his vocation. He had in his youth dedicated himself to the
ministry of Christ, but had mistaken a false claimant of
delegated power to confer the character and mission of the
priesthood, for the true one. Nine years had been spent, not
uselessly; for the good example and eloquent instructions of a
wise and virtuous man are always salutary; and he had been slowly
preparing himself by the feeble light and imperfect grace which
he had for the perfect gifts of the Catholic sacraments.
{113}
He was now thirty-three years of age, in the full bloom of his
natural powers, with all his holy aspirations and purposes
ripened and perfected, with a thorough knowledge of Catholic
theology, excepting only its specially technical and professional
branches, with all the habits suited for a sacerdotal life fully
established. The only doubt of his vocation in his own mind was
one of humility, and when this was settled by the decision of his
confessor and of his bishop, his course was clear before him. He
might still have chosen to remain in his own home and family
while preparing for ordination. He might have remained in his
native city, or in the diocese, as a secular priest, secure of
the most honorable and agreeable position which the archbishop
could bestow upon him, where he could have enjoyed all those
domestic comforts and elegancies to which he was accustomed,
together with the society of the beloved members of his family
who still remained, without in any way interfering with his
proposed career as a devoted priest. He chose differently,
however, and from the promptings of his own soul, which
instinctively chose what was most perfect. My religious brethren
and myself used no solicitations to induce him to join us. His
original desire for the religious life gave him a bias toward the
regular clergy. What he saw of the little band of American
Redemptorists, and of the mission which was given at the
Cathedral, captivated his heart with a desire to become one of
their number. He thought of one thing only--what was the will of
God, and the most perfect way open to him to sanctify himself and
others in the priesthood. His mind was soon made up on this
point. He applied to the Father Provincial of the Redemptorists,
who received him without hesitation. He settled his affairs as
speedily as possible, and began his novitiate at once. As soon as
the proper time arrived, he divested himself of all his property
for the benefit of the surviving members of his family. His
library he gave to the congregation, by whom it was afterward
kindly restored to him, and is now in the possession of the
Paulists at New York.
{114}
His only aim and desire, from this time forward, was to acquire
the perfection of Christian and religious virtue. Forgetting all
that was behind, he pressed forward to those things which were
before, with a fixed aim and a steady, unfaltering step. He
dropped into the position of a novice and a student so easily,
and with such a perfectness of humility, that it seemed his
natural and obvious place to be among the youths and young men
who were with him. He was the favorite and companion of the
youngest among them, and, it is needless to say, the delight and
consolation of his superiors. After one year of novitiate and his
profession, he continued for two years more studying dogmatic and
moral theology, with the other accessories usually taught to
candidates for orders. During this time he lost his amiable and
excellent sister, Elizabeth Baker, to his great sorrow. Although
his ordination was postponed much longer than is usually the case
with men in his position, already so well prepared by their
previous intellectual and moral training for the priesthood, he
was not in the least impatient at the delay, and his long
preparation gave him the advantage that he was ready at once to
undertake all the most difficult and responsible duties of a
matured and experienced priest. Besides this, he acquired that
thorough and minute theoretical and practical knowledge of the
ceremonies of the Church, and of every thing relating to the
divine service of the altar and the sanctuary, for which he was
afterward distinguished. He came out of his long retirement a
workman thoroughly and completely furnished for his task, and
imbued through and through with the spirit of the Catholic
Church. I seldom saw him, and never exchanged letters with him,
during all this period, each of us being absorbed in his own
particular duties and occupations, at a distance from the other.
As the time of his ordination approached, we were both of us,
however, again in the same House, that of St. Alphonsus, in
Baltimore.
{115}
It was in the summer of 1856 that he finished his studies, and,
having some time before received the minor orders, began his
retreat preparatory to being admitted to the three holy orders.
