on Sundays a special Mass and sermon from their chaplain. The
Thirty-ninth Regiment, of Crimean memory, was stationed there at
that time, and as many as were able to get leave, as well as a
number of Catholic soldiers from the artillery battalion and the
Canadian Rifles, attended the mission. Some of these Crimean
veterans made their first communion, and others came to
confession who had made their last confession before some one of
the great battles of the Crimea. One of them, who was unable to
get through the crowd after service, arrived after taps at his
barracks, for which he was sent by the sergeant to the
guard-house, and reported to the colonel the next morning.
Colonel Monroe, the same officer who commanded the regiment in
the Crimea, tore up the report and released the soldier from
custody, saying that it was a shame to punish a man for going to
the mission, which had done his regiment more good than any thing
else that ever happened in Quebec.
{186}
We had several invitations to give missions in the British
Provinces, which it was necessary to decline, and, after taking
leave of Quebec, where we had received such unbounded kindness
and attention, both from the clergy and laity, we gave our last
mission for the season in St. Peter's Church, Troy, then under
the care of Father Walworth. From Troy we returned to New York,
where a small house had been rented for our use, near the site of
our new religious house and church.
During the summer of 1859, the work of collecting funds, by
public contributions in churches, and private subscriptions, was
continued, and the building, which was to serve as a religious
house, was erected; a large portion of it being thrown into a
commodious and tolerably spacious chapel, which could be used as
a temporary parish church for some years, until circumstances
would warrant the erection of a permanent church edifice. The
corner-stone was laid by the archbishop, on Trinity Sunday, June
19, in presence of an immense concourse of people. On the 24th of
November, the Feast of St. John of the Cross, the house was
blessed by the superior of the congregation, and taken possession
of. The first Mass was said in it on the following day, in one of
the rooms arranged as a private chapel. On the first Sunday of
Advent, November 27, the chapel was blessed, and Solemn Mass
celebrated in it by the Vicar-General of the diocese; and from
this time commenced the double labors of both parochial and
missionary duty. An accession to our small number of one more
priest, Father Tillotson, who had been previously residing in
England as a member of the Birmingham Oratory, enabled us to do
this--an undertaking which would otherwise have been extremely
difficult. Three of our number, of whom F. Baker was generally
one, could now be spared for the missions, leaving two in charge
of the parish; and by relieving one another occasionally, the
labor was somewhat lightened. Within the next two years our
number was further increased by the accession of two others--one
of whom, F. Walworth, had been for a long time the superior of
our missionary band, and now rejoined it, after a short interval,
in which he had been fulfilling parochial duty as pastor of St.
Peter's Church, Troy.
{187}
Strengthened by these accessions, we were enabled, while our
number remained undiminished by death, and all were blessed with
the health and strength necessary to the performance of active
labor, to carry on a continuous course of missions during seven
years, dating from the time of our separate organization; and at
the same time to bestow abundant care and attention on our
continually increasing parish. Three of these missions were given
in the British Provinces--in the cathedral, of St. John's, N. B.,
Halifax, and Kingston, Canada, respectively; the remainder
chiefly in New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania,
with a small number in the Western States. The details already
given of previous missions are amply sufficient to give an idea
of the missionary life of F. Baker, and it would be wearisome to
continue them. These seven years, with the year immediately
preceding them, comprise the most laborious and most fruitful
portion of his too short priestly life. The number of missions
given in this period of seven years was seventy-nine, with an
aggregate of one hundred and sixty-six thousand communions, the
same number with that of the missions of the preceding seven
years. Father Baker assisted at sixty-four of these missions, and
at sixteen previously given, making a sum-total of eighty. The
number of converts from Protestantism registered is two hundred
and sixty-three, and the record is imperfect. Two of these were
Protestant clergymen--one the rector of the Episcopal Church in
Scranton, Pa.; the other, the principal of the High School in
Pittsfield, Mass.
It only remains now to say a few words of the virtues exhibited
by F. Baker, in his missionary, sacerdotal, and religious life.
Those high and noble virtues are best made known by a simple
record in his deeds, and by the utterance which he has himself
bequeathed in his own sermons, in which the lofty standard of
Christian perfection proposed to others is a simple reflection of
what he actually practised in his life.
