THE BAKER BOYS & APOSTLE OF CHARITY

 

The next American to be considered this month is VENERABLE MONSIGNOR NELSON BAKER, who was born in 1841, in Buffalo, New York. His mother was Catholic, his father was a Lutheran, who converted to Catholicism on his deathbed. 

Nelson was in the military for a brief time, as a private in the New York State militia for six weeks during the Civil War in 1863. His unit was sent to end the New York draft riots. Afterwards, he and another man started a grain and feed business which became quite successful.

In 1868, he resumed his education at Canisius College, Buffalo. He entered Our Lady of the Angels Seminary at Niagara University, New York, in 1870, and was ordained a Diocesan priest on March 19, 1876. 

For five years he served as Assistant Pastor at Lackawanna, then as curate in Corning, New York. In 1882, he was recalled to Lackawanna as superintendent of the institution destined to become Our Lady of Victory Homes of Charity, with an orphanage, industrial school, home for infants, facilities for unwed mothers, and maternity hospital.

Father Baker's work with boys was legendary. Taking care of up to fifteen hundred boys at a time, he established workshops that taught the boys skills in various trades. Many of "Father Baker's Boys" became doctors, lawyers, priests, congressmen and governors. He was a true father to the boys. He guided them to be good Catholics, encouraged them, played ball with them, and organized activities for them such as walks in the country, trips to a lake and to Niagara Falls, a summer camp, and an annual picnic in Buffalo.

He also worked to prevent abortions by providing a home for pregnant women and their babies. This ministry began when Father Baker learned that the bodies of over 200 babies were found in a sewer. He rented a few rooms in a boarding house, then as more women came for help, he rented the entire building, and after raising money through the Association, he had a house built in 1908 for pregnant young women, babies, and children up to five years old. The privacy of the mothers was very important to him. He kept everything confidential and also had a policy that anyone could leave a baby at the home at any time without filling out paperwork. Babies were sometimes left in a bassinet in the hall by the unlocked front door. Father Baker visited the Infant Home most evenings and blessed the babies and young children. He also started a maternity hospital, which became a general hospital in 1932, and built two homes for the nurses who worked at the hospital and Infant Home.

During the Depression, he helped many people by paying rent for families to stay in their homes, donating clothing, providing shelter, arranging for free medical care, and providing meals. Father Baker had a lot of energy and remained in active ministry until shortly before his death. He began a ministry to African- Americans while in his 90s, with the help of a Redemptorist priest, who once lived at St. Joseph’s as a boy.

His zealous and tireless apostolic activity was a product of his intense spiritual life. Father Baker nurtured an ardent devotion to the Holy Eucharist and to the Blessed Mother, particularly under the title Our Lady of Victory.

In 1921, at the advanced age of 80, he began construction on the majestic Basilica of Our Lady of Victory. Constructed in four years' time, it was consecrated in 1926. L'Osservatore Romano described the Basilica as "one of the most superb shrines the Catholic Church possesses in the United States."

He administered the Basilica Parish with the adjacent Homes of Charity, for the rehabilitation of countless underprivileged men, women and children until late in life. Father Baker died on July 29, 1936, in Lackawanna, New York. At least a half-million people attended his funeral.

Father Baker spent 60 years caring for the orphaned, poor, sick and migrants. In his own lifetime, it is estimated that he housed 100,000 children, and the adoption ministry he ran is still going strong 170 years later. 

 

 

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