COUSTANT, PIERRE. – Benedictine of the Congregation of S. Mauro, born at Compiègne on 30 April 1657, died at 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 S. Agostino. His second major work was, at Mabillon’s suggestion, the edition of the works of S. Mario di Poitiers (Paris 1693). He also undertook to publish the complete collection of the Epistolae Romanorum Pontificum from Clement I to Innocent III (ca. 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.: Hurter, IV, col. 1146 ff.; M. Att. in Cath. Enc., IV, p. 454; B. Heurtebize, s. V. in DThC, III, II (1938), cols. 1986–87. Benedetto Gioia