The last number of the Journal was in the press when Father Abbot died. The Editor wrote: 'It is impossible for us in this number to attempt to estimate the value of Father Abbot's life and achievements.... and our readers will pardon us if we leave our duty to his memory unfulfilled until our next number.' Writing nearly three months after his death the fulfilment of our duty seems as impossible as at first. We cannot view his life from the outside; we were in it and of it. Abbot and Community are one whole, knit together by the most intimate and sacred ties. Yet, to the alumni and friends of Ampleforth we owe some record, however inadequate, of his life and work.
In the late forties of last century, through the good offices of Bishop Wiseman, Father Dominic, the Passionist, was brought into touch with John Smith of Sutton, Lancashire, who proved a true friend, and founded the church and monastery of the Passionist Fathers at Sutton, where the Venerable Dominic lies buried. He died in 1849. Five years later on May 25th, 1854, was born Joseph, the only son of John Smith and his wife, Ellen Nightingale, whose brother, Fr Peter Nightingale, was one of the 'Martyrs of Charity' in the great pestilence that ravaged Liverpool in the forties. No doubt the heroic example of these two holy priests was an early influence in the life of Joseph Smith. He used to tell how, as an infant, he met with a serious accident through the carelessness of a nurse-maid, which the doctor said would leave him a cripple for life. His mother carried him to the church and prayed to our Lady and Father Dominic, and he was completely cured.
As a small boy he was sent to school at Appleton. Though he was there but a short time, and suffered under a Spartan regime, he managed to play a practical joke on the master. He was always fond of practical jokes, and thoroughly enjoyed hearing of them long after his position as an Abbot debarred him from playing them himself.
In 1864 he was sent to Ampleforth, and so began his long connection of sixty years with the home of his life. He was a thorough boy. One who was in the school with him and then lost touch with Ampleforth came on a visit shortly before the War. He was presented to the Abbot who said: 'You don't seem to know me; don't you remember Joe Smith?' The visitor exclaimed in utter astonishment: 'What! Joe Smith Abbot of Ampleforth?' And how the Abbot enjoyed it!
In 1872, on St Michael's day, Joseph Smith received the monastic habit at Belmont which was then the general novitiate and house of studies of our Congregation. He took the name of Oswald, his patron being St Oswald, Bishop of York and Worcester. He made his simple profession on October 3rd of the next year, and pronounced his solemn vows at Ampleforth in 1876 on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. He was ordained priest at Middlesborough on February 1st, 1880, being the first priest ordained by our venerable diocesan, Bishop Lacy. For six years Father Oswald remained at Ampleforth, occupying the position of Prefect of Discipline, in which office he is said not to have been a great success; and then that of Prefect of Studies.
In 1886 he was sent to Belmont to teach Philosophy, but finding the need of higher training himself, he obtained leave to study abroad, and spent seven months in Perugia and Rome, taking his Doctorate in Philosophy in June 1888. That he was able to obtain his degree in so short a time shows his power of intellect and concentration. Returning to Belmont, he was made Canon of the Diocese of Newport and Menevia, and spent the next ten years as Professor of Philosophy. His students always found his lectures clear and interesting; indeed, clarity of reasoning was one of his special gifts. One who was himself a philosopher of a high order used to say that Father Oswald had a colossal mind.
During his time at Belmont he had charge of the small parish, and endeared himself to all by the interest he took in each individual. No act of kindness was too small for him to do, and he was always on the look-out for cases of distress that he could relieve. He would obtain toys for an idiot girl, and try to amuse her with them. He constantly helped a poor woman whose husband was bed-ridden. True priest that he was all his life, he was the friend of the poor and the sick.
On January 10th, 1898, a body of twelve electors met at Malvern under President O'Gorman to choose a successor to Father Anselm Burge, who had resigned the Priorship of Ampleforth. The choice fell on Father Oswald, and so he entered on his long term of office lasting nearly twenty-seven years, more than half of his religious life.
When our monasteries had been raised to the rank of Abbeys, and the revised Constitutions had received the approval of the Holy See, it was possible to hold an abbatial election by universal suffrage according to the Rule of St Benedict. On October 3rd, 1900, Prior Smith was elected first Abbot of Ampleforth by an overwhelming majority. He was re-elected in 1908, and again in 1916 for a further period of twelve years. If our superiors were chosen for life a reign of nearly twenty-seven years would not be particularly remarkable; but to have been elected four times, and on three occasions by so large a body of electors, proves beyond doubt the confidence that the Community placed in him.
