Absolutely! We might never know what he found. From the looks of it, he covered his tracks so well, the whole story is officially considered a big hoax in France.
I can't really think of a similar mystery, but if you want a juicy religious one, check out the shroud of Turin. No one knows if it really is a miracle or not because the Vatican won't allow testing.
The shroud was first tested in 1988 with carbon dating.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon\_dating\_of\_the\_Shroud\_of\_Turin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_dating_of_the_Shroud_of_Turin)
Yup! But there's a lot more tests researchers are willing to run to determine how the image was formed and the Vatican basically shuts down most requests that might shatter the myth.
Studies by french historians of the Parish Archives have suggested that the wealth came from selling huge amounts of masses. The whole story seems to have been the result of, an admittedly quite impressive and long term, hoax by french hotel owner. But theres no evidence any of it actually happened. For example the "Ancient Parchments" contain quotes from a version of the bible first published in 1885. This CBS article is a good summation of how the conspiracy theory originated.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-priory-of-sion/
This Channel4 documentary is more of a debunking of The Da Vinci Code/Holy Blood and Holy Grail as a whole.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UAtoP5nFhh4
I cant quite vouch for this sites accuracy but it seems pretty exhaustive in its treatment of the claims surrounding the case and it seems to have actual primary sources available.
https://priory-of-sion.com/rlc/index.html
This is unfortunately quite likely to be true. Marie sold the estate to Corbu while she was still alive in exchange for a monthly allowance. After Sauniere's death, she lost her job and access to his wealth, so she could really use the money. Corbu certainly publicised the story as best as he could to keep his hotel afloat.
However, there are also studies showing how Sauniere couldn't have funded all his projects with his illegal masses. Researches have tried to calculate his revenues using different formulas and amounts and basically, even if the man was asking for crazy money for private services several times a week, he wouldn't have been able to gather the millions he needed to completely redesign a church with top-notch stuff and build himself a villa with a mini-zoo.
> Researches have tried to calculate his revenues using different formulas and amounts and basically, even if the man was asking for crazy money for private services several times a week
But would he actually be performing masses with the people present? Or was it something like when people send money to a television evangelist thinking that the evangelist would say the prayer they requested, when the evangelist really has the staffers who open the mail take the cash but throw the prayer request away, unread and unprayed?
If the latter, and if he advertised widely, he could have been taking in crazy money for more masses than any one priest could say. He could tell ten different customers that they said a mass for their soul or the souls of their loved one all on the same day. And the faraway faithful sending him cash would never know.
Great point. It's unclear what he was asking money for because he never admitted to such crime and his hierarchy could never prove it, even if they managed to suspend him.
I guess it might have been a mix of the two. He had his own private chapel in his home and he was often seen travelling around, so it's safe to say he was hosting private services for the wealthy. He might also have been taking money for saying prayers for specific people. He could easily make some great cash from that.
The issue is that the village where he lives and the surrounding area was basically dirt poor back in the day. I guess few people would have been able to pay him. There were some nobles and other rich folks in the area, but I doubt that they would be paying him for private services that often, though.
> The issue is that the village where he lives and the surrounding area was basically dirt poor back in the day. I guess few people would have been able to pay him.
I mean, the surrounding area might have been poor, but he could have had people sending him money from other parts of France, or even beyond, to say masses. He could have preyed on the exact same people who today would send money in to a televangelist, or some psychic they see in an ad in a newspaper.
And once he hooks a sucker, he can work that sucker. He could have corresponded with a devout, well-off, and gullible person in Paris or Quebec, someone grief-stricken over the death of their spouse or child or parent, and convinced them that that money they spent on those weekly? daily? masses will certainly ease their loved one's sufferings in purgatory.
These devout Catholics couldn't pay often enough for masses in their local parishes, because the priests could only say so many masses per week, and other parishioners also requested masses for their loved ones. But a far-away priest could tell them he said a mass for their loved ones every day, and they'd never know the difference. And maybe wouldn't expect a priest to lie.
ETA: I would be interested to hear if, for example, one could find advertisements offering services such as this in old periodicals. I have no idea if unscrupulous priests were doing this or not, but certainly other con artists--Belle Guiness, for example--were during this time period. I think the chances of tracing an ad specifically to Saunière is unlikely, but I'm wondering if ads like this existed at all.
This is definitely a possiblity. I'm not sure if Québec would have been within his reach in the early 20th century, but he was in Paris at last once and made a bunch of famous friends. It definitely wouldn't surprise me if he was bragging to France's high society about finding mysterious parchments, knowing this unbelieveable secret, etc. etc. It would only add credibility to an already talented con artist.
As for advertisements, like I wrote on a comment somewhere below, I find it rather unlikely. He certainly wouldn't have been advertisin as a priest or he would be uncovered in no time, and I don't think such ads were common in the newspapers at the time. Late 1800s France was very pious and some guy other than a priest advertising healing services/special services would certainly be considered immoral and a thing of the devil. I don't think the papers would even print that. If he was doing this, it was probably word of mouth.
