CASTELNAU DE CURIÈRES, NOËL - MARIE - JOSEPH - EDOUARD. - French Catholic general and organizer, b. 24 Dec. 1851 at St-Affrique (Aveyron), d. 19 March 1944 at Montastruc-la-Conseillère (Haute Garonne).
Having entered the military school of St-Cyr, he took part in the war of 1870, earning the knight’s cross of the Legion of Honour. Deputy chief of the general staff in the years preceding the First World War, at the outbreak of the conflict he was a member of the supreme army council and commanded the Second Army on the Lorraine front. In 1916 he took part in the defence of Verdun as chief of staff. Elected deputy at the end of the war, in 1920 he presided over the French delegation that went to Rome for the canonization of St Joan of Arc.
A fervent Catholic, after the elections of 1924, which saw the victory of parties unfavourably disposed towards the Catholic Church, he devoted himself with untiring zeal to the defence of his faith and advocated the unification of Catholic forces in a single movement. Thus arose the F. N. C. (Fédération nationale catholique), of which he was president and to which he devoted his activity until his death.