Before he left Belmont to be installed as Prior it was noted as appropriate that the antiphon he intoned at Vespers was 'Fidelis servus' - 'a faithful and wise servant whom the Lord hath appointed over his family'. A mere coincidence? If you will; but Father Abbot never forgot it. He set the words before him as a motto, an ideal to strive for. And we who know how well he fulfilled it can confidently trust that he has heard: 'Well done, good and faithful servant... enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.'
The last quarter of a century has been a period of wonderful growth and development at Ampleforth in every department of our life. Yet when we try to estimate the extent of Father Abbot's influence, the task is as difficult as to analyse a father's influence over a large family. Some months before the end came the Abbot of Fort Augustus said: 'I do not think it will ever be realised how much Ampleforth owes to Abbot Smith, and it is all due to his personal holiness.' And he has since said: 'He was the holiest man I ever knew.' The influence of holiness can never be adequately described; it can only be experienced. And all who have lived for any time at Ampleforth under his gentle sway will agree that he lived up to St Benedict's admonition that the Abbot 'should show forth all goodness and holiness by his deeds rather than by his words.'
First and foremost, Father Abbot was a man of prayer. God was the absorbing interest of his life. He was a model of regularity at conventual duties, and never missed an Hour of the Divine Office if he could help it. It is true that he was endowed with a splendid constitution, and used to say that he never missed a night's sleep; yet to be constant at Matins at 5 a.m. until seventy years of age is a proof of strength greater than physical. Especially in his last years, when his powers were failing, his unswerving devotion to religious duties stood out all the more prominently, and was a constant source of inspiration to his monks. A true Benedictine, he 'preferred nothing to the work of God.' The praise of God in the sacred liturgy was the foundation of his spiritual life; the psalmody and prayers of the Church were his constant study, the food of his mental prayer, the matter of his instructions to the Community. It was one of his great joys when growth of numbers made it possible to sing Vespers, and a still greater when he was able to establish the daily singing of the conventual Mass.
His great zeal for the Opus Dei found a wider scope than among his own monks. He constantly addressed communities of nuns on the spirit of the liturgy and on the occasion of his monastic jubilee in 1922 his Eminence Cardinal Bourne said that in his opinion Father Abbot had had more to do than any other man with giving the Divine Office its rightful place in the lives of the secular clergy, and that the whole Church in England owed him a debt of gratitude.
The source and term of the laus perennis is the perfect praise offered in the Holy Sacrifice. And so the beginning and end of Father Abbot's life was the Mass, and the Abiding Presence in the Blessed Sacrament. Before starting on a night journey to Scotland he was grieving that he would not be able to say Mass the next day, as he would not reach his destination till after mid-day. Someone informed him that by belonging to a certain confraternity he had a privilege of saying Mass till two o'clock. He went off quite delighted, and said Mass on his arrival at 1.30. The long fast did not trouble him. He would put himself to any inconvenience if by so doing even one person should not miss Holy Communion, and he gave proof of this only a few months before he died. A friend recalls the delight he expressed at finding that the chief solicitude of a priest, whom he thought to be too keen about money, was whether his people were growing in the practice of frequent Communion.
Public functions and congresses he avoided if he could, and it was only with difficulty that he was persuaded to go to the Eucharistic Congress at Westminster. But once there he was carried away with enthusiasm at the triumph of our Lord, and it was with great regret that he left before the Sunday, in order to supply for one of his own priests who was there.
The outstanding feature of his spirituality was his personal love for and friendship with our Lord present on the Altar. In 1909 he joined the Association of Priest Adorers, and from then till his last illness he never missed making his weekly hour's Adoration; frequently he made five or six hours in the week (the writer can vouch for this), and in the last year or more before he died he may be said to have almost lived before the Blessed Sacrament.
His love of our Lord was shown too by his great devotion to the Sacred Heart, and to the Blessed Mother of God. For the last twelve years of his life, from the time that he visited Lourdes, he never failed to say the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary every day. As he went about the house or walked outside his beads were constantly in his hand. When he was seized with his death agony he was saying the Rosary with his nurse.