{188}
Father Baker usually passed from seven to eight months of every
year in the labors of the missionary life, and in those labors,
as a member of a body of hard-working men, he was pre-eminent for
the assiduity and perseverance with which he devoted himself to
the most arduous and fatiguing occupations of his peculiar state.
He usually said Mass at five o'clock, after which he went to the
confessional till half-past seven. From nine until one, and from
three until half-past six, he was in his confessional, rarely
leaving it even for a moment. At half-past seven, on those
evenings when he was not to preach, he gave the instruction and
recited the prayers which preceded the principal sermon. A
considerable part of the remaining time was taken up by reciting
his office and other private religious duties, leaving but very
little for relaxation, and none whatever for exercise, unless it
was snatched at some brief interval, or required by the distance
of the church from the pastor's residence. During the first few
days of each mission, the confessionals were not opened, and the
preacher of the evening sermon was always freed from its labors
in the afternoon. Frequently, however, those first days were
devoted to a special mission given to the children of the
congregation; and F. Baker was always prompt and ready to fulfil
this duty, which he did in the most admirable manner, adapting
himself with a charming and winning grace and simplicity to the
tender age and understanding of the little ones, and reciting
with them beautiful forms of meditation and prayer, composed by
himself, during the whole time of the Mass at which they received
communion. The hardest part of the work of the mission, after the
confessions began, was continued during from five to eleven
successive days, according to the size of the congregation, and
requiring from ten to twelve hours of constant mental application
each day.
{189}
Besides this necessary and ordinary work, performed with the most
patient and unflagging assiduity, F. Baker often employed all the
remaining intervals of time--not taken up by meals and sleep--in
instructing adult Catholics who had never been prepared for the
sacraments, and in instructing and receiving converts. Wherever
there was any work of charity to be done, he undertook it
quietly, promptly, and cheerfully, always ready to spare others,
and willing to relieve them by assuming their duties when they
were exhausted or unwell, seldom asking to be relieved himself.
It was never necessary to remind F. Baker of his duty, much less
to give him any positive command. During a long course of
missions, in which I was superior, with F. Baker as my constant
companion and my associate in preaching the mission sermons, and
one other long-tried companion as the preacher of the
catechetical instructions, I remember, with peculiar
satisfaction, how perfect was the harmony with which we
co-operated with one another, without the least necessity of any
exercise of authority, or any disagreement of moment.
To understand fully how arduous was the work which F. Baker
performed, it must be considered that not only was his mind and
his whole moral nature taxed to the utmost by the continued
effort necessary in order to fulfil his duty as a preacher and
confessor, but that it was done under circumstances most
unfavorable to health, shut up in crowded, ill-ventilated rooms,
pressed upon by impatient throngs, forced to strain the vocal
organs to the utmost in large churches crowded with dense masses
of people, and often obliged to pass suddenly from an overheated
and stifling atmosphere into an intensely cold or damp air, and
always obliged to work, for several hours in the morning,
fasting. Such a life is a very severe strain upon one who has
only the ordinary American constitution, especially if his
temperament is delicate and unaccustomed to hardship in early
life. The amount of work which F. Baker performed was not equal
to that which many European missionaries are able to endure,
especially those who have an unusually robust constitution.
{190}
But it was greater than that which St. Alphonsus himself required
of the missionaries who were under his own personal direction.
The average duration of a career of continuous missionary labor
in Europe is only ten years, and it is therefore not surprising
that F. Baker was able to continue such constant and arduous
exertions, with the other duties which devolved on him during the
intervals of missions, for no longer a period than eight years.
At least as far back as the year 1861, he began to suffer from a
malady of the throat, and to find the effort of preaching
painful. Nevertheless, he continued to perform his full share of
this duty until within a year before his death. Occasionally it
would be necessary to relieve him of some of his sermons; and on
the last mission which we gave together, which was in St. James's
Church, Salem, Massachusetts, he asked to be relieved altogether
both from the sermons and the short instructions which precede
them. This mission was given during the month of January, 1865.
F. Baker assisted at two other missions after this, one at
Archbald, in Pennsylvania, and the other at Birmingham,
Connecticut, at each of which he preached four sermons. His last
mission sermon was preached, February 18, 1865, six weeks before
his death; which occurred on the last day of the next mission but
one, given at Clifton, Staten Island--twelve years from the time
of his receiving his first communion at the mission in the
Cathedral of Baltimore.
