PIGGOTT, HENRY JAMES. – Founder of American Methodism in Italy, b. at Lowestoft (England) on 18 July 1831, d. at Rome on 30 Nov. 1917. Educated at the Wesleyan school of Kingswood, in 1848 he obtained the degree of Bachelor of Arts at the University of London.
Ordained a minister, he was entrusted with opening the Methodist mission in Italy. In 1861 he settled at Ivrea with the apostate Lissolo, in 1862 he moved to Milan and visited various cities in Lombardy. In 1866 he established the centre of the Wesleyan Methodist mission at Padua, which he transferred to Rome in 1872. A man of extraordinary activity, he founded many Methodist stations, the orphanage at Intra, the Wesleyan theological school, and two propaganda journals that preceded the *Rivestimento*. An advocate of apostate priests, he always displayed great misunderstanding toward the Catholic Church. For the instruction of the pupils of his International College, he wrote a *Breve storia del metodismo* (Padua 1868).