  A $1/\N$ expansion of the chiral Lagrangian for baryons is formulated and
used to study the low-energy dynamics of baryons interacting with the pion
nonet $\pi$, $K$, $\eta$ and $\eta^\prime$ in a combined expansion in chiral
symmetry breaking and $1/\N$. Strong $CP$-violation is included. The chiral
Lagrangian correctly implements nonet symmetry and contracted spin-flavor
symmetry for baryons in the large $\N$ limit. The implications of nonet
symmetry for low-energy baryon-pion interactions are described in detail. The
procedure for calculating non-analytic pion-loop corrections to baryon
amplitudes in the $1/\N$ expansion for finite $\N$ is explained. Flavor-$\bf
27$ baryon mass splittings are calculated at leading order in chiral
perturbation theory as an example.
