Peter Richard Kenrick (August 17, 1806 – March 4, 1896) was an Irish Catholic priest who served as Bishop of St. Louis from 1843 to 1895.

He and his older brother Francis Kenrick both served all their lives as priests and officials in the Catholic Church in the United States.

[2] In his early years as a priest in Philadelphia, Father Kenrick wrote several works relating to Catholic theology and church history.

During his tenure in St. Louis, Father Kenrick visited many parts of the state of Missouri and actively encouraged the development of Catholicism and Catholic institutions in his diocese.

During the period of the American Civil War and its aftermath, Kenrick maintained a neutral position in a city and state whose residents were of widely divergent opinions on the matter.

One of these priests, the Reverend John A. Cummings, filed the case on this oath which reached the United States Supreme Court.

Father Kenrick took part in the second Plenary Council of Baltimore, where he advocated that the affairs of the Catholic Church in the United States be handled locally wherever possible.

During the First Vatican Council, he opposed the centralization of church authority in Rome and did not support the declaration of the dogma of Papal infallibility.

[3] After harassment by his detractors and members of the curia made life difficult for him, Father Kenrick turned over the administration of the archdiocese to his coadjutor bishop, Patrick John Ryan, in 1871.