In the discharge of the duties allotted to him in the parish, F.
Baker labored with the same zeal and assiduity as he did in the
missions. He was particularly charged with the care of the altar
and the divine service in the church, for which his thoroughly
sacerdotal spirit, his exquisite taste, and his complete
acquaintance with the rubrics and the details of ecclesiastical
rites and ceremonies, gave him a special fitness.
{191}
He took unwearied pains and care in providing vestments and
ornaments, preserving the sanctuary and all appertaining to it in
order and neatness, decorating the church for great festivals,
training up the boys, who served at the altar, and directing the
manner of performing the divine offices. This minute and exact
attention to the beauty and propriety of the sacred ceremonies of
the Church, sprang from a deep, inward principle of devotion and
love to our Lord present in the Blessed Sacrament, to His Blessed
Mother, to the saints, and to the mysteries of the Christian
Faith, symbolized by the outward forms of religion. In the
performance of his sacerdotal functions, he was a model of
dignity, grace, and piety. He loved his duties, and was
completely absorbed in his priestly office. The august Sacrifice
and Sacrament of the Altar was his life and joy; and there he
derived those graces and virtues which produced their choice and
precious fruits in his character and conduct.
As a preacher of the Divine Word, he excelled equally. His
parochial sermons were even superior to those which he preached
on the mission. He could prepare himself more quietly; the
exertion was not so tasking to his physical strength, and suited
better the tone of his mind, which made it more pleasing and easy
for him to fulfil these ordinary pastoral ministrations than to
address great crowds of people, on occasions requiring a more
vehement style of oratory. His published sermons will enable the
reader to judge of his merit as a preacher, although their effect
was greatly increased by the impression produced by his personal
appearance and attitude, and the charm of his voice and
intonations. One striking feature of his sermons was the
abundance and felicity of his quotations from Holy Scripture.
Frequent reading and meditation of the inspired books had
saturated his mind with their influence, and the apposite texts
which were suitable for his theme appeared to flow from his lips
without an effort. Another characteristic of his preaching was,
that it appealed almost exclusively to the reason, and through
the reason to the will and conscience.
{192}
His continual aim was to inculcate conscientiousness, obedience
to the law of God, the fulfilment of the great duties of life,
and a faithful correspondence to the divine grace. He never lost
sight of this great end in his missionary or parochial sermons,
but always directed his aim to bring sinners to a renunciation of
sin, and a fixed purpose of living always in the grace of God,
and to bring good Christians to a high standard of practical
perfection and solid virtue. For deep speculations in theology
and oratorical display, he had not the slightest inclination. He
never desired to preach on unusual occasions or topics, but, on
the contrary, had an unconquerable repugnance to appear in the
pulpit, except where the sole object was to preach the gospel
with apostolic simplicity, for the single end of the edification
of the people. He was not at all conscious of his own superiority
as a preacher, and never gave his sermons for publication without
reluctance, or from any other motive than deference to the
judgment of his superior and his brethren. He loved and sought
the shade from a true and profound humility, without the
slightest desire for applause or reputation. His manner was
earnest and grave; at times, when the subject and occasion
required it, even vehement; but equable and sustained throughout
his discourse, without rising to any sudden or powerful outbursts
of eloquence. On ordinary occasions it had a calm and persuasive
force; enlivened with a certain pure and lofty poetic sentiment,
which blended with the prevailing argumentative strain of his
thought, pleasing the imagination just enough to facilitate the
access of the truth he was teaching to the reason and conscience,
without weakening its power, or distracting the mind from the
main point. He never produced those startling effects upon his
audience which are sometimes witnessed during a mission, by an
appeal to their feelings; but he invariably made a profound
impression, which manifested itself in the deep and fixed
attention with which he held them chained and captivated from the
first to the last word he uttered.
{193}
His eloquence was like the still, strong current of a deep and
placid river, sometimes swollen in volume and force, and
sometimes subsiding to a more tranquil and gentle flow; but never
deviating from a straight course, and seldom rushing with the
violence of a torrent.
