Blessed Pierre de Luxembourg

Pierre de Luxembourg (19 July 1369 – 2 July 1387) was a French Catholic prelate who served as the Bishop of Metz. He is venerated in the Catholic Church as a blessed, having been beatified by Pope Clement VII, 140 years after his death. Pierre was descended from nobles who secured his entrance into the priesthood when he started to serve in several places as a canon before he was named as the Bishop of Metz and a pseudocardinal under an antipope. He was noted for his austerities and successes in diocesan reform as well as for his dedication to the faithful and tried to end the Western Schism that pitted pope against antipope and rulers against rulers. His efforts were in vain and he was soon driven from Metz but moved to southern France where he died as a result of his harsh self-imposed penances. Both sides in the conflict recognized his deep holiness and his dedication to the people in Metz and elsewhere. After many appeals for him to be beatified, Pope Clement VII beatified him on 9 April 1527. Pierre de Luxembourg was born at the castle of Ligny-sur-Ornain in July 1369, the second of six children to Guy of Luxembourg, Count of Ligny (1340-1371) and Mahaut de Châtillon (1335-1378). He was orphaned by the age of four, which prompted his aunt Jeanne - the countess of Orgières - to raise him in Paris. Pierre was uncle to Louis de Luxembourg and the quasi-cardinal Thibault de Luxembourg; he was the great-granduncle of Philippe de Luxembourg. In 1377 he began studies at the Parisian college. In 1379 he was elected a canon for the cathedral chapter of Notre Dame de Paris. In 1381 he traveled to London to offer himself as a hostage to the English in order to secure his brother's release. The English were so perplexed yet enthralled with this offer that his brother was returned to France. Hearing this, Richard II invited him to remain at his court, but Pierre returned to Paris to pursue his vocation to the priesthood.