Feburary 10, 2025 is the 186th anniversary of the death of Fr. Benjamin Marie Petit, the young French priest who yearned to serve the Native American Pottawatomi in northern Indiana after his ordination in 1837.
Servant of God, Bishop Simon Brute’ gave him that opportunity which, unfortunately, led to his death as a Martyr of Charity in 1839 after accompaning his “parishioners” on the Trail of Death.
This site attempts to “Remember those who have gone before us”. To remember those who have faded from our collective memory. February 10th is the anniversary of the death of Fr. Petit who died in St. Louis in 1839. The cause of his death was typhoid fever which he contracted along with many, many Pottawatomi Indians who had been forced from their lands in Indiana and forced to march across the middle west to Kansas. But that is the not the end of the story of a holy and heroic life, albeit a short one!
I’ve written in the past about Petit’s life, but I wanted to stress, in this post, that he among many may others will never be “canonized”, that is, officially recognized by the Church. However, all that means is that there is no official feast day, we cannot offer prayers publicly. A simple online search finds this:
According to Catholic teachings, while you can privately ask for the intercession of someone not canonized (meaning not officially declared a saint), it is not appropriate to publicly pray for them in a formal setting as part of a church service or organized prayer because only those officially recognized by the Church can be publicly venerated as saints; this means you can pray for someone personally but should not ask others to join in a public prayer for a non-canonized individua
What we can do is privately seek the intercession of these so-called “Indiana Saints” If you are interested here is a list of some of those Indiana Saints among others known only to God.
These days it is extrememly expensive to get a person through to canonization. There are literally hundreds of Servants of God if not more. That title is the first step in a lengthy process. This is why one sees candidates like Dorothy Day (Archdiocese of New York), Fr. Michael McGivney (KofC), etc. etc. who are further along becasue there is popular support and money available.
The point, however, is that whether Benjamin Petit, or Simon Brute’ or Anthony Deydier, or Simon Lalumiere, or John Plunket, or Vincent Bacquelin or others will ever be elevated to that of a canonized saint doesn’t really. We can still seek their intercession in our “private” prayers.
Father Petit died in the Jesuit seminary building in Saint Louis 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, Father Edward Sorin, founder of Notre Dame University, South Bend, Indiana, came and took Father Petit’s body back to Indiana. Father Petit’s remains rest under the Log Chapel at the University of Notre Dame Over the past few years a Mass has been celebrated in the Log Chapel honoring Fr. Petit. Hopefully it will be “live-streamed” again, this year.
Today some of the Potawatomi pray to Father Petit and feel that he is a saint. It is certain that he is regarded by all as a very good man who gave his all for his flock.
Read more about Petit and the Potawatomi tragedy by visiting:
- Read about how a Notre Dame alumnus has begun to celebrate Peti’s life with an annual Mass celebrated in the Log Chapel on the Notre Dame campus.
The Trail of Death and Maxinkuckee’s Chiefs
St. Rose Philippine Duchesne
Map of the Trail of Death
History_of_the_Potawatomis
Certainly, this man is a Saint”¦