In his more intimate and personal relations with his penitents,
with the sick and afflicted whom he visited, or who came to him
for counsel, and with others who sought instruction, advice, or
sympathy from him as a priestly director, F. Baker was a faithful
copy of the charity and suavity of his special patron--St.
Francis de Sales. Pure and holy as he was himself, he was
compassionate and indulgent to the most frail and sinful souls;
and, without ever relaxing the uncompromising strictness of
Christian principle, or mitigating his severe denunciations of
sin, he was free from all rigorism toward the penitent who sought
to rise from his sins by his aid. This benignity and charity
attracted to him a great number of persons who were in peculiar
difficulties and troubles, some of whom had never had courage to
go to any one else. He spared no pains and trouble to help them,
and his patience was inexhaustible. With the sick and dying he
took unusual pains, visiting them frequently, and often aiding
them to receive the sacraments devoutly by reciting prayers with
them from some appropriate book of devotion. He reconciled a
number to the Church who had been drawn away from their religion,
and was particularly successful in bringing to the fold of Christ
those who were without. The tokens of affection, gratitude, and
sorrow which were given by great numbers at his death, were
proofs how much he had endeared himself to all with whom he came
in contact, and how irreparable they felt his loss to be.
{194}
Of F. Baker's religious character it would be difficult to say
much, in addition to the portraiture of him which has been given
in the foregoing sketch of his life. It presented no salient or
striking points to be seized on and particularly described. Its
great beauty consisted in its quiet, equable constancy and
harmony. He had that evenly balanced temperament ascribed to St.
Charles Borromeo by his biographers, and regarded as the most
favorable to virtue. He had no favorite books of devotion, no
special practices of piety or austerity, no inclination for the
study of the higher mystic theology, no unusual difficulties or
temptations, no deep mental struggles, no scruples, no marked
periods of spiritual crisis and change after his conversion to
the Catholic Church--nothing extraordinary, except an
extraordinary fidelity and constancy in ordinary duties and
exercises, and extraordinary conscientiousness and purity of
life. He was detached from the world, and from every selfish
passion; reserved to a remarkable degree, without the faintest
tinge of melancholy or moroseness; collected within himself and
in God at all times; serene and tranquil of spirit; simple,
abstemious, and exact in his habits; with his whole heart in his
convent, his cell, his duties, and his religious exercises.
The character of F. Baker was very much developed during the
later years of his life. That passive, quiescent disposition
which characterized him in his earlier career, gave place to
greater decision and energy. He acquired by action a more
self-poised and determined judgment, greater self-reliance, and a
more marked individuality. He was no longer swayed and led by the
opinions of others, except so far as duty required him to obey,
or his own reason was convinced. The almost feminine delicacy and
refinement which he had in youth was hardened into a robust and
manly vigor, as it is with a softly-nurtured young soldier after
a long campaign. He exhibited also a gayety of temper, a
liveliness in conversation, and often a rich and exuberant humor
and playfulness, especially in depicting the variety of strange
and amusing characters and scenes with which he came in contact
by mixing with all classes of men, which had remained completely
latent in his earlier character, before it was warmed and
expanded by the genial influence of the Catholic religion.
{195}
No one could have been a more delightful companion on the
mission, during the intervals of rest and relaxation, than he
was; and he entered into the enjoyment of the occasional
recreations thrown in his way in traveling with the zest of a
schoolboy on a holiday. For company he had no taste, and he could
not be induced to undertake any jaunt or excursion for mere
pleasure. During the summer months he would never go into the
country, even for the sake of recruiting his health, but remained
during the hottest months at home, where he found the truest
happiness, pursuing the even tenor of his ordinary occupations. A
beautiful character! A rare specimen of the most perfect human
nature, elevated and sanctified by divine grace, and clothed with
a bodily form which was the exact expression of the inhabiting
soul! To describe it is impossible. Those who knew it by personal
acquaintance will say, without exception, that the attempt I have
made is completely inadequate, and, like an unsuccessful
portrait, reproduces but a dim and indistinct image of the
original. I do not mean to say that F. Baker was a perfectly
faultless character, or that he was without sin. Of those faults,
however, which are apparent to human eyes in the exterior
conduct, he had but few, and those slight and venial.