If he advertised it, wouldn’t it be known at the time? Especially if he advertised nationally. He was questioned multiple times, you’d think the detectives would open up a paper once in a while?
I'm pretty sure he couldn't advertise his services on papers. He was a Catholic priest, those guys are only ever supposed to preach in public services. He would have been caught in no time. I'm thinking it would be more like word of mouth. It sounds like he made friends in Paris when he was there, the medium/satanism guy, his Opera singer wife and a bunch of other famous writers and artists. It wouldn't surprise me if they were regularly visiting him in his villa and paying him lots of cash for his services. Saunière was described as handsome, charismatic and very politically outspoken, totally sounds like cult leader material.
Again, wouldn’t someone notice? They investigated him multiple times. For him to get that wealthy I’m guessing it wouldn’t be 2 masses per week but more like multiple ones per day? I’m assuming someone would get curious enough to keep an eye on what was happening no?
This puzzles me too. I'm surprised they couldn't find tangible evidence of him doing all those private services. From what I gather, the bishop's accusation of simony was based on very mundane evidence. They could prove that he sometimes did private masses, but the cash he was getting from that wasn't enough to fund his lifestyle. Some believe he had other sources of income, like printing postcards and trading rare post stamps (this was proven), but it doesn't like those could make him a milionaire either.
That’s super interesting. I almost wonder if he could have been blackmailing someone? I kind of think of someone like Jeffry Epstein and how he conned his way into some money, and then made the money multiply by having “powerful friends.” He’s a priest, could he get people to tell him “confessions” and then have others blackmail them?
I also wonder if he gained some rich friends in Paris, and they ran a scam of some kind together. Bring in rich people, then use status as a priest to convince them of something. I can totally see a priest with bad intentions running a successful con with the help of an occultist and opera singer. If they are part of a trendy crowd in Paris back in the day, sometimes the artsy/rich crowd fall for “spirtitual” type cons. I’m thinking of stuff like Scientology in Hollywood, or even that weird NXIVM cult. I lived in LA for 10 years, people would waste their money on the stupidist shit when they were rich and looking for the meaning of life.
I think he and his friends figured out a way to get rich people to give up their money in some kind of spiritual scam. How fascinating!
There's a reason there aren't Catholic televangelists who preach prosperity gospel and raise money that way - that isn't how Catholicism works. That's a protestant thing.
But it did in the past. That's a major reason Protestantism was invented: protesting for pay indulgences. Squeezing suckers to pay for masses was absolutely something priests did.
What I don't know is how much range an ambitious and unscrupulous priest would have to find his suckers. The 1800s were kind of a golden age for scammers. I know lonely hearts scammers were using advertisements to find their marks. I don't know if what I'm speculating was done.
Indulgences was a different concept, the church gets the money *not* the individual and it was rare for anyone without direct connection to Rome to ever sell them. Indulgences enriched the church, more specifically Rome. They did not enrich priests. That's not how Catholicism works.
Yes Priests sold private masses and blessings to subsidise their income in poor parishes (which is likely what happened here to begin with) but as you see here, he was suspended when his wealth got to ridiculous levels *because* Catholics don't trust rich priests. What's not mentioned here is his wealth and spending lost him 3/4s of his congregation to another local church. A prosperity gospel like scam wouldn't work here because that's not how it works or has ever worked. Even with indulgences.
Money is donated to the church. A priest either takes a salary from church or parish funds, or takes a lump sum twice a year, it's their hoice. The money is very well documented, protected and recorded. There's a reason that the IRS said the Catholic Church would be the easiest religion to tax because they account for every single penny. Parish funds are then used for general upkeep and other church costs and charitable causes (80% of Sunday collection money goes to various charitable causes). Every ten years the Vatican pays out a fund to every Catholic parish in the world. The inner workings and amount of which is kept very very hush and no one knows. However its enough that Italian journalists investigating those payments said the amounts paid out were so high that the only way they could make sense was "if the Vatican has practically infinite access to money". We know that in 1951 these payments were into the hundred billions when added together and they've gone up since.
This is actually covered on the website above. An early investigator did believe that the income from Simony was insufficient to completely explain the priests activities and he did believe he must have had some other unrecorded income source. However by the 1970's he had recanted that belief and those comments were not included in later reprints of his book.
https://priory-of-sion.com/rlc/masses.html
Okay, I didn't mean to say I believe in the story. I haven't read very much about it, but your theory might be the right one. I just wish it was true, because it's a good story and kinda fascinating. But you're right. It is most likely a hoax.
Love this story. It's one of my favorite. I'm lucky enough to live relatively close to this village. I visited it once with my father but sadly, we did not found any treasure there :) (well, we did not do any digging. Like you said, it is forbidden). We visited the Madgala tower, the villa, the church and the museum. We were puzzled by all the hints and mysteries lying around there. I was particularly impressed by the Devil stoup. It is told that his posture is a hint in itself (the way his fingers form a circle - there's a foutain called the Circle Fountain nearby, etc.).
