Fr. Patrick Smith

Fr. Patrick A. Smith (Pastor) is a sought after speaker,preacher, revivalist, and retreat director for both youth and adults. He serves as a regularly featured priest on the Sunday morning Archdiocesan Mass for Shut-ins. Since his ordination, Father has been called upon by the Archdiocesan Offices of Evangelization, Youth Ministry, Young Adult Ministry, and Vocations, the Pro-Life Office and the Offices of Black Catholics and of Adult Religious Formation. In 2009, Fr. Pat participated in the Eucharistic Congress as a workshop leader and a speaker at the outdoor Youth Rally.

Father Smith was born in the District of Columbia as the sixth of eight children. He attended local Catholic schools from his elementary years through high school. After graduating from Mackin High School, he attended Mount Saint Mary’s College in Emmitsburg, Maryland, majoring in Theology and first discerning his calling to priestly ministry.

Fr. Smith was blessed with the opportunity to study at the North American College in Rome, Italy, where he earned both a B.A. in Sacred Theology and a License in Sacred Theology. In 1990, he was ordained to the priesthood at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington DC. Fr. Smith was then assigned as Associate Pastor to Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Takoma Park, Maryland. Only 15 months later, he assumed full pastoral responsibility for a small rural parish in Southern Maryland, St. Peter Claver.

In 1996, during his tenure in Southern Maryland, Fr. Smith was chosen to be one of two priests featured in a nationally televised documentary on the life of Catholic Priests, Answering God’s Call: An Experience of the Priesthood. The ABC documentary aired in 1997, one month prior to Fr. Smith’s reassignment to the parish of St. Teresa of Avila in the Anacostia section of Washington DC.

In 2004, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick assigned Fr. Smith to the historic Saint Augustine Catholic Church here in Northwest Washington. In 2008, 150 years since the founding of the parish, Father Smith, with the enthusiastic support of his parishioners, led the effort to return the school back to full parish management and oversight. The alternative was closure and conversion to a public charter school. Fr. Smith, the school parents and the parishioners alike thankfully never considered this latter alternative a viable option.