Those who wish to understand his spirit will find it in his published meditations. These works represent his own personal daily meditations spread over a period of many years, re-edited and somewhat generalised for publication. As a Canon at Belmont he began to write his meditations whenever he was away from the monastery, in order to ensure regularity and concentration; the habit grew, till in the end he consistently wrote them. There is at times in his writings a curiously fanciful ingenuity which jars on certain minds as forced and strained, but the broad outlines are extraordinarily simple and direct, and may be reduced to the truly Christian ideal of seeing Christ everywhere, and of seeking His guidance and looking to His example in the smallest details of daily life. In his Belmont days the Abbot was a wide reader and a lover of good literature. He seems to have deliberately abandoned any attempt at style and polish in his own writings. One cannot but regret this, yet despite their ruggedness, and a certain prolixity at times, there is no doubt that his books have been of immense assistance to many souls. It was always a great comfort to him when, as often happened, he had letters from bishops and priests saying what great help they derived from his writings.
It would be difficult to find a character which illustrates more clearly than our late Abbot's the real struggle for perfection demanded of certain natures; and the means chosen by God for his sanctification was to place him in authority. Among the great virtues and natural qualities which distinguished his long rule at Ampleforth there were also certain human failings, which only a false sense of reverence would attempt to overlook. They account for the apparent contradictions in his character, and for somewhat startling differences of opinion about him.
The characteristic which most struck visitors and acquaintances, and which was irresistibly borne in on those who lived with him, was his sheer honesty, so downright as to be at times disconcerting. He never could pretend, and he never said what he did not mean. Thus, while some were struck with his charming courtesy and graciousness of manner, others would get the impression of indifference, almost of rudeness; and it was only we who knew him as a father who realised that his brusqueness was never intended. Until he got to know others well he sometimes had the strongest, almost unreasonable prejudices. But if acquaintance proved that his estimate had been wrong, no one could be more generous in admitting it. If he thought that there was any self-deception or false conceit in another, he was most trenchant and unsparing. What he most disliked was any kind of insincerity. Once he knew a person to be genuine, he never spared himself any trouble in order to give help, and would show the greatest patience in listening to another's difficulties. Now and again he would make some remark in his honest, straightforward manner that proved how completely he understood, and which threw a flood of light for future guidance. His quickness in grasping a point of view, even in very difficult matters, was truly marvellous. Though he could be downright in correction, yet he was never crushing; the whole trend of his spiritual direction was to uplift. If he was satisfied that our entire dependence on God was realised, then his whole effort was to encourage complete trust in Him. 'Can you not trust the good God?' were words most frequently on his lips. His own humility was profound and utterly sincere. Here is his answer to one of his monks who was bemoaning what he deemed his inefficiency and uselessness: 'But I feel just the same. Here am I superior over a number of men who are my betters by far in intellect and training; I am nowhere in knowledge compared to many of the younger men. Yet I have to go on. I can only trust in God.' He meant every word of it. Another proof of his humility is the patient way in which he accepted unreasonable criticism. And this is the more striking because by nature he was a man of violent temper. How very few of us would even have imagined such a thing. Yet the writer is assured by one who knew him in early life that it is true. Those who knew him in his younger days as a somewhat impatient, short-tempered master realise best the great change that came over him when mellowed, not so much by age as by union with God.
In the external relations of his Abbey, and still more in the life of the Community, Father Abbot always stood for peace. The happy and united spirit of the brethren has been one of the greatest blessings of his long rule, and he was the bond of unit. His temperament was habitually cheerful, in keeping with the happy smile that all his friends knew so well. Sometimes when the weightiest anxieties were upon him he appeared unusually cheerful. He had a keen sense of humour, and could enter into a joke with the youngest. Indeed, he associated with his monks on terms of charming familiarity, without loss of dignity. Only in the last year or so, when his fatal malady was creeping on, did he seem at times weary and low-spirited.
Father Abbot never dealt with his monks without deep consideration for each one's needs and character. The interests of all, whether living in the Abbey or on the missions, were constantly in his thoughts and prayers.
In the choice of his officials he showed great discernment, and one of his highest qualities as a ruler was that he completely trusted his subjects. He was never suspicious, and never showed the least favouritism. He chose the right men who served him loyally, and he honestly believed that the entire credit for the great developments that took place under his rule was due to them; yet his was the guiding hand.
