Father Anastasius Smits, O.Carm. (1840-1927)

He was a Carmelite priest, remembered as “one of the most interesting characters in the life of our province.” Born in Sambeek, Holland, in 1840, he grew up at a time when Dutch Catholic life was in great disarray: no hierarchy, “few churches and fewer Catholic schools.” Smits attended public schools, and when he was twenty he entered the Carmelites, then a small community in Holland. He studied in Wales and was ordained a priest in 1865.

Sent back to his homeland as a Prior (head of a religious house), in 1868 Father Anastasius left with Brother Berthold Landers for the United States to collect funds money for building houses in Europe, but he ended up staying for the rest of his life. In 1869 he was named a pastor of the Church of the Madonna in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

For thirteen years he worked there, until he was named Commissary General (local head of the order) in the eastern United States. It wasn’t an easy job: “To avoid particulars, I simply say, that I met with great difficulties.” “I had endeavored” he later recalled,

for a few years to enforce the good and firm observance and discipline of the Strictioris Observantiae* of Holland, as I was brought up in Holland. Most priests appeared to be satisfied but a few had their own plans.

In one house, the Fathers refused to accept his authority, taking with them the stidents, the cattle and even the silverware. After five years, administrative duties took hold of his health, and he left for a sabbatical in Europe. One community historian writes: “Father Smits may be pointed out as an illustration of those not infrequent instances of a very good and even saintly religious being chosen to rule others, though not gifted with the talent to rule.”

On his return to the United States, Father Smits served in several parishes from New Jersey to Kansas, By 1915, poor health had taken its toll, and he resided at Providence Hospital, run by the Sisters of Charity in Kansas City, Kansas. He died there on March 2nd, 1927, at age eighty-seven.

A small, fastidious man, Father Anastasius had his quirks, as one biographer notes:

On his lightly burdened desk, each of his few books had its definite place; so also his one pencil, pen, ruler and inkbottle. If pen and pencil happened not be parallel to each other, he would, in the midst of the most serious conversation, nervously finger them until their place and position satisfied him.

Although he didn’t drink, but he smoked cigars avidly until his health forbade it. His English was remembered as “most pleasing to the ear,” and he was considered a powerful preacher whose sermons “became imperishable memory.” Community members recalled his “unique personality”:

It would be difficult to conceive, that any one who had ruled him in the community or had been ruled by him, or had made a mission or retreat under his direction, could ever forget his personality, his manner, his speech, or the contents of his teaching.

He had little interest in detail, being more interested in the spiritual aspect of things. He had strong opinions: “Only a saint can afford to be undiplomatic and Father Smits was, probably, not a saint.” But he did a great deal to expand Carmelite life throughout the United States.

*This refers to a “stricter observance” of the religious community’s rules.