He served as professor at the Urban College, curial official, and guide to prominent English-speaking visitors to Rome in the mid to late nineteenth century.

[1] Feeling a call to religious life, Smith made his profession as a Benedictine monk of Monte Cassino on 21 March 1847.

[1] Around this time he was also named professor of dogmatic theology at the Urban College and consultor to the Sacred Congregation of the Index.

[2] It was in this semi-diplomatic capacity that Father Smith served as a guide to famous English-speaking visitors, including the future Edward VII of England, U.S. President Franklin Pierce, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

[5] Dom Bernard Smith died on 11 December 1892 of pneumonia at San Callisto and was buried in the Campo Verano.