Something must be said of his personal influence on the School. It is difficult to describe, but it was very real. He did not see much of the boys: usually he appeared on state occasions when he would be greeted with thunderous applause. What boy of the last twenty-six years will ever forget Father Abbot reading the order of the School at the end of term? The boys knew him better than he knew them. Generally they regarded him as of patriarchal age, dwelling on Olympus, yet they realised somehow that he was in the truest sense the father of the whole family. A correspondent writes: 'In the course of a long career at Ampleforth I never heard anyone speak of Father Abbot with disrespect, and I have often been struck by the esteem that old boys express for him. To me Ampleforth without Abbot Smith is unthinkable.'
The short sermons which he preached to the School, especially his farewells to those who were leaving at the end of the summer term, will always be remembered by those who heard them; they were so homely and practical.
Though he did not interfere directly, and kept in the background, yet his interest in the School was constant. If a member of the Community went to consult him about something connected with the School, it was often a surprise to find how much more he knew about the matter than the speaker did himself. Yet, when all is said, his influence on the School was just himself. This was admirably expressed in the Address read by the Head Monitor at the jubilee celebrations in 1922: 'You have often spoken to us of the spirit of Ampleforth. To us, Father Abbot, you are Ampleforth.'
His relations with servants, workpeople and those whom he met on his walks and journeys were the happiest. Throughout the countryside 'th' Abbot' was a familiar figure always welcome. And he accomplished a great deal of public work for the welfare of the people. For some years he served on the Parish Council, and for many years on the Helmsley Rural District Council. For close on twenty-five years he was a member of the North Riding Education Committee. On his death the Chairman wrote : 'I am sure I may truthfully say that he was loved and respected by all the members. His loss is deeply felt by all of us, and by no one more than myself.'
In April, 1921, at General Chapter he was elected Abbot President of the English Benedictine Congregation. His election was hailed with universal satisfaction, and though it brought him additional work and anxiety, he valued very deeply the confidence placed in him.
The celebration of his golden jubilee as a monk and his silver jubilee as Superior in the Summer of 1922 was a wonderful demonstration of the loyalty of Amplefordians, and of the high regard of friends. To him it was a source of amazement. In his humility he kept saving: 'I cannot understand how everyone can be so kind to me.' The most valued tribute was a letter from his Holiness the Pope.
For a year or more Father Abbot's health had been failing. He was subject to paroxysms of pain, and during one was heard to say, 'How glorious to have something to suffer for the good God!' He was advised that he must undergo a serious operation, but said he could not spare the time. For a while treatment gave him some relief, but not for long. One might almost say that in the last months of Father Abbot's life God took into His own hands the perfecting of his soul. The way of purification lay through the rough places of intense physical suffering. All human frailties were purged away, and the true spirit of the man shone out with supernatural brightness. He persevered in his duties till nearly the end of September, and how strenuous and exacting they were - long sessions of General Chapter, then of Conventual Chapter and Council, attendance at meetings of the public bodies he served, and last the Community Retreat. Before its close he was taken seriously ill. Those who tended him were struck by his fervour in prayer, his sweetness and gentleness, and his gratitude for the smallest service; most marked of all was the patience of one who was by nature impatient when unwell. To one who would obtain him relief from his agonies of pain by sending an emergency message for the doctor, he said: 'You shouldn't have done that; I deserve every moment of it.' He was taken to a Nursing Home in Leeds, and a serious operation was performed. For a day or two all went well; then he showed signs of collapse. Father Prior hurried to him, and administered the last Sacraments. We expected to hear the end had come. Then he rallied, and for a time the danger passed. But slowly his strength ebbed away, until in the early hours of November 4th while he prayed with his nurse his death agony came. Canon Mitchell, who had constantly attended him, was sent for. He came, bringing the Blessed Sacrament. Father Abbot could not receive; he joined in the prayers, and quietly he died about 3 a.m. away from his brethren, alas! but at home, because his Lord was there. He was buried at Ampleforth on November 7th, for the present in the cemetery on the hillside, until the new church is ready, where it is hoped that the remains of our first Abbot may find an honoured place. So shall we and those who follow us be reminded to pray at Mass and Office for him to whom Ampleforth owes so much. And may he obtain for us a lasting spirit of peace and concord, such as was seen on the day, so full of promise, when his successor was chosen. There was a part of Fr Abbot's work which though perhaps unknown and unnoticed, was yet of great importance and of great fruitfulness. During the twenty-five years he was Abbot of Ampleforth, he took the greatest interest in the spiritual and temporal well-being of the Convents belonging to the English Congregation of St Benedict and of many others. He gave numerous Retreats, made visitations, and wrote books of edification. To some he was Superior, to others Extraordinary Confessor, and to all a father and friend. All who were in difficulties would write fully to him and he never failed to give his prayers, his advice, and his practical help when it was possible.
