Benjamin Petit - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Benjamin Marie Petit was a Catholic

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

missionary

Missionary

A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...

sent to the Potawatomi

Potawatomi

The Potawatomi are a Native American people of the upper Mississippi River region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a member of the Algonquian family. In the Potawatomi language, they generally call themselves Bodéwadmi, a name that means "keepers of the fire" and that was applied...

nation of Native Americans

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

in Indiana

Indiana

Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

in 1837. A native of Rennes

Rennes

Rennes is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France. Rennes is the capital of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department.-History:...

in Brittany

Brittany

Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...

, Petit was trained as a lawyer at the University of Rennes

University of Rennes

The University of Rennes was a French university located in the city of Rennes. It was established by the union of the 3 faculties of the city in 1885. In 1969, it was divided in two new universities:* the University of Rennes 1...

, then studied for the priesthood at the Saint-Sulpice Seminary in Paris. In 1836, he came to the United States to work with Bishop Simon Bruté

Simon Bruté

Simon William Gabriel Bruté de Rémur, the first bishop of the Diocese of Vincennes, Indiana, was born on March 20, 1779, at Rennes, France. His father was Simon-Guillaume-Gabriel Bruté de Remur, Superintendent of the Royal Domains in Brittany; and his mother, Jeanne-Renee Le Saulnier de Vauhelle...

in Indiana. Also a native of Rennes, Bruté ordained Petit as a priest in 1837 and sent him to work among the Potawatomi.

Removal of the Potawatomi

In 1838, when the United States forced the removal

Indian Removal

Indian removal was a nineteenth century policy of the government of the United States to relocate Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi River to lands west of the river...

of a band of 859 Potawatomi from the vicinity of Plymouth, Indiana

Plymouth, Indiana

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 9,840 people, 3,838 households, and 2,406 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,414.0 people per square mile . There were 4,100 housing units at an average density of 589.2 per square mile...

, to the present-day site of Osawatomie, Kansas

Osawatomie, Kansas

Osawatomie is a city in Miami County, Kansas, United States, southwest of Kansas City. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 4,447. It derives its name from two streams nearby, the Osage and Potawatomie.-History:...

, Petit accompanied them on most of the two-month march, now called the Potawatomi Trail of Death

Potawatomi Trail of Death

The Potawatomi Trail of Death was the forced removal by United States forces from September 4 to November 4, 1838, of 859 members of the Potawatomi nation from Twin Lakes near Plymouth, Indiana, to the location of present-day Osawatomie, Kansas, a distance of . Typhoid fever and the stress of the...

. More than 40 of the Potawatomi died of disease and the stress of the march. Petit himself became ill during the march. Because of the needs of the Bishop of Vincennes, Simon Brute

Simon Bruté

, Petit was recalled to Vincennes. Fr. Robert Gorman, former archivist of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, wrote in his unpublished history of the diocese:

"...he [Brute] wrote to Benjamin Petit on the Osage River, recalling him to Vincennes. Petit, who had overtaken the Indians at Danville on September 16, 1838, arrived with them at their reservation on the Osage on November 4, 1838. In the course of the march along the trail of death about 150 Indians had deserted or perished. 0n his arrival, Petit himself was suffering from a serious illness caused by fever and exhaustion, which lasted during the two months he stayed at the Osage. Brute's letter arrived on December 23, 1838 and, having completed arrangements to transfer his charge to the Jesuit missionary, Christian Hoecken, who hitherto had worked on the Kickapoo mission. Petit, accompanied by an Indian, started on his return on horseback, January 2, 1839. After 150 miles of this mode of travel he found it impossible to go on and got on the stage which carried him to Jefferson City. The route from this point to St. Louis was traversed in an open wagon in the rain and over bad roads. On January 15, 1839 he arrived at the Jesuit College in St. Louis in the last stages of debility, with many running sores on his body, which was completely jaundiced by the fever. Three days later he wrote to Brute informing him of his location and condition. He hoped for recovery but died in less than a month, on February, 10, 1839. On the receipt of the news in Vincennes Brute celebrated a solemn requiem in the cathedral on Monday, February 18, l839 and delivered a touching, eulogy on his favorite missionery who was known as the Seraphic Benjamin Petit. The immense charity and tragic story of Petit were long remembered and left their mark on the diocese."

In his book The Trail of Death, Irving McKee writes in his conclusion:

"Father Petit did not live to see his Bishop again. Exhausted by his strenuous journey and weakened by successive attacks of fever, he died at St. Louis on February 10, 1839. He was not quite twenty nine years old."

Father Petit died in the Jesuit seminary building at 9th and Washington Streets and was buried in the old cemetery at 7th Street and St. Charles Avenue. In 1856 the cemetery was moved to make way for downtown St. Louis. At that time, Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C.

Edward Sorin

The Very Rev. Edward Frederick Sorin, C.S.C. , a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross was the founder of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and of St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas.-Youth:...

took Father Petit's body back to Indiana. Father Petit's remains rest under the Log Chapel at the University of Notre Dame

University of Notre Dame

The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...

. Because of his service to the Potawatomi, Petit is remembered by the Catholic Church as a martyr of charity

Martyr of charity

In the Catholic church, a martyr of charity is someone who dies as a result of administering Christian charity. While a martyr of the faith dies through being persecuted for being a Catholic or for being a Christian, a martyr of charity dies through practising charity motivated by Christianity...

External links

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