1935 – 2010 (January 1)
Stanley Charles Smith was born on February 9, 1935, in Andover, Massachusetts, the son of Stanley Smith and Helen Winters, and was baptized at Saint Augustine Church, Andover, on February 24, 1935. He attended Saint Augustine Parish School, from 1940 until 1948, and Augustinian Academy, Staten Island, NY, from 1948 to 1952. He was received into the Order as a novice on September 9, 1952, and after a year at Good Counsel Novitiate, New Hamburg, NY, he professed first vows on September 10, 1953. He studied at Villanova University, from 1953 to 1957, where he was awarded a BA in Philosophy. He professed solemn vows on September 10, 1956, and then pursued theological studies at the Collegio Santa Monica, Rome, Italy, from 1957 until 1961. He was ordained to the priesthood there by Cardinal Traglia on December 17, 1960 in the Basilica of St. John Lateran.
Father Stan was first assigned to Saint Mary Parish, Lawrence, MA, in 1961, and then to Saint Joseph Parish, Greenwich, NY, from 1962 to 1963. From 1963 to 1971, he was a member of Saint John of Sahagun Friary and taught at Archbishop Carroll High School, Washington, DC. In 1971 he returned to Massachusetts and was assigned to Saint Mary Parish, Lawrence. In 1972 he went to Saint Augustine Parish, Andover, and in 1975 to Our Mother of Good Counsel Monastery, Merrimack College, North Andover, where he remained for two years. In 1977 he was assigned to Assumption Parish, Lawrence, and in 1980 to Saint Augustine Parish, in the same city. He returned to Our Mother of Good Counsel Monastery, Merrimack College in 1992. In 1994, Father Stan left Massachusetts to become a member of the Saint Augustine Friary community at Villanova, PA, and in 2006, he moved to Saint Thomas Monastery, Villanova.
Over the years, Fr. Stan pursued studies in the spirituality of aging, and was an advocate for valuing the wisdom of the elder friars. As chaplain to communities of religious sisters, he shared the importance of the spirituality of the later years of life.
Father Stan died early in the morning of New Year’s Day, January 1, 2010, at the age of 74, after a period of illness. His Funeral Mass was celebrated at Saint Thomas of Villanova Church, Villanova, in the evening of January 5, 2010, with burial the following day in Calvary Cemetery, West Conshohocken, Pa.
