Gabriel Piguet
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Gabriel Piguet (French pronunciation: [ɡabʁijɛl piɡɛ]; (24 Feb 1887 at Mâcon, died 3 July 1952 at Clermont-Ferrand) was the Roman Catholic Bishop of Clermont-Ferrand, France. Involved in Catholic resistance to Nazism, he was imprisoned in the Priest Barracks of Dachau concentration camp in 1944.
Gabriel Piguet | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of Clermont | |
| Church | Catholic Church |
| Diocese | Diocese of Clermont-Ferrand |
| Appointed | 7 April,1933 |
| Installed | 7 December,1933 |
| Term ended | 3 July,1952 |
| Predecessor | Jean-François-Etienne Marnas |
| Successor | Pierre-Abel-Louis Chappot de la Chanonie |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 2 July,1910 |
| Consecration | 27 February,1934 by Hyacinthe-Jean Chassagnon |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Gabriel Emmanuel Joseph Piguet 24 February, 1887 |
| Died | 3 July, 1952 |
He was honoured as a Righteous Gentile on 22 June 2001, by Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Memorial.[1]
During the Second World War, Piguet allowed Jewish children to be hidden from the Nazis at the Saint Marguerite Catholic boarding school in Clermont-Ferrand. He was arrested by German police in his Cathedral on 28 May 1944 for the crime of giving aid to a priest wanted by the Gestapo. Imprisoned first in Clermont-Ferrand, he was deported to Dachau concentration camp in September.[2]
At Dachau, Piguet presided over the secret ordination of Blessed Karl Leisner, who died soon after the liberation of the camp.[3][4] He survived his imprisonment, though physically diminished - he had lost 35 kg. He died seven years later.[5]
