Bérenger Saunière
From The Book of THoTH (Leaves of Wisdom)
Francois-Bérenger Saunière (April 11, 1852–January 22, 1917) was a priest in the church of the French village of Rennes-le-Château, in the Aude département, from 1885 to 1909. He would be unknown today if not for the fact that he is a central figure in many of the conspiracy theories surrounding Rennes-le-Château. These speculations form the basis of several pseudohistory documentaries and books such as the 1982 Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln, although few, if any, historians subscribe to them. Many elements of these theories were later used by Dan Brown in his best-selling 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code.
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Life
François Berenger Saunière was born on April 11th, 1852 in Montazels. He was the eldest of 7 children: 3 sons (Alfred, Martial, Joseph) and 3 daughters (Mathilde, Adeline, Marie-Louise). He was the son of Marguerite Hugues and Joseph Saunière (1823-1906), also called "cubié". His father had been the mayor of Montazels. He also managed the flour mill and he was the steward of Marquis de Cazermajou's castle. His three sons studied a lot. Alfred became a priest; Joseph wanted to be a physician but he died at 25. Berenger was insolent, independent, fundamentalist. He rebeled against hierarchy.
He was an athlete, with deep eyes. He went to school at St. Louis in Limoux. He entered the seminary in Carcasonne in 1874. He was ordained as a priest in June, 1879. He was a vicar in Alet from July 16th 1879 to 1882, a priest in the deanery of Clat (282 inhabitants) from June, 1882 to 1885. He was a teacher in the seminary in Narbonne but, because he was undisciplined, he was appointed to Rennes le Château (298 inhabitants) on June 1st, 1885. He was anti-republican and he had to leave the diocese from December 1st to July, 1886 to give lessons once more in the seminary of Narbonne. As the villagers wanted him to come back, the prefect changed his mind and called him back. In May 1890, he also said mass in Antugnac on Sundays. At fifty he had a glass eye. He often played lottery (loterie de la maison des artistes)
He had an ambiguous relationship with Marie Denarnaud. When he arrived, he lived with Marie's family in the presbytery, but as he didn't get along very well with her mother, he left and lived in the building that he had built next to the churchyard. One can read in his diary 4/19/1892 : came back from Carcassonne, drama on the evening, Marie came back home. 4/22/1892 : fine weather, Marie goes on bringing my meals..
He resigned on February 1st, 1909 and was no longer a priest in 1911. He was sued for trafficking in masses in 1915. He lived the rest of his life penniless, selling religious medals and rosaries to wounded soldiers who were stationed in Campagne les Bains. He was accused of taking in German spies.
He had an attack on January 17th 1917, and died on January 22nd.
In September 2004, the mayor of Rennes-le-Château exhumed Saunière's corpse from the church graveyard and reburied it in a concrete sarcophagus to protect it from grave-robbers. [1]
Controversy
The controversy around Saunière centers on two topics: documents that he is alleged to have found hidden in his church and his alleged wealth.
Supporters of the various conspiracy theories of Rennes-le-Château believe that while renovating his parish church, Saunière found ancient documents relating to a great historical secret. These theories allege that, through his possession of these documents, Saunière was somehow able to obtain much more wealth than would be expected of a parish priest. The documents were allegedly discovered in a "hollow visigothic pillar" according to the book Le Tresor Maudit by Gerard de Sede. However, it was later revealed that de Sede wrote the book as part of a hoax, as an attempt to verify the existence a fraudulent society called the Priory of Sion. The alleged documents that Sauniere was said to have found were forgeries that were created by one of de Sede's associates. De Sede and the forger later admitted the deception.
The pillar is on display in the 'Sauniere Museum' in Rennes-le-Chateau and visitors there are told that the "visigothic pillar" was never hollow, nor can it be established that the pillar was actually "visigothic". It was set up by Saunière in 1891 as part of his Shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes. Even the claim that it originated from Saunière's church cannot be substantiated.
Saunière's real story seems likely to be one of petty church scandal and political intrigue. Monsignor Billard, the Bishop of Carcassonne up to 1902, amassed over one million francs and was considerably more wealthy than Saunière. Like Saunière, he died while being suspended from his priestly duties, accused of trafficking in masses and involved in financial irregularities. In 1898, Billard put Sauniere's name forward for promotion which was rejected by the Prefet de l'Aude who described Saunière as being a "militant reactionary." Mgr Billard was an active anti-Republican, and Saunière's activities at Rennes-le-Château coincided with the height of the conflict between Church and State in France between 1885–1905, when the separation between Church and State occurred. Sauniere was accused of trafficking in masses and resigned his position at Rennes-le-Château.
