Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Baker, Pacificus

by Thompson Cooper

BAKER, PACIFICUS (1695–1774), Franciscan friar, discharged with credit the offices of procurator and definitor of his order, and was twice elected provincial of the English province, first in 1761 and secondly in 1770. He appears to have been attached to the Sardinian chapel in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and he certainly attended at the execution of Lord Lovat, 9 April 1747. His death occurred in London 16 March 1774. Baker wrote:

1. 'The Devout Christian's Companion for Holy Days,' London, 1757, 12mo.
2. 'Holy Altar and Sacrifice explained in some familiar dialogues on the Mass,' London, 1768, 12mo, being an abridgment of F. A. Mason's 'Liturgical Discourse on the Mass.'
3. 'A Lenten Monitor to Christians, in pious thoughts on the Gospels for every day in Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Tuesday, inclusive,' third edition, London, 1769, 12mo; again London, 1827, 8vo.
4. 'The Christian Advent,' 1782.
5. 'Sundays kept holy; in moral reflections on the Gospels for the Sundays from Easter to Advent. Being a supplement to the Christian Advent and Lenten Monitor,' second edition, London, 1772, 12mo.
6. 'The Devout Communicant,' London, 1813, 12mo.
7. 'Essay on the Cord of St. Francis.'
8. 'Scripture Antiquity.'
9. 'Meditations on the Lord's Prayer,' from the French.

Dr. Oliver says: 'Without much originality all these works are remarkable for unction, solidity, and moderation; but we wish the style was less diffuse and redundant of words.'

[Oliver's History of the Catholic Religion in Cornwall, &c., 543, 571; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.]

T. C.