| Notes |
- Brother Petrus Josephus (Peter Joseph, Peter) WITVENS
Son of Thomas WITVENS and Petronella COX (Kocx)
Christened on Saturday 17 March 1810 in Riethoven, Noord Brabant
Died on Thursday 24 August 1854 in Little Chute, Outagamie County at the age of 44
Buried in Little Chute, Outagamie County
Lay Brother of the order of the Holy Cross.
Entered the order on 15 July 1846.
Professed on 31 August 1847, probably in the monestary in Uden.
He left for Wisconsin from Belgium with Father Francis Edward Daems.
They traveled (as the only two cabin passengers) on board the 'Mosambique' which left from Rotterdan and arrived on 18 June 1851 in New York.
First they visited Bishop Le Fevre in Detroit and afterwards they went to Milwaukee together, where they were welcomed by Bishop Henni.
He sent them to Little Chute to assist Father Van den Broek.
From Milwaukee they traveled by ship to Green Bay and arrived in Little Chute early September 1851 where they met Father Van den Broek for the first time.
Witvens was the first Crosier Brother to come to America and was the assistant and companion of Father Daems for the three years which remained of his life.
He was present on All Saints day in 1851 when Father Van den Broek was stricken with apoplexy during Mass.
In 1852 he went with Father Daems to Bay Settlement.
In 1854 he returned with Father Daems from Bay Settlement to Little Chute, where he died that same year.
- Death of Brother Peter. There seems to be no recorded account of the
illness of Brother Peter that led to his death on August 24, 1854. Quite
likely it was the plague, but there is no way of knowing with certainty.
In the Book of Funerals of St. John's Parish in Little Chute this entry
was made:
"August 24, 1854. Die Vigesima 4a Augusti elapsa hora duodecima
noctis obdormivit in Domino Petrus Josephus Witvens frater laicus Sacri
Ordinis Sanctae Crucis ex Hollandia." (On August 24, after the midnight
hour, there fell asleep in the Lord Peter Joseph Witvens, a Lay
Brother of the Holy Order of the Holy Cross from Holland.)
No marker of his grave can be found in the parish cemetery. When
the present structure of the church of St. John Nepomuc was being
erected and excavations were being made for the sub-structure, the
grave and mortal remains of Father Theodore Van den Broek were
found. As' mentioned previously, the remains were recognized by the
decayed pieces of vestments in the coffin. It can be reasonably assumed
that the mortal remains of Brother Peter were placed in a grave near that
of Father Van den Broek, since they had died but three years apart in
the same parish.
Brother Peter was the first Crosier to die in America.
The Crosier Story, by Jerome W. Rausch, OSC
- The first Crosier to die in North America belonged to the band of missionaries sent to the United
States by Master General Vanden Wymelenberg, O. S. C. in the hopes of establishing the Order in
Wisconsin, Br. Peter Witvens, O.S.C. arrived in Little Chute, Wisconsin with Fr. Edward Daems,
O.S.C. in early September, 1851. Br. Peter came to this country at the age of 41 and evidently
served with Fr. Daems in the various places that the latter ministered to. Little is known about
him personally except in the things that he left after him in which we see him as both craftsman
and artist. Among these works is the old high altar now in the present Holy Cross Church in Bay
Settlement, Wisconsin, and which is still the prominent appointment in the sanctuary. Fragments
of his polychromed carvings from the confessionals of the first church at Bay Settlement are pre
served in the Convent of the Franciscan Sisters of the Holy Cross in Bay Settlement as well as the
museum at Crosier Seminary, Onamia, Minnesota. The Sisters in Bay Settlement also possess an
oil painting of the Crucifixion after Van Dyke (illustrated here) which is said simply to have been
done by a Crosier Brother, presumably Br. Peter.
Br. Peter's death is recorded in the annals of St. Johnfs Parish in Little Chute though no grave
bears his name there. Apparently a victim of the cholera epidemic that swept that region during
the time, his memorial reads simply: "On August 24th, (1854) after the midnight hour, there fell
asleep in the Lord Peter Joseph Witvens, a Lay Brother of the Holy Order of the Holy Cross from
Holland."
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1810 - 1854 (44 years)