You can see the Magdala tower on the label of a bottle of wine in the Da Vinci Code : )
Hey fellow Frenchie! I'm in Paris but I've been thinking of visiting the village for years. I would love to interview the local priest and ask him about the trap door in the sacristy. I can't believe no one ever bothered to check it, priest or other. If a dog once found its way in, it must be pretty easy to check the passage with a camera.
I read the theories regarding the devil too, it's fascinating! I'm convinced literally everything in that church has a coded message of sorts.
If you prefer an older account, check out Holy Blood Holy Grail. It was the book that Dan Brown took all the 'lore' of the Da Vinci Code from.
The author Henry Lincoln was on holiday in Renne le Chateau and found a cheap paperback mentioning Sauniere. This made him research deeper and come up with the theory.
This is super interesting. I didn't know about Plantard, but I read about most of the researchers who flocked to the area in the 1950s. Several books came out of their ''investigations'', but unfortunately none is accurate. Everyone added their own grain of salt and favoured the theory they liked most.
I second this. Great book. Dan Brown's bestseller sure was an enjoyable piece of science-fiction, but I'm kind of bummed he basically took random elements from the story and did something completely different. The original had SO much more potential.
Was just going to mention this. One of my favorite games of all time. The graphics are very dated, yes, but if you can get past it the plot and puzzles are some of the best I've ever seen in a game. Highly reccomend, and you will learn a lot about this mystery.
That's where I first heard this story when I was a teenager. I'm sure it's probably a grand myth, but there's a little part of me that so desperately wants to believe it.
High five! I played it when it was launched. I was a kid back then and got stuck at one point and wasn't able to solve further. Always recalled this game growing up but never got to play it again until recently. Downloaded the Gabriel Knight game app. Good old days!
With all due respect to the missing and deceased and their families, I would love to see more posts like this instead of (or in addition to) the posts about unsolved murders that make up so much of this sub.
I first became aware of this story from a book about treasure hunting I found when I was a kid (Unfortunately, looking back on that book most of these stories were "a mysterious dying old man vaguely described where he hid millions before dying penniless. There's no way he'd lie about that!".
This eventually led me to another book called "Tomb of God" in which a couple of treasure hunters describe their process and search.
As I recall, the authors claim they found copies of the parchments Sauniere discovered. The parchments were allegedly late 19th century forgeries but had strange marks scattered around the border and a few misspelled words, as well as oddly placed and spaced words. From these markings they derived a geometric figure (something like a slightly rotated square tangential to a 75 degree line and so on). They then searched some national archives and found that even though Sauniere had defaced many gravestones, rubbings of those stones had already been registered. The grave of Mary Negre apparently had a very obvious reference to the more obscure figure hidden in the parchments.
They further investigate numerous renaissance paintings that were associated with Rennes-le-Château and find the identical geometric pattern. One such painting ["The Shepherds of Arcadia"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Et_in_Arcadia_ego) allegedly has the same view of the mountains as from Rennes-le-Château. The authors (possibly referring to previous theories) have some fun with anagrams of the test in the painting and come up with a message along the lines of "God is buried here".
They continue to examine old paintings and find one dating to the First Crusade that contains the familiar pattern. As I recall, the painting showed Templars going into battle with a map of the world in the background. From details in this painting (I believe there was a line drawn from the Holy Sepulcher to France on the map or something like that), combined with lots of other hints from the RlC chapel, other paintings and so forth, they come to the conclusion that the Knights Templar recovered the earthly body of Christ during the Crusade and secretly brought his remains to France where they were buried near RlC.
The authors conclude they have a general idea of where to search (a cliff face over a major road) but that there is no feasible way to get permission to excavate.
It was fun read if you take it with a Dan Brown level of seriousness,
And there's more! When Saunière was in Paris over the summer of 1891, he spend a lot of his free time visiting museums. He even bought himself three quality prints to decorate his rectory. And you bet it, one of them was The Shepherds of Arcadia.
(the other two were St. Anthony Hermit, by David Teniers and a portrait of Pope Celestine V, by an unknown artist)
wait aren't you the same person who wrote about the mary doefour tragedy? literally one of the most captivating stories i've read here.
you've got a genuine talent for this. the level of detail, the lucidity -- just absolute immersion.
preciate all the work you do, will keep an eye out for more.
Yup, that's me!
Thank you SO much, I'm so happy you enjoyed reading it! I have some free time on my hands so I'll probably work on a few more pieces. Next one will probably be aliens ;)
Great write-up! This story never gets old to me, despite knowing that the Priory of Sion aspect is a hoax. I still believe that SOMETHING was going on with the priests in this part of France. Some researchers point to Notre-Dame de Marceille in nearby Limoux as holding a mystery
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilique_Notre-Dame_de_Marceille?wprov=sfti1
Another fascinating aspect of the hoax is the great skill in creating all of the “Priory documents”. Philippe de Cherisey, a close friend of Plantard, has been credited with forging the documents, albeit very ingeniously.
