Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 30 July 1976 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
2 pages; 2 sides; manuscript; copy
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
1915: born on May 1 in the Angel Hotel at Clowne, Derbyshire, where his father was the landlord. The family moved to Great Yarmouth, where he attended the grammar school.
1938: Oscott
1942: ordained
1949 - 1975: PP at Downham Market
2004: died
He went to the Jesuits' Campion House in Middlesex before going to the prestigious French seminary to become "a gentleman of St Sulpice"; but, in 1938, he was asked to leave after publishing an article suggesting that the Treaty of Versailles had been too severe on Germany to be the basis of a lasting peace. On returning home Baker was not accepted by the Jesuits, then earned a living selling books in Glasgow, tried the Dominicans, he eventually went to Oscott seminary at Birmingham. After being ordained priest in 1942, Baker served as a curate at Luton, High Wycombe and Wymondham, Norfolk, before going to Downham Market in 1949.
When the New Mass came out in 1969, Fr. Baker refused to say it and continued to offer exclusively the Tridentine Latin Mass as codified by Pope St. Pius V in 1570. In 1975 Father Baker was suspended by Bishop Charles Grant. Bishop Grant told Fr. Baker not to say Mass in his Church, so Fr. Baker obediently said Mass in his Presbytery instead.
With the help of donations a house was purchased for his presbytery & chapel, at 48 Bexwell Road, Downham Market, named the "St. Pius V Chapel". He said Mass there until his death in 2004
In 1984 he explained that the present Pope was "no more a Catholic than Ian Paisley - and no more a pope than Billy Graham". He added that "the new Mass is a sacrilegious parody of the true Mass: it is sinful to take part in it."
Gradually Baker's congregation fell to about 20, though it would swell when the film producer Mel Gibson, who bought a house nearby, appeared for Sunday Mass and stayed for coffee afterwards.
On July 2 2004 Father Oswald Baker declared: "I am ready to die" - which he then did.
Repository
Archival history
pre-2018: DOM
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
RCDEA Archive
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Invited to offer the traditional Mass at Newcastle on 8 August. Telling the Bishop through courtesy following his admonition in the Catholic Press. Questions whether his reasoning can be found by the Bishop to be at fault. Offers Fr Wathen's "The Great Sacrilege" as an non-refutable authority. Fr Baker is trying to do God's Will - not defiant to authority but does not agree with the requirement for blind and unquestioning obedience.
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Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
DEA
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
204x217mm
Notes area
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Place access points
Name access points
- Lindsay, Hugh Rev (1927-2009) (Subject)