During the retreat, his companion, F. Vogien, an amiable and holy
young religious--with him and the saintly prelate who ordained
them, now, I trust, in heaven--was full of dread and
apprehension, often weeping, and even entreating his superior to
postpone his ordination. With Father Baker it was otherwise.
While I was in the church, during the evening, employed in the
exercises of my own retreat, I often heard him singing the most
joyful of the ecclesiastical chants in the garden, and his
placid, pale face was lighted up with the radiant joy of a Soul
approaching to the consummation of its holiest and most cherished
wishes. He was ordained sub-deacon and deacon in St. Mary's
Chapel during the week before the Sunday fixed for his ordination
to the priesthood. On Sunday, September 21, 1856, he was ordained
priest by Archbishop Kenrick, in the Cathedral. The Archbishop
celebrated Pontifical Mass, the reverend gentlemen and
seminarists from St. Sulpice assisted, and the clergy were
present in considerable numbers, among them his old friend, Mr.
Lyman, already a priest. Everyone who knows what the Cathedral of
Baltimore is, and how the grand ceremonies of the Church are
performed in it, will understand how beautiful and inspiring was
the scene at Father Baker's ordination. The great church was
crowded to its utmost capacity, but it was by Catholics only,
drawn by the desire to see one who had sacrificed so much for
their own dear faith. Father Baker, as he knelt with his
companion at a priedieu, dressed in rich and beautiful white
vestments, after receiving the indelible character of the
priesthood, to offer up with the Archbishop the Holy Sacrifice of
the Mass, looked more like an angel than a man.
{116}
The holy and benignant prelate shed tears of joyful emotion when
he embraced him at the close of the ceremony, and there was never
a more delightful reunion than that which took place on that day,
when the clergy met at the archbishop's table, to participate in
the modest festivities of the episcopal mansion. A few days
after, Mr. Lyman, Father Baker, and Myself, celebrated a solemn
Votive Mass of Thanksgiving at St. Alphonsus' Church, for the
signal grace we had received, in being all brought to the
communion of the Holy Church and to her priesthood.
Here began the sacerdotal career, brief in time, but rich in
labors and results, of Father Baker. He remained in Baltimore a
few weeks, to celebrate his first Mass, and initiate himself in
quiet retirement into his new priestly life and functions. The
first fruit of his new priesthood was a convert to the Catholic
Church, a young widow lady of highly respectable family, who was
bred a Unitarian, and who had been waiting three years to be
received into the Church by Father Baker. He baptized her and her
two children, a few days after his own ordination. Soon after he
began the missionary career, in which the greatest part of his
subsequent life was employed.
It may not here be amiss to digress from the personal history of
Father Baker, long enough to give some account of the nature of
those missions in which he was henceforth to take so conspicuous
a part, and of their introduction into this country. In doing so,
I shall describe more particularly the method adopted in those
missions with which I have been myself connected, without
noticing any others which may differ in certain details; and this
will suffice to give a correct idea of all missions, so far as
their general spirit and scope is concerned.
Missions to the Catholic people have been in use for centuries in
various parts of Europe. They are generally given by the members
of religious congregations specially devoted to the work. The
missionaries are invited by the pastor of the parish, with the
sanction of the bishop of the diocese from whom they receive
their jurisdiction.
{117}
The exercises of the mission consist of a regular series of
sermons and instructions, continued for a number of days, and
sometimes for two weeks in succession, twice or oftener in the
day. The course of instructions, which is given at an early hour
of the morning, embraces familiar and plain but solid and
didactic expositions of the commandments, sacraments, and
practical Christian and moral duties. The course of sermons,
given at night, includes the great truths which relate to the
eternal destiny of man, which are presented in the most thorough
and exhaustive manner possible, and enforced with all the power
with which the preacher is endowed. Several of Father Baker's
mission sermons are included in the collection published in this
volume, and will serve to exhibit their peculiar style and
character. Frequently, the older children receive separate
instruction for about four days in succession, closing with a
general confession and communion. After the mission has continued
a few days, the confessionals are opened to the people, and
communion is given every morning to those who are prepared to
receive. At the close of the mission the altar is decorated with
flowers and lights, a baptismal font is erected, the people renew
their baptismal vows after an appropriate sermon has been
preached, and are dismissed with a parting benediction. The
sacrifice of the Mass is offered up several times every morning,
according to the number of priests present; and before the
evening sermon there is a short prefatory exercise, which, in the
Paulist Missions, consists of the explanation of an article of
the Creed, followed by the Litany of the Saints. After sermon,
the _Miserere_ or some other appropriate piece is sung, and
the benediction of the Blessed Sacrament is given.
