COUSTANT, PIERRE. - Benedictine of the Congregation of St. Maur, born at Compiègne on 30 April 1657, died in the abbey of St-Germain-des-Prés near Paris on 18 October 1721.
He collaborated on the Maurist edition (1679–1700) of the works of St. Augustine. His second major work, at the suggestion of Mabillon, was the edition of the works of St. Hilary of Poitiers (Paris 1693). He also undertook to publish the complete collection of the Epistolae Romanorum Pontificum from Clement I to Innocent III (c. 88–1216). Only the first volume appeared in Paris in 1721, the year of C.’s death; it includes the letters up to 440.
BIBL.: Hutter, IV, col. 1146 sg.; M. Att, in Cath. Enc., IV, p. 454; B. Heurtebize, s. V. in DThC, III, 11 (1938), coll. 1986–87. Benedetto Gioia