The Alphonsian Academy was founded in 1949 by the Redemptorists.
Father Baker worked closely with Father Isaac Hecker on his missions and so after Hecker’s expulsion from the Redemptorists and his subsequent permission to found the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle, granted by Pope Pius IX, Baker joined fellow missionaries Isaac Hecker, Augustine Hewit, Clarence Walworth, and George Deshon in leaving the Redemptorists to found the new society.
Giovanni's father, a veterinarian, was a close friend of the Redemptorists of Madonna dell'Olmo, Montecchio Emilia, and after the closure of the convent in 1859, a sizable portion of its library was placed in the Mercati home.
Mary's College is a former high school and junior seminary that was operated by the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, a missionary order of the Roman Catholic Church more commonly known as "Redemptorists."