On this day – October 14, 1837, Bishop Brute ordained two men. Benjamin Petit and John Plunkett. Both men would go on to do great things in service to the Church in Indiana. Both would die outside of the state and within three years of their ordination.
John Plunkett, an Irishman, did heroic work on the canals in northern Illinois, ministering to the people there. He died while on a sick call on a stormy night in March of 1840. You can read all about it in a previous post.
Benjamin Petit, a Frenchman who yearned to serve the Indians in northern Indiana, was also ordained on this day. He came over from France with Bishop Brute in 1836, inspired as so many were by the good bishop. Petit’s biography can be read here. He died in 1838 after accompanying the Potawatomi Indians on the “Trail of Death”.
Remember them this day…
