CASTELNAU, Pierre de, Blessed. — A Cistercian, born at the Château-neuf near Montpellier, killed near St-Gilles on 15 January 1208. While archdeacon of the diocese of Maguelone, he accompanied Rainier, legate of Innocent III against the Albigensian heresy (1199). He then entered the Cistercian Order at Fontfroide (1202), and Innocent III appointed him, together with two others, legate against the Albigensians. He worked zealously, though without great success. In January 1208 he held a meeting with the equivocal Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, thereby incurring his hatred. On his return, a man in the count’s service struck him with a lance as he was attempting to cross the Rhône. The murder of his legate induced Innocent III to proclaim the first crusade against the Albigensians. Besides being commemorated in his own Order (5 March), Peter enjoys public cult in the dioceses of Nîmes (15 January), Carcassonne (4 March) and Montpellier (5 March).
CASTELNAU, PIERRE DE, BEATO
Bibl.: P. di Vaux Cernai, Hist. Albigensium, chaps. 1–8: PL 213, 243–60; Acta SS. Martii, I, Paris 1865, pp. 409–12; O. Raynaldus, Annales ecclesiastici, Lucce 1747, ad 1208, nn. 1224, pp. 269–73; A. Luchaire, Innocent III. La Croisade des albigeois, 2nd ed., Paris 1911, pp. 70–80 and passim. Livario Oliger