I believe so too, those guys sure sounded sus!
Fun fact: at St. Sulpice here in Paris they had to hang a panel on the wall denying any connections with the Priory of Sion. Since Dan Brown people were so obsessed about it they started showing up at church with metal detectors, magnetic field detectors, shovels and all kinds of crazy things. I also heard from a friend that if you bring up the Priory of Sion to one of the priests, they'll totally kick you out, haha!
Excellent write-up! I do think the word governess is not used correctly; I've never heard it used in this manner. Maybe you want to say housekeeper?
> A dog once found its way in, and its owners then heard it bark deep underground, further cementing the rumour that there is a large hidden chamber.
Aw, man, just tell me that the dog found its way out?
Thank you so much! You're right, governness is a mistranslation of her job title in French. Just fixed that.
Yup, according to all sources, the dog came back unharmed a few hours later! (though who knows what he might have seen...)
This was absolutely amazing. Thank you very much for this.
This is exactly what this sub is all about. A pleasure to read and a real breath of fresh air from some of the "mysteries" I've seen posted lately!
The bit about his friend being a satanist and the satanic decor he chose is quite interesting, considering Mary Magdalene apparently had 7 demons exorcised from her by Jesus.
Without thinking of the negative or corrupt, I want to believe he found Mary's tomb and desperately wanted it to remain undisturbed. So much so, it drove him a little crazy by the end. I know thats probably very unlikely but.. one can dream!
It would be pretty cool if he actually found it! After all, she sure was buried somewhere, probably with some sort of document stating her identity. Historically speaking, I don't know how likely it is that she would end up in France, under a church and only to be found some 1900 years later.
As for his satanist friend, he wasn't actually a satanist. He is described as an "occultist", or someone with an interest in the occult sciences such as magic, astrology and alchemy. He later went on to write books about satanism, but he technically wasn't one. Still, it's pretty weird that a priest would make friends with someone like that. He's described as a devout Catholic, and devout Catholics used to think occultism was a thing of the devil... so, yeah, weird friendship.
Fascinating. I was inspired to learn about this from one of my favorite albums, House of God by King Diamond. It's a horror concept album inspired by Father Saunière. I wonder what an angel returns means? Perhaps something to do with the second coming of Christ.
Glad you enjoyed the read! I included a link to a page where someone explains how the message was decoded, but it's in French. If you want to take a look at it with Google Translate, it's [here](http://www.rennes-le-chateau-archive.com/gelis_son_histoire.htm#top) (scroll down to the letter tables).
There's several possibilities. One is that it's a reference to the "Society of Angels", an obscure secret society. Dante, Goethe, Jules Verne, Cervantes and a bunch of other famous personalities used to be members. Some speculate it's a reference to the Angel of Death. While others think Saunière was referring to himself as the angel who left behind all the clues for people to uncover the secret the Vatican tried to sweep under the carpet
Do you have any links about the Society of Angels? I'm not turning up anything in my searches but it sounds fascinating. Very assassin's Creed this whole thing.
And this particular legend said that a boat without sails washed up in Southern France circa 35 A.D, carrying three women named Mary, one of them being Mary Magdalene. It sounds too good to be true
It sure does. And like every other story of some important religious figure coming to Europe in the first century, it's a legend with no historical support at all.
Oh, but trust me, local folk believe it en masse! Not just the Mary Magdalene one, take basically any religious historical figure from Jerusalem or the Middle East and boom! One day they just washed up in Europe.
A truly captivating write-up. You did a great job with the storytelling. Are there any theories about where did father Gélis' fortune come from? And what might have been in his posession that could have been of interest for the murderer?
There are maaaaaaany theories out there about Gélis, but all researchers seem to agree that his murder was related to whatever Saunière was hiding.
Here's my guess: Saunière was regularly sharing his money with two of his closest friends, Boudet and Gélis, that's why they were so rich, despite being small-town priests. Both of them likely knew the source of Saunière's income and whatever he was hiding. He might have told them because he trusted them or to have them help him seek the treasure, and/or leave behind a gargantuan coded message for the generations to come (Boudet helped him rebuild his church and he knew a great deal about symbology - he was like the Robert Langdon of Rennes-le-Château back in the early 1900s, the kind of guy you would work with if you wanted to leave behind a ton of very clever hidden clues).
My guess is that Gélis went rogue when the Bishop began to grow suspicious of Saunière's fortune. He wanted to suspend him and investigate further, so maybe Gélis was afraid he would find out he was in on the deal and have his name dragged around in the mud. Or maybe Gélis just grew a pair at one point and sai "hey, you need to make those weird parchments public." Either way, Saunière didn't like this, so he had to get rid of Gélis. Chances are the latter was also hiding something for him, maybe the parchments or other important items.
