The Fall of Montsegur

On March 17, a date now celebrated everywhere as St. Patrick's Day - the day that St. Patrick drove the Serpents from the Blessed Isle, was the same date in 1244 that many of the perfecti of the gnostic Cathars were burned to death after the fall of their fortress of Montsegur to the siege of the Inquisition.

Hancock & Bauval's excellent book, Talisman, tells the story of the Albigensian Crusade, a battle not only for life and death, but for men's eternal souls. One of the reasons why the Cathars in Occitania had been able to hold out since the French occupation began in 1229 was the natural defenses of the mountaintop fortress of Montsegur. The perfecti would often flee to their safe haven from the Inquisition and it's murderous minions. This place stood as a symbol of their resistance and endurance in the face of violence and religious and spiritual persecution.

The event that supposedly began the downfall of Montsegur was when, in May of 1242, the lord of the castle, Peter Roger of Mirepoix, sent assassins to Avignonet to kill the Inquisitors. They claimed to have done it to extinguish the Inquisition altogether, but it had just the opposite effect. The siege of Montsegur began a year later and was over in 10 months. Hundreds of perfecti, the clergy of the Cathars - considered holy men and women, were dragged out of the castle and down the mountain to be burned alive. The French crusaders created a little Hell on Earth.

Is it just a coincidence that the date this event occurred on is March 17 and that this date is commemorated the world over as a (semi) religious holiday named for a saint? Were the gnostic Cathar perfecti the Serpents, and Montsegur their Blessed Isle?

2007 Occult of Personality. Licensed under Creative Commons.