Catholic student reaches peak, being most smart (9)
I believe the answer is:
cleverest
'most smart' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are superlative adjectives. Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'catholic student reaches peak' is the wordplay.
'catholic student reaches' becomes 'cl' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'peak' becomes 'everest' (Everest is an example).
'cl'+'everest'='CLEVEREST'
'being' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cleverest that I've seen before include "Smartest" , "Brighter than others" , "most able" , "of superlative brilliance" .)