Archbishop Richard Smith studied at St. Mary’s University and at the Atlantic School of Theology in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Ordained to the priesthood on May 23, 1987, he pursued further studies in theology at the Pontifical Gregorian Institute in Rome and obtained a licentiate in 1997 and a doctorate in 1998.
After some fruitful years of ministry in Halifax, he was appointed Bishop of Pembroke on April 27, 2002, and was ordained to the episcopate on June 18, 2002. Pope Benedict XVI appointed him to the Metropolitan See of Edmonton on March 22, 2007. He was formally installed as the eighth Archbishop of Edmonton on May 1, 2007, the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker.
