning his back as a young man on his Roman Catholic upbringing, reading the Sufi mystics along the way, and working as a hotel manager in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Miami.  As a teenager, he worked for social and civil rights organizations.  He earned a degree at Howard University where he majored in sociology and early on was a "professed member of a religious order that was formed after the Civil War to serve the freed slaves."  He notes that it "was and still is operating schools and parishes in the Black community."  In fact, from age 18 until he entered the St. Louis Abbey at age 47 after a 'reversion,' or return to the Church, Abbot Michael said that, "all my friends have been African-American or African."  It is that wealth of human and humane experience, along with his hands-on work in Haiti during his pastorship, which gives him a unique perspective in his new role as abbot.