Benedictine Father Michael Francis Patella died on July 15, 2025, in the Saint John’s Abbey Health Center, Collegeville. The monastic community, family and friends will receive the body at 7 p.m. July 17 and celebrate the Mass of Christian Burial July 18 at 10 a.m. in the Saint John’s Abbey and University Church, with interment in the Abbey Cemetery. The service will be live-streamed at YouTube.com/SaintJohnsAbbey.
Michael Francis Patella was born on December 28, 1954, along with his twin sister Francine, in Rochester, New York, the second son of Dr. Thomas and Anne (Pavia) Patella.
Michael attended Saint Ambrose Grammar School serving as an altar boy and becoming an Eagle Scout through the parish-sponsored troop. He enrolled at Bishop Kearney High School, which was taught by the Christian Brothers. Michael had an admiration for the Christian Brothers which led him to enter the community for nine years. During this time, Michael attended Iona College, receiving a B.A. with a double major in English and Religious Studies in 1977. He taught English and religion at Catholic Memorial High School in Boston. He also pursued a master’s degree in American Studies at Boston College, which he received in 1981. Michael also taught at Power Memorial Academy in New York City.
In 1989, Michael described his vocation journey: “My religious upbringing grew from the soil of Italian Catholicism, a faith in which individual piety is always grounded in devotion to the family.” His continued vocational discernment led him to the Benedictine community of Saint Mary’s Abbey in Morristown, New Jersey in 1982. Yearning for more study and research, Michael arrived in Collegeville in 1985 to begin seminary studies. “My monastic vocation gelled with the opportunity to engage in the kind of education I wanted to do. Two good abbots—one from Saint Mary’s and one from Saint John’s—assisted in my transfer of vows to Saint John’s Abbey.”
Brother Michael completed a Master of Divinity degree in 1989 and was ordained to the priesthood on June 8, 1990. Father Michael then began studies in Rome to pursue a doctorate in Sacred Scripture with specific interest in biblical archaeology at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, receiving an S.S.L. in Sacred Scripture in 1993 and an S.S.D. from the Ecole Biblique et Archeologique Francaise, Jerusalem in 1995. His dissertation was titled, “From Darkness to Light: The Death of Jesus, Luke 23:44-49.”
Returning to Collegeville, Father Michael was appointed professor of theology at Saint John’s University. He was also director of the Jerusalem Studies Program from 1999 to 2023, taking groups of students to study and tour in the Holy Land. With the advent of the Saint John’s Bible project, Father Michael became chair of the Committee on Illumination and Text. Explaining the purpose of the committee’s work: “The illuminations are not illustrations. They are spiritual meditations on a text. It is a very Benedictine approach to Scriptures. We wanted to do something for the millennium that people will still be talking about at the next millennium.
In 2007, Father Michael was appointed rector of Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary. He was responsible for recruitment, formation and evaluation of monastic seminarians. He also served several years as a faculty resident in student housing. Father Michael authored several books and numerous articles that appeared in Bible Today, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly and other theological journals.
On his vocation as a Benedictine monk, Father Michael reflected, “For me, the best part of being a monk is planning and participating in the major feasts of Christmas, Easter, and Saint Benedict, when the liturgies lead so well into the feasting with our confreres. I am reminded of the phrase at the end of the Rule of Benedict, ‘Are you hastening toward your heavenly home?’ and at those moments I want to say, yes, and this is it!”
Father Michael enjoyed singing in the abbey schola, biking, reading, traveling by rail, studying Italian culture, and cooking Italian food. At the common table, Father Michael would entertain confreres and guests with anecdotes and humorous stories of his global travels. A rapid speaker and calm listener, he was a welcoming person with a friendly disposition and engaging personality.
In January 2024, Father Michael was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). In an article in the publication, Abbey Banner, “Living with ALS,” he observed: “Despite the daily frustrations associated with my increasingly small horizon line, I have no fear. There is nothing for me to worry about in this life or the next. Christ is at the center of it all.”
Father Michael is survived by his twin sister, Francine, and her husband, Keith Ryan, Rochester, New York, nephew Aaron Patella Ryan, niece Kiri Patella Ryan, and the community of Saint John’s Abbey.