Rev Peter Piquet SM
Title:
Rev
First Name:
Jean
Middle Names:
Pierre
Preferred Name:
Peter
Surname:
Piquet
Order:
SM
Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:
Lyons
Country of Birth:
France
Date of Ordination:
Place of Ordination:
Dundalk, Co Louth
Country of Ordination:
Ireland
Ordination Diocese:
Seminary:
Date of Death:
Place of Death:
Lewisham, Sydney NSW
Country of Death:
Australia
Date of Burial:
Place of Burial:
Villa Maria, Hunters Hill NSW
Country of Burial:
Australia
Find A Grave URL:
Appointments Table
Diocese | Place | Role | Start Day | Start Month | Start Year | End Day | End Month | End Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sydney | Church Hill | Assistant Priest | 1880 | 1912 | ADB | ||||
| Sydney | Church Hill | Parish Priest | 1912 | 1920 | ADB | ||||
| Sydney | Church Hill | Retired | 1920 | 1936 | ADB | ||||
| Sydney | Sydney | Spiritual Director, Society of St Vincent de Paul | ADB |
Biographical Notes
Australian Dictionary of Biography entry: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/piquet-jean-pierre-8054
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Farewell at St Pat’s Church Hill celebrates rich legacy of Marists, by Michael Cook, Catholic Weekly, Sydney, 15 August 2025, https://catholicweekly.com.au/farewell-at-st-pats-church-hill-celebrates-rich-legacy-of-marists/, accessed on 19 December 2025:
[...]The history of St Pat’s is a tapestry of service and holiness. As Bishop Meagher reminded his listeners, some of the early priests were remarkable men, revered by their Irish parishioners even though they were all originally from France.
When the first Marist parish priest, Fr Joseph Monnier, died in 1874, his room was stripped bare by devotees in search of relics and souvenirs. The 1904 funeral of the third parish priest, Fr Peter Le Rennetel, was attended by 40,000 people.
The fifth, Fr Peter Piquet, was extraordinarily popular as a confessor. He died in 1936 – on the same day as the farewell Mass, 10 August.
Like another heroic figure, St Mary MacKillop, he was briefly excommunicated, in his case for giving the last rites outside his own parish and for carelessness in observing church marriage regulations. In its obituary, the Sydney Morning Herald described him as the Catholic community’s “most revered and beloved priest.”
Fr Whelan shared a moving epitaph to Fr Piquet, who was the last of the French Marists:
“Shepherd of sinners; to him went the drunkard from near the Cut, the shamefaced man from a distant parish, afraid to face the fierce blackthorn morality of his local priest, the wife of a mixed marriage troubled in conscience, and some of those tired and distressed poor women who along lower George Street hold out the begging bowl of their flesh … the French priest induced more people to make amends, to restore and to repair, than all those who angrily rebuked the sinners. He loosed their sins and later went into their homes, as a friend, making things straight.” [...]