CASTELNAU, PIERRE de, blessed. - Cistercian, born at the castle of Château-neuf near Montpellier, killed near St-Gilles on 15 January 1208. While archdeacon of the diocese of Maguelone, he was the companion of Rainerio, legate of Innocent III against the Albigensian heresy (1199). Having then entered the Cistercian Order at Fontfroide (1202), Innocent III appointed him, together with two others, legate against the Albigensians. He laboured zealously, but without great success. In January 1208 he held a meeting with the equivocal Raimondo VI, count of Tolosa, whose hatred he incurred. On his return, a man
in the count's service pierced him with a lance as Pietro was about to cross the Rhône. The killing of his legate induced Innocent III to proclaim the first Crusade against the Albigensians. Besides in his Order (5 March), Pietro has public cult in the dioceses of Nimes (15 January), Carcassonne (4 March), and Montpellier (5 March).