Benjamin Petit.

About Benjamin Petit

Benjamin Marie Petit was a Catholic missionary to the Potawatomi at Twin Lakes, Indiana and the Pokagon Potawatomi in southwest Michigan from November 1837 to September 1838. He also served Catholics at St. Joseph Mission in Bertrand, Michigan, and St. Mary of the Lake Mission in South Bend, Indiana. 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.