172 years ago today, Father Benjamin Marie Petit died in Saint Louis. 
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 end of the story of a holy and heroic life, albeit a short one!
Benjamin Marie Petit, was born in the city of Rennes, France in 1811. He attended university and law school and after three years as a lawyer, he entered the Seminary of St. Sulpice in 1835. 
In June of 1836 the young Breton came to the United States with Bishop Brute to serve the Church in the missionary territory of Indiana. He wrote to his mother in April of 1836 and told her that he was going to join Bishop Brute in Indiana. His family protested, apparently because of his fragile health. However, Petit insisted, and he left France in June aboard the “Francis Depau”, sailing from LeHavre. [Note: click on the image to see the entire list of those who accompanied Brute to Indiana] They arrived in New York on July 21, 1836. He was then sent on to Vincennes.
By the end of the year he had received Minor Orders and then in September of 1837 he was ordained a Deacon and on October 14, 1837 he was ordained a priest at Vincennes by Bishop Brute.
His wish had always been to serve the Indians and with the death of Father Louis DeSeille, his wish had been granted.
You can read more on Fr. Petit as well as other”Indiana Saints” by going to Indiana Saints located on this site.
Finally, here is a touching excerpt from a letter that Petit wrote to his mother, dated October 15, 1837, just one day after his ordination:
“I am now a priest, and the hand that is writing to you bore Jesus Christ this morning! How can I express to you all that I should like to say, and yet, how can I not wish to say something of what no tongue can express? “¦When I think that in two days I shall start from here all alone, going nearly three hundred miles to bestow sacraments “” graces ratified in heaven “” among people whom I do not know at all, but to whom God sends me”“I tremble at the though of my nothingness. “¦How deeply to I feel myself penetrated by St. Paul’s thought, that God loves to accomplish great things by using that which is nothing”¦”
Read more about Petit and the Pottawatomi tragedy by visiting:
- The Trail of Death and Maxinkuckee’s Chiefs
Potawatomi Web-“Trail of Death” map
St. Rose Philippine Duchesne
History_of_the_Potawatomis
Certainly, this man is a Saint”¦