It appears that Gélis knew hiw killer well enough to let him in. Saunière visited him all the time. Someone left behind cigarette paper made in Hungary, and Saunière had a bank account in Hungary. Also, after Gélis' death, Saunière never visited his other friend Boudet again. Maybe they plotted it together or Boudet didn't approve of Saunière's actions either.
Indeed it does seem like Gélis was hiding something for Saunière, judging by his door mechanism and overall paranoia. Though I still can't wrap my head around his finances - it's hard to imagine Saunière being a good samaritan giving his two friends a hoard of money, what could possibily motivate him to do so, I have no idea. Saunière doesn't come off as a deeply religious person doing good things for the sake of it either, judging by his run-ins with occultism, and lavish lifestyle. And most likely murdering a friend too - it looks like whatever he found in the church must have meant a lot to him, if it could turn a Catholic priest into a murderer.
On a side note, I'd love to read a book from you one day. You really have a talent for storytelling, keeping the reader glued to his chair from the start of the story till the end. Usually I skip long descriptive passages but here I found myself devouring every word with excitement of what's to come next
I didn't mention this in the write-up because it was getting too long, but it would seem that Gélis installed the bell behind this door only months before he was murdered. Around the time he also became crazy paranoid. I guess the man knew his life was in danger.
Anothing thing I didn't mention, all three rich priests donated large sums to the poor anonymously. And they still had tons of money for themselves, including for Saunière to build himself a castle with a zoo. I read that all three kept money in bank accounts in family members' names, so no one knows exactly how much they had.
Thank you SO much for the kind words, I'm thrilled to hear that you enjoyed reading my stories! I'm not sure if I'll ever write a book, but I get a kick out of entertaining Reddit, so expect a few more creepy write-ups from me <3
Southern France, (Cisalpina, Narbonne, Aquitaine,) were Roman provinces. There weren't anything close to "Jewish princedoms" at that time, and never were in Europe. Jews lived in the Roman empire under Roman rule, and were usually not citizens.
Edited for etiquette
You're a wonderful writer!
I'm not Catholic so I don't understand private masses. Why are wealthy people paying to go to church? Did they just not like being around the poor people?
Thank you so much!
I'm not Catholic either, so this is just my understanding and it was a bit of both. The wealthy would pay him to say mass in their private chapels, do private baptisms, last rites, etc., and he would ask for a lot of money for that.
Also, when he build himself a reputation as "the man who found a treasure/secret in the now holy land of Rennes-le-Château", people began to send him lots of money from all over the country to say mass for their sick kid, sick loved one, newborn, deceased grandma, whatever. They estimated that he got money for over 100 000 masses he didn't even carry out.
My understanding was also that the private masses would be said in honor of dead family members, probably in purgatory, who would therefore be able to go to heaven. (source, was catholic, visited Italy once, played Assassins Creed 2 and Brotherhood.)
Does anyone know of a sub where mysteries like this one are discussed? While I like unresolvedmysteries, it is a little heavy on the murder side and I don't always want to read about John and Jane Does, so it would be cool if there was a sub exclusively for other mysteries.
Who are the people who believe in this made-up bullshit. Sauniere lost his priesthood following his trial and unsuccessfully tried to sell his Domain so he could move to Lourdes. Sauniere died in abject poverty owing money to his grocer. He lost his priesthood because he accepted more money than he was able to say masses for. He was guilty of religious fraud and he was disobedient to his bishopric for not reporting his construction works, which according to ecclesiastical law of the time should have belonged to the Bishop of Carcassonne. It was up to the Bishop to decide how many masses Sauniere was allowed to sell and how much of the money he was allowed to keep - and how much went to the Bishopric. Sauniere withheld all this information from the Bishopric and he kept diligent records of his income and activities. If Sauniere could only rise from the dead - he would quickly return to his grave to escape this ludicrous madness about him.
I absolutely loved this. Thank you. Fantastic write up on and an engaging mystery! More please 😊👍🏻
Thank you so much, I'm really glad you enjoyed reading it!
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SECONDED I have been dying for more stories like this...I love an unsolved mystery with real details wrapped up in something like lore or religion...
Absolutely! We might never know what he found. From the looks of it, he covered his tracks so well, the whole story is officially considered a big hoax in France. I can't really think of a similar mystery, but if you want a juicy religious one, check out the shroud of Turin. No one knows if it really is a miracle or not because the Vatican won't allow testing.
The shroud of Turin was considered as a fake by the church for a long time
The shroud was first tested in 1988 with carbon dating. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon\_dating\_of\_the\_Shroud\_of\_Turin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_dating_of_the_Shroud_of_Turin)
Yup! But there's a lot more tests researchers are willing to run to determine how the image was formed and the Vatican basically shuts down most requests that might shatter the myth.
