Last of the Cathars

Once, long ago, I set out to find any remaining adherents of Catharism, the ancient Christian religion that was wiped out by the Catholic church almost a thousand years ago. When I say “wiped out” I mean exactly that. The Catholics spent over one hundred years in crusades against them. Cathars worshipped Jesus but did not do so the Catholic way, with big buildings and fancy outfits. They believed in open-air worship. After eventually defeating the last Cathar stronghold at Montsegur in 1244, the Catholics invented the Inquisition as a way of rooting-out any remaining adherents. 

I figured if anybody was a practicing Cathar now, they would probably have some kind of annual get-together at Montsegur on the day Cathars had celebrated as Christ’s birthday—March 13. So I flew to France, drove to Montsegur, climbed high up in the Pyrenees to the peak of “le pog,” and spent the day freezing my butt off in the ruins of the castle. Nobody showed up. 

Since that day, I have considered myself the Last Cathar.

Some time after the above adventure, I learned that there is in fact a very active Cathar community in France. Just as I expected, every year they gather at Montsegur, but their annual event takes place on March 16, the day Montsegur fell to the Catholics. I had gotten there ahead of them. But I get to keep the title. They’re celebrating the wrong day.