All this is very simple, consisting of nothing more than the
preaching of the Word of God, the administration of the
sacraments, and the performance of acts of worship and prayer, as
these are ordinarily practised in the regular routine of the
Catholic Church.
{118}
All that is peculiar and unusual consists in the adaptation of
the preaching and instructions to the end in view, and in the
daily continuity of the exercises. The object aimed at is to
present in one complete view all the principal truths of
religion, and all the essential practical rules for living
virtuously in conformity with those truths, and to do this in the
most comprehensive, forcible, and intelligible manner. The class
of persons for whose benefit missions are primarily intended is
that portion of the Catholic people least influenced by the
ordinary ministrations of the parochial clergy, although all
classes, even the best instructed and most regular, share in the
benefit. All necessary available means are used to awaken an
interest in the mission and to secure attendance. When this is
done, continuous daily listening to instruction and participation
in religious exercises prevents the impressions received from
passing away, the people become more and more interested and
absorbed, and are carried through a process of thought and
reflection upon all the most momentous truths and doctrines,
which is for them equivalent to a thorough education of the mind
and conscience. The general instructions given in public are
applied to the individual soul by the confessor in the tribunal
of penance, as the judge of guilty and the physician of diseased
and wounded consciences. Sin and guilt are washed away by
sacramental absolution from all who are sincerely penitent; their
souls, purified and restored to grace, are refreshed and
strengthened by the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy
Eucharist, and the debt of temporal punishment due to the justice
of God is removed or lightened, in proportion to the intensity of
contrition and divine love excited in the soul by its own efforts
to secure the grace of God, through the indulgences conceded by
the supreme power of the Vicar of Christ.
{119}
The earlier sermons are directed to the end of fixing the mind on
the supreme importance of religion, and alarming the conscience
in regard to sin. Afterward, special vices are denounced,
particular dangers and temptations pointed out, those duties
which are most neglected are brought out into bold relief, and
every effort made to produce a thorough reformation of life.
Toward the close, the scope and aim of the sermons are to animate
and encourage the heart and will by appealing to the nobler
passions and the higher motives, to awaken confidence in God, to
portray the eternal rewards of virtue and point out the means of
perseverance. All that can impress the senses and imagination,
subdue the heart, convince the reason, and stimulate the will, is
brought to bear, in conjunction with the supernatural efficacy of
the word and sacraments of Christ, upon a people full of faith
and religious susceptibility, under the most favorable
circumstances for producing the greatest possible effect. Where
faith is impaired, the effect is not so certain, and slower and
more tedious means have to be adopted, with less hope of success,
to restore the dying root of all religion, or replant it where it
is completely dead. It is moreover certain, although it may not
be evident to those who are destitute of Catholic faith, that
there is an extraordinary grace of God accompanying the exercises
of the mission; and this was so plain to the mind of an earnest
Episcopalian clergyman in New England, on one occasion, that it
led him to study seriously the subject of the Catholic Church,
the result of which was that he became a Catholic, at a great
personal sacrifice.
Public retreats had been given from time to time in the United
States, by the Jesuits and others, before the series of
Redemptorist Missions was commenced. This series, which began at
St. Joseph's Church, New York, in April, 1851, was, however, the
first that was systematically and regularly carried on by a band
of missionaries especially devoted to the work. Since that time,
the number of missionaries, belonging to several distinct
congregations, has increased, and the missions have been
multiplied.