Very few knew this side of Fr Abbot's work. He rarely spoke of it, and seemed to think of it as belonging to the region of his own interior life rather than to the public work of his responsible office.
He loved to go apart from the busy life of ordinary times, and from the customary burdens of everyday life to the quiet and peace of some enclosed Community where he had more time to meditate, and could speak to devout souls of the love of God in familiar speech. This rested him in mind and body, and strengthened that calm which became so characteristic of him. He was now merely a Father and not a Ruler; here his sweetness and charity could freely work, and his strength be laid aside. He lived with God at all times, and came very close to Him in times of difficulty, but here he enjoyed God; here he tasted and saw that the Lord was sweet.
The Lady Abbess of Stanbrook writes:
The Lady Abbess of Holme Eden writes as follows:
The Lady Abbess of Talacre writes:
What he has done for us interiorly it is impossible fully to express, as it is far too deep and sacred to put into words, but the first retreat he gave us marked an epoch in the spiritual life of many of the nuns. Later on, he became our Extraordinary, and was a most helpful Confessor, but it is the teaching of his retreats that has left the most lasting impression on us. The memory we have of him is that of a great but most human saint, whose whole life was stamped by the intensity of his devotion to our Lord, a devotion which, in its simplicity and tenderness, was akin to that of the old English mystics. Our Lord, as portrayed by him, was our most intimate Friend, Who had had each one of us actually in His mind in every little detail of His life on earth, which consequently became full of the greatest significance and most vital importance for us. Truths which we had known before sank into our minds with a new force through the enthusiasm of the Abbot's own conviction, and his close personal union with the good God. He never tired of impressing on us the kindness and tenderness of our Lord, the simplicity and easiness of access, and His craving for our love. By this he revolutionised the lives of many of us, giving a new ideal of the Religious Life, and a deeper reverence for our vocation. His practical, common-sense way of dealing with the difficulties that arise in community life was most helpful, and all his teaching - especially on the subject of prayer - based as it was on that of St Thomas and perfectly unassailable in its dogmatic accuracy, yet had something about it very fresh and original, and unlike that of anybody else. He used to make us wonder why we had never thought of those things before - but we hadn't! Abbot Smith will always be held in our memories with the deepest gratitude, affection and veneration, and we pray that by our faithfulness to all he has taught us we may merit for him the reward of his labours among us.
As Fr Abbot drew near to his end his memory failed and his interest in affairs grew fitful, but his love of God and of souls grew stronger, and his interest in the spiritual life was even steadier than before. The work he had done for the nuns for so long he could still have done and would have rejoiced to do. But God his Father took him home, leaving many to cherish his memory, to mourn his loss, and to pray for his soul.
JOSEPH OSWALD SMITH 4 November 1924
1854 25 May Born Sutton Lancs
1864-72 Educ Ampleforth
1872 29 Sep Habit at Belmont
1873 7 Oct Simple Vows
1875 29 Aug Minor Orders
1876 8 Dec Solemn Vows Ampleforth Prior S Kearney
1877 18 Nov Subdiaconate
1879 8 Mar Diaconate
1880 1 Feb Priesthood Middlesbrough Bishop R Lacy
(The first priest ordained by Bishop R Lacy)
1886 13 Sep Teaching Philosophy at Belmont
1887 4 Nov Studied at Rome
1888 29 Jun Returned to teaching philosophy at Belmont
1888 Canon of Newport
1898 11 Jan Elected Prior of Ampleforth
1898 12 Jan Finish teaching philosophy at Belmont
1900 3 Oct 1st Abbot of Ampleforth
1908 30 Jul Re-elected
1916 2 Aug Re-elected (first two periods for 8 yrs, third for 12 yrs)
1921 14 Apr (or 15) President EBC
1924 4 Nov Died in Nursing Home Leeds
7 Nov Buried at Ampleforth
Published many meditations & Retreat Discourses