Herman-Joseph Smets

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Herman-Joseph Smets (born March 29, 1875 in Antwerp , † January 4, 1943 in Rome ) was a Belgian Roman Catholic clergyman, Trappist , abbot and abbot general .

life and work

Jozef Petrus Karel Smets was born the third of eight children to an upper-class Antwerp family. He attended the Jesuit grammar school in Antwerp. In 1893 he entered the long-familiar Trappist Abbey of Westmalle and took the religious name Herman-Joseph (after the then blessed, now saint Hermann Joseph von Steinfeld ). In 1898 he made his solemn profession . He was ordained a priest in 1899 and elected to the General Council of the Order in Rome in 1907. From 1911 to 1929 he was Abbot of Westmalle (during the tenure of Archbishop Désiré-Joseph Mercier ), then (as successor to Jean-Baptiste Ollitrault de Kéryvallan ) until his death the fourth Abbot General of the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance ( Trappists ) and Abbot from Cîteaux Monastery . In 1934 he initiated the order magazine Collectanea Cisterciensia (originally: Collectanea Ordinis Cisterciensium Reformatorum ). His tomb is in the Tre Fontane monastery in Rome.

Works

  • Introduction à la vie de la Trappe. Communication privée , Rome, 1942.

literature

  • Camille Hontoir (1876–1958), Le Révérendissime Père Abbé Général, Dom Herman-Joseph Smets. In: Collectanea Cisterciensia 1940, pp. 3-11.
  • Henri Charrier, Le Révérendissime Père Abbé Général, Dom Herman-Joseph Smets. Abbé de Citeaux. Abbé Général des Cisterciens de la Stricte Observance. 1875-1943 . Dijon, 1942.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Smets, Herman-Joseph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Smets, Jozef Petrus Karel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian Roman Catholic clergyman, Trappist, abbot and abbot general
DATE OF BIRTH March 29, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Antwerp
DATE OF DEATH January 4, 1943
Place of death Rome