{120}
The principal merit of inaugurating this great and extensive work
belongs to F. Bernard Hafkenscheid, who was formerly the
Provincial of the Redemptorist Congregation in the United States.
F. Bernard, as he was always called, on account of his
unpronounceable patronymic, had been for twenty years the most
eloquent and successful preacher of missions in his native
country of Holland and the adjacent Low Countries. Born to the
possession of wealth and all its attendant advantages, but still
more blessed with a most thorough religious training and the
grace of early piety from his childhood, he received a finished
ecclesiastical education, which he completed at Rome, where he
was honored with the doctorate in theology. After his ordination,
he devoted himself to the religious and missionary life in the
Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, in which he speedily
became the most eminent of all their preachers in the Low
Countries. He was able to preach the word of God with fluency and
correctness in three languages, besides his native tongue:
French, German, and English. But it was only in the Dutch
language that he was able to exhibit the extraordinary powers of
eloquence with which he was endowed, and which made his name a
household word in every Catholic family in Holland. His picture
was to be seen in every house; the highest and lowest flocked
with equal eagerness to hear him, and, on one occasion, the king
himself came to the convent to testify his respect for his
apostolic character by a formal visit. His figure and countenance
were cast in a mould as large as that of his great and generous
soul, and his whole character and bearing were those of a man
born to lead and command others by his innate superiority, but to
command far more by the magnetic influence of a kind and noble
heart than by authority. Father Bernard brought with him to the
United States, in March, 1851, two American Redemptorists, who
had been stationed for some years in England, and had scarcely
landed in New York when he organized a band of missionaries, to
commence the English missions.
{121}
During nearly two years, he took personal charge of many of those
missions, working in the confessional from twelve to sixteen
hours every day, occasionally preaching when the ordinary
preacher broke down, and instructing the young, inexperienced
fathers most carefully in all the methods of giving sermons and
instructions, and otherwise conducting the exercises of the
mission in the best and most judicious manner. Father Bernard
received Father Baker into the congregation, but soon afterward
was recalled to Europe, where, after a long and laborious life
spent in the sacred warfare, he is resting in the quiet repose
and peace of religions seclusion. [Footnote 4]
[Footnote 4: Since the above was written, the news has been
received of the death of Father Bernard, from the effects of
a fall while descending from the pulpit.]
The superior of the English Missions, in the absence of F.
Bernard, and after he ceased to direct them personally, was
another Father with an unpronounceable name, F. Alexander
Cvitcovicz, a Magyar, who was always called Father Alexander. It
would have been impossible to find a superior more completely
fitted for the position. Although he was even then past the
meridian of life, and had been in former times the
Superior-General of his Congregation in the United States, he
cheerfully took on himself the hardest labors of the missions. It
was not unusual for him to sit in his confessional for ten days
in succession, for fifteen or sixteen hours each day. He
instructed the little children who were preparing for the
sacraments, and sometimes gave some of the morning instructions,
but never preached any of the great sermons. In his government of
the fathers who were under him, he was gentleness, consideration,
and indulgence itself. In his own life and example, he presented
a pattern of the most perfect religious virtue, in its most
attractive form--without constraint, austerity, or moroseness,
and yet without relaxation from the most strict ascetic
principles.
{122}
He was a thoroughly accomplished and learned man in many branches
of secular and sacred science and in the fine arts; and in the
German language, which was as familiar to him as his native
language, he was among the best preachers of his order. He
designed and built the beautiful Church of St. Alphonsus, in
Baltimore, although he was never able to complete it according to
his own just and elegant taste. For such a man to take upon
himself the drudgery of laborious missions, aided, for the most
part, by young men in delicate health, incapable of enduring the
hardships of old, well-seasoned veterans, was indeed a trial of
his virtue. He undertook it, however, cheerfully, and we went
through several long and hard missionary campaigns under his
direction, until at last we left him, in the year 1854, in the
convent at New Orleans, worn out with labor, to exchange his
arduous missionary work for the lighter duties of the parish.
