CHAPTER VII.   Domestic Prelates of His Holiness:
                                   The Right Rev. Mgr. Julian Benoit, V.G.

     He was born in Septmoncel, a village in the great Jura mountain range, France, on October 17, 1808.  He began his theological studies at the age of seventeen, and having completed these studies, he was ordained subdeacon and deacon, not having attained the required age for priesthood.  He was so impressed with Bishop Brute's sanctity and learning, that he emigrated to America, on June 1, 1836.  He was ordained priest, by Bishop Brute, at Mount St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, on St. Mark's day, 1837.  His first appointment was at Leopold, near Evansville, Indiana.  He was next sent to Rome, on the Ohio river, and then went to Chicago; rom which place he also attended Lockport, Joliet and several other towns along the canal.  After one year he returned to Leopold, spending there three and one-half years in hard missionary labor.  During his stay at Leopold, he received a salary of $63.00.

     He was next sent to Fort Wayne, where he arrived on April 16, 1840.  During the first six months, in Fort Wayne, he boarded with Francis Comparet.  The church, at that time, was a frame structure rudely built, not plastered, 35x65 feet, with a few rough boards for benches.  Father Benoit soon secured all the ground, known as Cathedral Square, and paid for it.  His missionary field of labor comprised Lagro, Huntington, Columbia City, Warsaw, Goshen, Avilla, New France, New Haven, Besancon, Hesse Cassel and Decatur.  With the exception of a few canal towns, these visits had all to be made on horseback.  During sickly seasons Father Benoit underwent incredible hardships, on account of sick-calls as far as Muncie, Indiana, and Defiance, Ohio.  In 1845, he brought three Sisters of Providence to Fort Wayne, where he gave them a house completely furnished, and, towards enlarging the building, he contributed $5,000, in 1883.  He built the present brick structure, [61] on the corner of Jefferson and Clinton streets, for a school for boys.  He also erected the first episcopal residence, the present clergy house, on Clinton street, at a cost of $16,000, mostly from his personal resources.

     Father Benoit visited New Orleans in 1853 and in 1860, soliciting funds for the building of the Fort Wayne Cathedral.  In the autumn of 1861, the Cathedral was dedicated, having cost, including furniture, about $60,000.  Father Benoit visited Europe, in 1865, remaining there about thirteen months; and in 1874, as a member of the first American pilgrimage, remaining from May till September.  These visits were made principally in the interests of the diocese of Fort Wayne.  Many honors were bestowed on Father Benoit.  He was made Vicar General of the diocese of Vincennes, in 1852, and of Fort Wayne, in 1858.  During Bishop Luers' visit to Europe, in 1865, Father Benoit was Administrator of the diocese.  At the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore, in 1866, he was the theologian of Bishop Luers.  After the death of Bishop Luers, he was again Administrator of the diocese, from June, 1871, to April, 1872.  He attended the four Provincial Councils, at Cincinnati, as theologian to the Bishop.  In 1883, he was again Administrator of the diocese, during Bishop Dwenger's absence in Rome.  A Papal Brief of Leo XIII, bearing date of June 12, 1883, conferred upon Father Benoit the honors and title of Domestic Prelate of His Holiness.  The investiture took place in the Cathedral, on August 16th, of the same year.

     Father Benoit's interest in, and labors among, the Indians remains to be recorded.  Remnants of the old Fort Wayne and the Council House of the Miami Indians, on East Main street, still stood when Father Benoit came.  He proved a true friend and protector of the poor Indians, in their transactions with the United States government, and the post-traders.  In 1848, the Indians received orders from the government to leave their reservations about Fort Wayne, and go to the territory assigned them in Kansas.  They numbered about 800, and were led by Chief Lafontaine, whom, together with his wife and children, Father Benoit had received into the Church.  The Indians, however, refused to leave, unless Father Benoit would go with them.  The government sent on some [62] troops, and the captain, calling on Father Benoit, begged of him to lead the Indians away peaceably.  Upon these representations Father Benoit secured the services of Father Neyron, the only survivor of the band of twenty-two priests, that came to Indiana with them, and started on his tour, to please the Indians and prevent bloodshed.  The tribe started overland, in the summer of 1849, and Father Benoit went by canalboat to Cincinnati, thence over the Ohio and Mississippi to St. Louis, where he took the stage for the present Kansas City.  He finally reached the reservation, marked out for the Indians by the government, and remained in the encampment with his beloved children of the forest, about two weeks.  He returned home by stage the entire route, travelling nine days and nights in one continuous trip.  Out of six persons in the group, he was the only one to endure the hardships of the trip in one continuous journey.

     Father Benoit's health began to fail, and when Bishop Dwenger returned from the Baltimore Council, in 1884, he found him complaining of a severe pain in his throat.  Three leading physicians were called in, and pronounced his ailment to be cancer of the throat.  Father Benoit recognized, that his remaining days on earth were few, and, with characteristic resignation, he remarked:  "If Providence desires to take me by the throat, then God's will be done."  An altar was erected in his room, and on Sunday morning, January 11, 1885, he offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, for the last time.  He suffered intensely, but he bore all in calm resignation to God's will.  On Monday evening, January 26, 1885, having received all the consolations of religion, the heroic soul of the apostolic Father Benoit passed away.  His remains rest in the Crypt of the Cathedral.

     He was born December 23, 1845, at Lingen, Hanover, Germany, a son of Clement and Mary (Grotemeier) Oechtering.  He attended the schools of his native city until twelve years of age, after which he spent two years at the Gymnasium, a school for the higher brances of literature and science, in the same city of Lingen.  [ 63]  In 1858, he was sent to college in Munster and remained seven years, after which he spent two years at the University in the same city.  In 1867, he entered the American College of Louvain, Belgium, as a candidate for the priesthood.  He was ordained for the diocese of Fort Wayne, by the Co-adjutor Archbishop of Malines, May 21, 1869.  Mgr. Oechtering came to America the same year, and was assigned to Elkhart, residing, however, at Mishawaka.  He had charge of Elkhart one year, when he was transferred to St. Joseph's Church at Laporte, where he remained ten years.  As pastor of St. Joseph's Church at Laporte he also attended Otis.  On July 14, 1880, he was appointed pastor of St. Mary's Church, Fort Wayne.  For an account of Mgr. Oechtering's pastoral labors the reader is referred to the history of St. Joseph's Church, at Laporte, of Otis, and of St. Mary's Church at Fort Wayne.  In 1888, he was named irremovable rector of the same church by Bishop Dwenger; in 1903, Vicar General of the diocese of Fort Wayne by Bishop Alerding; and in 1905, Domestic Prelate of His Holiness, Pope Pius X.  Mgr. Oechtering is a ripe scholar : noted for several treatises of merit on Capital and Labor, Socialism, not to omit a number of dramas much admired for their original conception and classical finish.  The titles of these dramas are :  Hermenegild, William Tell, and King Saul; a comedy:  The Living Statue, and a farce: the Discovery of America.  His Catechism of Church History for the higher grades of Catholic schools is doing good service to religion and bids fair, when better known, to be introduced in schools everywhere.  Mgr. Oechtering is the Judge of the Matrimonial Court, Moderator of the Fort Wayne Deanery, Synodal Examiner and President of the School Board.