Augustine Baker
Augustine Baker
Early life
Baker was born David Baker at
He was educated at Christ's Hospital and at Broadgate's Hall, now Pembroke College, Oxford, afterwards becoming a member of Clifford's Inn, and later of the Middle Temple. [2] In 1598 he was made Recorder of Abergavenny.
At Oxford he lost his faith in the existence of God, but after some years, his, to his mind, miraculous escape from a near fatal accident caused him to reconsider. He read widely the proscribed literature of the day, Anglican and Catholic.[3] Following this, he was received into the Catholic Church.
Career
In 1605 he joined the Benedictine Order at the
He was ordained priest at Rheims in 1613 and sent to England. At the desire of his superiors he now devoted his time and the ample means which he had inherited, to investigating and refuting the recently started error that the ancient Benedictine congregation in England was dependent on that of
In 1624 he was sent to the newly established convent of Benedictine nuns at Cambrai (today succeeded by the community at Stanbrook Abbey) in Flanders, not as chaplain, but to aid in forming the spiritual character of the religious. Here he remained for about nine years, during which time he wrote many of his mystical treatises, an abstract of which is contained in the work Sancta Sophia (1657) compiled by Serenus de Cressy. Some of the transcriptions of his works by the Cambrai nun Barbara Constable are the only known copies.[4] In 1633 he removed to St. Gregory's at Douai, where he wrote his long treatise on the English mission. The English Benedictine Congregation investigated the use of Baker's ideas at the convent in Cambrai. Catherine Gascoigne, the abbess, and Gertrude More, the founder, stepped up in his defence and no further action was taken.[5]
In 1655 the English Benedictine Congregation moved again to try and censure the use of Augustine Baker's approach. Gascoigne refused to cooperate and would not send them the papers they required for the investigation. She threatened that she would leave the EBC if they insisted on her cooperation. The investigation ceased.[5]
In 1638 he returned to the English mission, where he was frequently forced to change where he stayed in order to avoid the pursuivants who were on his track.[2]
Death
Baker died from the
Legacy
Of more than thirty treatises chiefly on spiritual matters written by Baker, many are to be found in manuscript at Downside Abbey, Ampleforth Abbey, Stanbrook Abbey, and other Benedictine monasteries in England.
Abbot Justin McCann, former Master of
Writings
- Sancta Sophia ("Holy Wisdom", 1657) compiled and edited by Serenus Cressy
References
- ^ Dom David Augustine Baker - That Mysterious Man, 14 July 2000
- ^ a b c Stone, Jean Mary. "David Augustine Baker." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 4 November 2022 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ RHODES, J. T. "SOME WRITINGS OF A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLISH BENEDICTINE: DOM AUGUSTINE BAKER O.S.B.", The Yale University Library Gazette, vol. 67, no. 3/4, 1993, pp. 110โ17. JSTOR
- ^ Wolfe, Heather. "Constable, Barbara". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Archived from the original on 26 September 2004.
- ^ a b "4-gascoigne". stanbrookabbey.org.uk. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
- S2CID 186570764.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "David Augustine Baker". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Bibliography
- Temple, Liam P. (2017). "The Mysticism of Augustine Baker, OSB: a reconsideration". Reformation & Renaissance Review. 19 (3): 213โ230.