Father Alexander was succeeded in the office of Superior of
English Missions by Father Walworth, one of the American
Redemptorists, who accompanied Father Bernard from England, and
who continued in that office until, with several others, he was
released from his connection with the congregation by a brief of
the Holy Father, in order to form a new society of missionaries.
There has never been a finer field open to missions than the one
which is found in the Catholic population of the United States,
and seldom has there existed a greater need of them. The missions
of St. Alphonsus Liguori, the founder of the Redemptorists, and
his companions, were confined to villages, hamlets, and outlying
districts, remote from episcopal cities and large towns. In his
rules he directs his children to labor in places of this sort,
because in Italy the most neglected and necessitous part of the
people is only to be found there. In this country it was not so.
The great need for missions lay in cities and large towns, where
dense masses of Catholics were gathered, and where churches,
clergy, and religious organizations of all kinds, were inadequate
to the spiritual wants of the people.
{123}
A large part of the missionary work which has been accomplished
has been, therefore, among those dense masses of the people in
our largest churches and congregations, penetrating to the lowest
strata, and bringing to bear a powerful religious influence upon
the most uninstructed and negligent classes of the people. Some
idea of the extent of this work may be gained from the fact that
the missions given by the corps which F. Bernard organized,
during seven years, from 1851 to 1858, were eighty-six in number,
with an aggregate of 166,000 communions. They have been carried
on on a similar scale, since that time, by the new Congregation
of St. Paul, and by members of several older religious societies;
so that, in the last seven years, the number of persons who have
participated in the benefits of missions is, probably, nearly
double the figures given above. There were other missions also
given, during the first period, besides those enumerated,
especially among Germans. It is, therefore, speaking within
bounds to estimate the number of persons who have received the
sacraments on missions, since 1851, at 500,000.
This is, however, much less than might have been done, if the
number of missionaries and the facilities for attending their
missions had been greater. Our Catholic population is a vast sea,
where the successors of the apostolic fishers of men may cast
their nets perpetually, without ever exhausting its abundance. In
large towns, the population is so fluctuating and so continually
increasing, that the work needs to be perpetually renewed at
short intervals. There are also immense difficulties in the way
of the poor people. The mass of them belong to the laboring
class, and are, therefore, obliged to come to church very early,
before their working hours, and again at night, after their work
is done. They have no leisure, and can with difficulty rescue
even the few hours necessary for listening to the instructions
they so much need. Hence, many of them can get only as it were by
snatches, here and there, a sermon or instruction during the
course. In factory towns the case is worse.
{124}
Were it not for the accommodation usually granted by the
overseers, in shortening the time, and giving leave of absence,
it would be impossible to give missions to the operatives in many
of our factory villages. Our modern system of society leaves out
of the account the wants of the soul and the duties of religion.
For many, there is even the hard necessity of working all night,
and all Sunday. It is, therefore, difficult enough for our poor
people to attend a mission well, when there is plenty of room for
them in the church, and a good chance of going to confession
without waiting longer than a few hours. Very frequently,
however, in our large and overcrowded parishes, the church will
not hold--even when crowded to suffocation--more than from
one-fourth to one-half of the parishioners. The church is
frequently filled two hours before the time of service. The
porch, the steps, the windows even, are crowded, and hundreds go
a way disappointed. It is easy to see what a drawback this is to
the success of a mission, which requires a continuous attendance
at all the sermons and instructions, and to the stillness and
order in the church which are necessary to enable all to hear
distinctly, and to reflect on what they hear. I have seen at
least four thousand persons congregated in the streets adjacent
to the New York Cathedral, besides the crowd inside.