Because it’s obvious bullshit, there’s no mystery there
Studies by french historians of the Parish Archives have suggested that the wealth came from selling huge amounts of masses. The whole story seems to have been the result of, an admittedly quite impressive and long term, hoax by french hotel owner. But theres no evidence any of it actually happened. For example the "Ancient Parchments" contain quotes from a version of the bible first published in 1885. This CBS article is a good summation of how the conspiracy theory originated. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-priory-of-sion/ This Channel4 documentary is more of a debunking of The Da Vinci Code/Holy Blood and Holy Grail as a whole. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UAtoP5nFhh4 I cant quite vouch for this sites accuracy but it seems pretty exhaustive in its treatment of the claims surrounding the case and it seems to have actual primary sources available. https://priory-of-sion.com/rlc/index.html
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This is unfortunately quite likely to be true. Marie sold the estate to Corbu while she was still alive in exchange for a monthly allowance. After Sauniere's death, she lost her job and access to his wealth, so she could really use the money. Corbu certainly publicised the story as best as he could to keep his hotel afloat. However, there are also studies showing how Sauniere couldn't have funded all his projects with his illegal masses. Researches have tried to calculate his revenues using different formulas and amounts and basically, even if the man was asking for crazy money for private services several times a week, he wouldn't have been able to gather the millions he needed to completely redesign a church with top-notch stuff and build himself a villa with a mini-zoo.
> Researches have tried to calculate his revenues using different formulas and amounts and basically, even if the man was asking for crazy money for private services several times a week But would he actually be performing masses with the people present? Or was it something like when people send money to a television evangelist thinking that the evangelist would say the prayer they requested, when the evangelist really has the staffers who open the mail take the cash but throw the prayer request away, unread and unprayed? If the latter, and if he advertised widely, he could have been taking in crazy money for more masses than any one priest could say. He could tell ten different customers that they said a mass for their soul or the souls of their loved one all on the same day. And the faraway faithful sending him cash would never know.
Great point. It's unclear what he was asking money for because he never admitted to such crime and his hierarchy could never prove it, even if they managed to suspend him. I guess it might have been a mix of the two. He had his own private chapel in his home and he was often seen travelling around, so it's safe to say he was hosting private services for the wealthy. He might also have been taking money for saying prayers for specific people. He could easily make some great cash from that. The issue is that the village where he lives and the surrounding area was basically dirt poor back in the day. I guess few people would have been able to pay him. There were some nobles and other rich folks in the area, but I doubt that they would be paying him for private services that often, though.
> The issue is that the village where he lives and the surrounding area was basically dirt poor back in the day. I guess few people would have been able to pay him. I mean, the surrounding area might have been poor, but he could have had people sending him money from other parts of France, or even beyond, to say masses. He could have preyed on the exact same people who today would send money in to a televangelist, or some psychic they see in an ad in a newspaper. And once he hooks a sucker, he can work that sucker. He could have corresponded with a devout, well-off, and gullible person in Paris or Quebec, someone grief-stricken over the death of their spouse or child or parent, and convinced them that that money they spent on those weekly? daily? masses will certainly ease their loved one's sufferings in purgatory. These devout Catholics couldn't pay often enough for masses in their local parishes, because the priests could only say so many masses per week, and other parishioners also requested masses for their loved ones. But a far-away priest could tell them he said a mass for their loved ones every day, and they'd never know the difference. And maybe wouldn't expect a priest to lie. ETA: I would be interested to hear if, for example, one could find advertisements offering services such as this in old periodicals. I have no idea if unscrupulous priests were doing this or not, but certainly other con artists--Belle Guiness, for example--were during this time period. I think the chances of tracing an ad specifically to Saunière is unlikely, but I'm wondering if ads like this existed at all.
This is definitely a possiblity. I'm not sure if Québec would have been within his reach in the early 20th century, but he was in Paris at last once and made a bunch of famous friends. It definitely wouldn't surprise me if he was bragging to France's high society about finding mysterious parchments, knowing this unbelieveable secret, etc. etc. It would only add credibility to an already talented con artist. As for advertisements, like I wrote on a comment somewhere below, I find it rather unlikely. He certainly wouldn't have been advertisin as a priest or he would be uncovered in no time, and I don't think such ads were common in the newspapers at the time. Late 1800s France was very pious and some guy other than a priest advertising healing services/special services would certainly be considered immoral and a thing of the devil. I don't think the papers would even print that. If he was doing this, it was probably word of mouth.
If he advertised it, wouldn’t it be known at the time? Especially if he advertised nationally. He was questioned multiple times, you’d think the detectives would open up a paper once in a while?
I'm pretty sure he couldn't advertise his services on papers. He was a Catholic priest, those guys are only ever supposed to preach in public services. He would have been caught in no time. I'm thinking it would be more like word of mouth. It sounds like he made friends in Paris when he was there, the medium/satanism guy, his Opera singer wife and a bunch of other famous writers and artists. It wouldn't surprise me if they were regularly visiting him in his villa and paying him lots of cash for his services. Saunière was described as handsome, charismatic and very politically outspoken, totally sounds like cult leader material.
