This is one of those almost “ancient” events that are “related” to the history of the Church in Indiana.
On this date, which was Palm Sunday in 1736, Fr. Antoninus Senat S.J. was burned at the stake by Indians. He was pastor of St. Francis Xavier, in Vincennes, according to Cauthorn’s “nine epochs in the history of St. Francis Xavier” [History of St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, p. 228].
Fr. Senat was pastor at Kaskaskia, which is where many missionaries had come to Vincennes from. However, it is doubtful that he ever actually visited the post at Vincennes. He accompanied the troops, including the “Sieur de Vincennes” who had gone to fight the Chickasaw Indians. One description, taken from Transactions of the Illinois Historical Society says this:
“Tis malediction I bring to you blessed ones, but I must tell it now and quickly. We went to Fort Prudhomme with the Major, and Vincennes joined us with twenty French and 100 Miamis. We waited long for Bienville; he came not; we waited longer for Moncheval, he was not there. Our maize and hog meat ran short; our Indians were clamorous to begin. We marched alone to the attack. We marched a weary twenty leagues and came to the towns of the Chickasaws; they were awaiting us, and we were forced to attack. We pass two lines of fortification. We are successful but we pay the price. At the third line D’Artaguette falls severely wounded. The Miamis betray us; the Illinois and Missouris run like sheep. They who were so eager to fight are cowards when we need them. We try to drag Father Senat and Vincennes away but they will not come and leave their wounded friend. These, with fifteen others are taken by the fiends. I hang around to try and help them. Bienville attacks from the other side and is defeated with great loss. D’Artaguette,’ Vincennes, Senat and the others remain in the hands of the Chickasaws. Then comes a day of feasting and noise and in the afternoon they bring out the French. They tie them by fours to saplings and (lance the death dance, while I watch from a near by tree. They build piles of hickory poles in circles around them and set fire to the poles, and when the fires burn down they rush in toward them in crowds; they stick them with the hot poles; they discharge their guns loaded only with powder into their bodies. Ali, Jesus. I hear their hateful screams and above all the din the song of Senat as he chanted his requiem mass. My ears ring with it. My eyes burn with the sight until I cannot eat or sleep. And then there was silence and they are all dead-all! all!”
The execution took place in Mississippi. In fact, there is a Historical Marker located 1-1/2 miles south of Pontotoc, Pontotoc County, Mississippi which says:
PIERRE D’ARTAGUETTE:
“French Commander was defeated in battle with Chickasaw Indians, May 20, 1736. A week later d’Artaguette, Frances Marie Bissat de Vincennes, Father Artaine Senat, Jesuit Missionary, in all 20 Frenchmen captured were burned at the stake by their captors. Father Senat scorning the offer to escape martyrdom remained with his comrades and entoning the Miserere, led them into the destroying flame.”
Erected by the John Foster Society Children of the American Revolution, Columbus, Mississippi 1934 — Bernard Romans Chapter
Msgr. John J. Doyle, former Archivist of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and author of The Catholic Church in Indiana 1686-1814 has this to say:
The Sieur de Vincennes did not long continue in command of the post that he founded and that came in later years to be called for him. In 1736 he lost his life in a battle with the Chickasaw Indians in what is now the state of Mississippi. Governor Bienville, hoping to crush the Chickasaws and thus gain unimpeded passage on the Mississippi River, planned a concerted attack upon the Indians from the south and- the north. Bienville would lead his troops from New Orleans. He ordered Diron d�Artiguiette, commander at Fort Chartres, to gather the forces of the Illinois district and to meet him. The Illinois contingent was made up of some 140 Frenchmen and 300 Indians. A part of this little army was from the post on the Wabash, led by its young commander. The part played by these men has prompted some to call the expedition Indiana” first war.
FAILING TO MEET Bienville, who had met with delays, and being nearly out of provisions, d�Artiguiette ordered an attack on a Chickasaw town, in the hope that its store of food would replenish his supplies and that its stockade would affard his men a secure fort to await Bienville” army. The attack occurred on Palm Sunday, March 25, 1736. It had success at first, but after a while a large force of Chickasaws came forward and overwhelmed the attackers. Fifty or 60 of these were killed and some 20 were carried off wounded. The Chickasaws captured about 20 men and put them to death by burning on the very day of the battle. These included d�Artiguiette himself, who was badly wounded, the officers Pierre St. Ange and Vincennes, and Father Antoine Senat, the Jesuit chaplain.THERE IS NO REASON to suppose that Father Senat, whom some list among the priests serving at the post on the Wabash, was ever there. It was because of his presence at Kaskaskia, where he was doubtless serving his apprenticeship like d�Outreleau before him, that he went as chaplain on the disastrous expedition that cost him his life. It is likely that his superior thought that this would be good experience for the young man, who had been in the country but a short time. The association of his name with that of Vincennes as a hero on that occasion has led to the mistake that he was the priest at the post on the Wabash.
[The Catholic Church in Indiana 1686-1814 by John J. Doyle. 1976, pp. 9, 11]
Father Alerding says: “That Father Senat, a Jesuit, was pastor of Vincennes is mere conjecture. Still, it is presumed that he was, for the reason that he accompanied ‘Vincennes’ the commander of the fort…” [Alerding History of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Vincennes p.54]
So, today we honor Fr. Senat who died a martyr’s death. He may have never set foot at Vincennes, but his work contributed to the history of the Catholic Church in Indiana.
