Benjamin Marie Petit | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 8, 1811 |
| Died | February 10, 1839 (aged 27) Saint Louis, Missouri, United States |
| Other names | Chichipe Outipe (Little Duck) |
| Education | University of Rennes (law) in Rennes, France, and Saint-Sulpice Seminary in Paris, France |
| Church | Roman Catholic |
| Ordained | October 14, 1837, in Vincennes, Indiana[1] |
| Title | Priest; Missionary to the Potawatomis |
| External image | |
|---|---|
 Fr. Benjamin Petit, 1838, from an oil portrait by artist George Winter. |
Benjamin Marie Petit (April 8, 1811 – February 10, 1839) was a Catholic missionary to the Potawatomi at Twin Lakes, Indiana, where he served from November 1837 to September 1838. A native of Rennes in Brittany, France, Petit was trained as a lawyer at the University of Rennes, but left the profession after three years to enter the Saint-Sulpice Seminary in Paris to study for the priesthood. In 1836 he decided to move to the United States to become a missionary among the Native Americans. He traveled to New York with a group led by Bishop Simon Bruté, the first bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Vincennes. Petit was sent to Vincennes, Indiana, where Bishop Bruté ordained him as a Roman Catholic priest on October 14, 1837. Within a month the bishop sent the newly ordained priest to work among the Potawatomi in northern Indiana.
Father Petit was known for his compassion toward his Potawatomi parishioners. He also joined them on their forced march to new reservation lands along the Osage River, at the present-day site of Osawatomie, Kansas, in 1838. The journey covered about 660 miles (1,060 km) over 61 days and became known as the Potawatomi Trail of Death. During his return trip to Indiana in 1839, Father Petit became too ill to continue and died at the Jesuit seminary in St. Louis (present-day Saint Louis University) at the age of 27 years, 10 months. His remains are buried under the Log Chapel at the University of Notre Dame. A Potawatomi Trail of Death marker in honor of Father Petit at St. Philippine Duchesne Park in Linn County, Kansas, was dedicated on September 28, 2003. His experiences and observations of his missionary work among the Potawatomi and their march to Kansas survive in the numerous letters he wrote to family, friends, and colleagues.