Patrick Michaels has been a professional church musician for 48 years. He was born in Minnesota and attended the University of Minnesota as a music major. Michaels worked at two churches in that area before moving to the Boston area. He has been the Minister of Music at St. James's Episcopal Church, Cambridge, for 39 years, where he has led the community in a vibrant and innovative music program. He began encouraging and supporting members of the congregation to compose musical Psalm settings for the church's own use; this program has yielded an abundance of wonderful settings of the Psalms which are sung every week, and the composing continues to this day. Michaels was also the Director of Chapel Music at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge from 2004--2012, where he helped expand the repertoire of and encouraged music-making from all members of the community.

Michaels began writing hymns (both texts and tunes) in the 1970s and has attended various hymn-writing workshops sponsored by The Hymn Society since that time. He has benefited especially from the professional advice of Brian Wren and Al Fedak. Patrick Michaels' texts and tunes are published in denominational hymnals, in various supplements, and in single-author collections in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Wayne Leupold published his first single-author collection of hymns, From Depths of Love: The Hymns of Patrick Michaels, in 2015. Michaels is a member of The Hymn Society in the U.S. and Canada. His other profession is teaching piano, which he has done since 1969.

He is married to the Rev. Laurie A. Rofinot, and they have one adult daughter, Marian Rose.