Education
- Ph.D., Universität Regensburg
Research Interests
Liturgy, theology, sacred music, paleography, codicology, medieval studies
Biography
Innocent Smith, O.P., is Assistant Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. After undergraduate studies in music and philosophy at Notre Dame, he entered the Order of Preachers in 2008 and was ordained priest in 2015. Fr. Innocent served in parish ministry for several years before completing a doctorate in liturgical studies at the University of Regensburg in 2021. After teaching for several years in Baltimore and Washington, DC, he joined the Department of Theology in 2025. His research focuses on the material and musical aspects of medieval liturgical books as well as the relationship between liturgy and theology.
Research Interests
Representative Publications, Performances, and Creative Work
Bible Missals and the Medieval Dominican Liturgy, Manuscripta Biblica 12 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2023).
“The Toulouse Exemplar of the Dominican Liturgy: A Note on the Provenance of London, British Library, MS Add. 23935,” The Library. 7th Series 26 (2025): 26–37.
“‘To What Purpose Is This Waste?’ Luxury Illumination and Utilitarian Decoration in Medieval Mass Books,” in On Earth as in Heaven? Liturgy, Materiality, and Economics, ed. Melanie C. Ross (Collegeville: Liturgical Press Academic, 2025), 205–37.
“A Tale of Two Missals: The Missale Conventuale and Missale Minorum Altarium in the Exemplars of the Reformed Dominican Liturgy,” in Ritual Life in the Medieval Dominican Order: Liturgical Expressions, ed. Augustine Thompson (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2025), 33–78.
“Eucharistic Hermeneutics of Sacred Scripture in Thomas Aquinas,” in Thomas Aquinas and the Eucharist, ed. Michael Dauphinais, Andrew Hofer, and Roger W. Nutt (Ave Maria, FL: Sapientia Press, 2025), 59–83.
