Baker, Nelson Henry
BAKER, NELSON HENRY
Domestic prelate, servant of underprivileged; b. Buffalo, N.Y., Feb. 16, 1841; d. Lackawanna, N.Y., July 29, 1936. After his early education in public schools he went into business, but in 1868 resumed his education at Canisius College, Buffalo, as one of its first students. He entered Our Lady of Angels Seminary at Niagara University, N.Y., in 1870, and was ordained on March 19, 1876. For five years he served as assistant pastor at Lackawanna, then as curate in Corning, N.Y. (then part of the Buffalo diocese). In 1882 he was recalled to Lackawanna to succeed Rev. Vincent Hines as superintendent of the institution destined to become Our Lady of Victory Homes of Charity, with an orphanage, industrial school, home for infants, and maternity hospital. Baker was named vicar general of the Buffalo diocese (1902), made a domestic prelate (1905), and later raised to the rank of prothonotary apostolic. The Basilica of Our Lady of Victory was consecrated in 1926, and, with the adjacent homes of charity, was administered by Baker for the rehabilitation of countless underprivileged men, women, and children.
Bibliography: f. anderson, Father Baker (Milwaukee 1960).
[p. j. riga]