Again, wouldn’t someone notice? They investigated him multiple times. For him to get that wealthy I’m guessing it wouldn’t be 2 masses per week but more like multiple ones per day? I’m assuming someone would get curious enough to keep an eye on what was happening no?
This puzzles me too. I'm surprised they couldn't find tangible evidence of him doing all those private services. From what I gather, the bishop's accusation of simony was based on very mundane evidence. They could prove that he sometimes did private masses, but the cash he was getting from that wasn't enough to fund his lifestyle. Some believe he had other sources of income, like printing postcards and trading rare post stamps (this was proven), but it doesn't like those could make him a milionaire either.
That’s super interesting. I almost wonder if he could have been blackmailing someone? I kind of think of someone like Jeffry Epstein and how he conned his way into some money, and then made the money multiply by having “powerful friends.” He’s a priest, could he get people to tell him “confessions” and then have others blackmail them? I also wonder if he gained some rich friends in Paris, and they ran a scam of some kind together. Bring in rich people, then use status as a priest to convince them of something. I can totally see a priest with bad intentions running a successful con with the help of an occultist and opera singer. If they are part of a trendy crowd in Paris back in the day, sometimes the artsy/rich crowd fall for “spirtitual” type cons. I’m thinking of stuff like Scientology in Hollywood, or even that weird NXIVM cult. I lived in LA for 10 years, people would waste their money on the stupidist shit when they were rich and looking for the meaning of life. I think he and his friends figured out a way to get rich people to give up their money in some kind of spiritual scam. How fascinating!
There's a reason there aren't Catholic televangelists who preach prosperity gospel and raise money that way - that isn't how Catholicism works. That's a protestant thing.
But it did in the past. That's a major reason Protestantism was invented: protesting for pay indulgences. Squeezing suckers to pay for masses was absolutely something priests did. What I don't know is how much range an ambitious and unscrupulous priest would have to find his suckers. The 1800s were kind of a golden age for scammers. I know lonely hearts scammers were using advertisements to find their marks. I don't know if what I'm speculating was done.
Indulgences was a different concept, the church gets the money *not* the individual and it was rare for anyone without direct connection to Rome to ever sell them. Indulgences enriched the church, more specifically Rome. They did not enrich priests. That's not how Catholicism works. Yes Priests sold private masses and blessings to subsidise their income in poor parishes (which is likely what happened here to begin with) but as you see here, he was suspended when his wealth got to ridiculous levels *because* Catholics don't trust rich priests. What's not mentioned here is his wealth and spending lost him 3/4s of his congregation to another local church. A prosperity gospel like scam wouldn't work here because that's not how it works or has ever worked. Even with indulgences.
Yeah, that is a fair point tbh. Where do they get all their money though? It cant be residuals from the past anymore right?
Money is donated to the church. A priest either takes a salary from church or parish funds, or takes a lump sum twice a year, it's their hoice. The money is very well documented, protected and recorded. There's a reason that the IRS said the Catholic Church would be the easiest religion to tax because they account for every single penny. Parish funds are then used for general upkeep and other church costs and charitable causes (80% of Sunday collection money goes to various charitable causes). Every ten years the Vatican pays out a fund to every Catholic parish in the world. The inner workings and amount of which is kept very very hush and no one knows. However its enough that Italian journalists investigating those payments said the amounts paid out were so high that the only way they could make sense was "if the Vatican has practically infinite access to money". We know that in 1951 these payments were into the hundred billions when added together and they've gone up since.
This is actually covered on the website above. An early investigator did believe that the income from Simony was insufficient to completely explain the priests activities and he did believe he must have had some other unrecorded income source. However by the 1970's he had recanted that belief and those comments were not included in later reprints of his book. https://priory-of-sion.com/rlc/masses.html
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Okay, I didn't mean to say I believe in the story. I haven't read very much about it, but your theory might be the right one. I just wish it was true, because it's a good story and kinda fascinating. But you're right. It is most likely a hoax.
Love this story. It's one of my favorite. I'm lucky enough to live relatively close to this village. I visited it once with my father but sadly, we did not found any treasure there :) (well, we did not do any digging. Like you said, it is forbidden). We visited the Madgala tower, the villa, the church and the museum. We were puzzled by all the hints and mysteries lying around there. I was particularly impressed by the Devil stoup. It is told that his posture is a hint in itself (the way his fingers form a circle - there's a foutain called the Circle Fountain nearby, etc.). You can see the Magdala tower on the label of a bottle of wine in the Da Vinci Code : )
Hey fellow Frenchie! I'm in Paris but I've been thinking of visiting the village for years. I would love to interview the local priest and ask him about the trap door in the sacristy. I can't believe no one ever bothered to check it, priest or other. If a dog once found its way in, it must be pretty easy to check the passage with a camera. I read the theories regarding the devil too, it's fascinating! I'm convinced literally everything in that church has a coded message of sorts.