Extravagant rumors about the source of Sauniere's wealth being a local hidden treasure were spread in 1956 by a local innkeeper, Noel Corbu, as an attempt to draw treasure-seekers to the area. But it was the area's incorporation into Plantard and de Sede's Priory of Sion hoax which drew national attention. The Sion story was taken as "fact" by later researchers, who continued to expand on it, especially after they found other of Plantard's planted documents, Les Dossiers Secrets, in the French National Archives, which appeared to corroborate Sauniere's alleged find. Several pseudohistorical books and BBC Two documentaries resulted, including the 1982 book Holy Blood Holy Grail. It stated as a "fact" that the Priory of Sion had existed, and then this "fact" claim was again repeated in the first part of Dan Brown's novel, The Da Vinci Code.
Sauniere and the scale model of Jerusalem
In 1995, André Douzet held a press conference in the former domaine of Saunière, during which he announced that a scale model of a landscape, purporting to be the landscape of Jerusalem, had come in his possession. Douzet claimed and produced documentation that showed that Saunière had placed an order for this model in 1916, but died before the order was completed. He acquired the model from a clearance sale of the firm involved. In 1997, Douzet was able to map the landscape of the model onto a section of Perillos, a small village near Perpignan - where Saunière is known to have visited.
Myths
Following Saunière's death in 1917 a mystique developed about the priest's source of wealth. There was a theory that he was paid vast sums of money by the Catholic Church to buy his silence on a secret that would have seriously undermined the church's power: the most extraordinary claim being that he had discovered the grave in which Christ, who had survived crucifixion, was buried. Using this money he built elaborate structures such as a personal library called the 'Tour Magdala' which resembles the Tower of David in Jerusalem, called the 'Migdal David'.
When, in 1946, Noel Corbu purchased the estate that Saunière had constructed from his housekeeper, Marie Dénarnaud, Corbu began stating as fact the rumours of the priest's treasure discovery. He apparently wanted to attract customers to the restaurant that he opened there at Easter, 1955. The story did not take off until January 1956 when a series of articles in the local newspaper publicised Corbu's allegations about Saunière.
Corbu was later to meet a certain Pierre Plantard, who became considerably attracted to the now developing myths surrounding Saunière. Plantard was to add his own myths with the intention of promoting his self-created association, the Priory of Sion, registered in 1956. Pierre Plantard began writing a manuscript and produced "parchments" (created by his friend, Philippe de Cherisey) that Saunière had supposedly discovered whilst renovating his church. These documents purportedly showed the survival of the Merovingian line of Frankish kings. Plantard himself claimed to be descended from Dagobert II.
Books
In England, Henry Lincoln became involved in making three documentaries about the matter between 1970–1979. In 1982, Lincoln, with Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, published the worldwide bestseller Holy Blood, Holy Grail that only repeated and added to the myths about Saunière, using it as the starting point to argue that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had descendants, which settled in France and later - somehow - became the Merovingian kings.
The broad substance of what was contained in Holy Blood, Holy Grail has recently re-surfaced in the form of an esoteric thriller by Dan Brown entitled The Da Vinci Code — currently the bestselling work of fiction of all time. One of the protagonists of the novel is called Jacques Saunière, clearly named after Berenger Saunière. The extraordinary popularity of The Da Vinci Code has reignited the tourist industry who once again come to see sites associated with Saunière and Rennes-le-Château, even though the village is officially not part of "The Da Vinci Code trail".
Die Ketzerin vom Montségur (The Heretic of Montsegur) and Die Erbin des Grals (The Grail's Heiress) by the German author Helene Luise Köppel relate the Rennes-le-Château myth. The first tells the tale the Cathars and the discovery of the Grail in Rennes-le-Château. The sequel tells the fictional tale of Saunière's housekeeper and lover, Marie Dénarnaud, who knows the secret of the treasure he found in Rennes-le-Château.
The Templar Legacy, published in 2006 by Steve Berry, traces the Templar treasure to Rennes-le-Château and the clues left behind by Saunière.
DVDs
'The Mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau' is a sixty-minute documentary on DVD that looks at the clues apparently built by Saunière in and around his church and tries to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding the source of his wealth. Written and presented by Stewart Ferris, author of The Key to The Da Vinci Code.
See also
External links
- Priory-of-Sion.com Paul Smith's extensive and up-to-date account of the Priory of Sion, providing documentation about Pierre Plantard and his activities that have not yet been published in France.
- New DVD about the Holy Grail including the story of Rennes-le-Château. André Douzet is a well known French researcher, who studied the mysteries of grail and Rennes-le-Château during the last 40 years.
- Société Perillos André Douzet and the "Société Perillos" has one of the largest websites concering the mysteries of France, focusing on the Abbé Saunière and his relations to the villages of Rennes-le-Château, Lyon and Perillos.
- New DVD about Rennes-le-Château and the source of Saunière's wealth.
Categories: 1852 births | 1917 deaths | Priory of Sion hoax