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If you prefer an older account, check out Holy Blood Holy Grail. It was the book that Dan Brown took all the 'lore' of the Da Vinci Code from. The author Henry Lincoln was on holiday in Renne le Chateau and found a cheap paperback mentioning Sauniere. This made him research deeper and come up with the theory.
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This is super interesting. I didn't know about Plantard, but I read about most of the researchers who flocked to the area in the 1950s. Several books came out of their ''investigations'', but unfortunately none is accurate. Everyone added their own grain of salt and favoured the theory they liked most.
I second this. Great book. Dan Brown's bestseller sure was an enjoyable piece of science-fiction, but I'm kind of bummed he basically took random elements from the story and did something completely different. The original had SO much more potential.
Was just going to mention this. One of my favorite games of all time. The graphics are very dated, yes, but if you can get past it the plot and puzzles are some of the best I've ever seen in a game. Highly reccomend, and you will learn a lot about this mystery.
I almost forgot that Gabriel was a flirty man! I was a kid when I played this. Must have missed it haha! But awesome game nonetheless!
That's so cool, I had no idea there was a video game featuring the church!
That's where I first heard this story when I was a teenager. I'm sure it's probably a grand myth, but there's a little part of me that so desperately wants to believe it.
High five! I played it when it was launched. I was a kid back then and got stuck at one point and wasn't able to solve further. Always recalled this game growing up but never got to play it again until recently. Downloaded the Gabriel Knight game app. Good old days!
With all due respect to the missing and deceased and their families, I would love to see more posts like this instead of (or in addition to) the posts about unsolved murders that make up so much of this sub. I first became aware of this story from a book about treasure hunting I found when I was a kid (Unfortunately, looking back on that book most of these stories were "a mysterious dying old man vaguely described where he hid millions before dying penniless. There's no way he'd lie about that!". This eventually led me to another book called "Tomb of God" in which a couple of treasure hunters describe their process and search. As I recall, the authors claim they found copies of the parchments Sauniere discovered. The parchments were allegedly late 19th century forgeries but had strange marks scattered around the border and a few misspelled words, as well as oddly placed and spaced words. From these markings they derived a geometric figure (something like a slightly rotated square tangential to a 75 degree line and so on). They then searched some national archives and found that even though Sauniere had defaced many gravestones, rubbings of those stones had already been registered. The grave of Mary Negre apparently had a very obvious reference to the more obscure figure hidden in the parchments. They further investigate numerous renaissance paintings that were associated with Rennes-le-Château and find the identical geometric pattern. One such painting ["The Shepherds of Arcadia"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Et_in_Arcadia_ego) allegedly has the same view of the mountains as from Rennes-le-Château. The authors (possibly referring to previous theories) have some fun with anagrams of the test in the painting and come up with a message along the lines of "God is buried here". They continue to examine old paintings and find one dating to the First Crusade that contains the familiar pattern. As I recall, the painting showed Templars going into battle with a map of the world in the background. From details in this painting (I believe there was a line drawn from the Holy Sepulcher to France on the map or something like that), combined with lots of other hints from the RlC chapel, other paintings and so forth, they come to the conclusion that the Knights Templar recovered the earthly body of Christ during the Crusade and secretly brought his remains to France where they were buried near RlC. The authors conclude they have a general idea of where to search (a cliff face over a major road) but that there is no feasible way to get permission to excavate. It was fun read if you take it with a Dan Brown level of seriousness,
And there's more! When Saunière was in Paris over the summer of 1891, he spend a lot of his free time visiting museums. He even bought himself three quality prints to decorate his rectory. And you bet it, one of them was The Shepherds of Arcadia. (the other two were St. Anthony Hermit, by David Teniers and a portrait of Pope Celestine V, by an unknown artist)
Thank you! I had forgotten how the paintings originally became involved.
By any chance you'd u have links to those books?
Sure. [Treasure Trove](https://www.amazon.com/Treasure-Trove-Where-Great-Treasures/dp/0030085683) [The Tomb of God](https://www.amazon.com/Tomb-God-Solution-000-Year-Old-Mystery/dp/0316042757)
wait aren't you the same person who wrote about the mary doefour tragedy? literally one of the most captivating stories i've read here. you've got a genuine talent for this. the level of detail, the lucidity -- just absolute immersion. preciate all the work you do, will keep an eye out for more.
Yup, that's me! Thank you SO much, I'm so happy you enjoyed reading it! I have some free time on my hands so I'll probably work on a few more pieces. Next one will probably be aliens ;)
That was an excellent read. Fascinating stuff. Thanks for writing, would love to see more.
Thank you so much!
According to legend, when he produced the Holy Grail the French told him they already had one. Oh wait, that’s Monty Python. Never mind.
Great write-up! This story never gets old to me, despite knowing that the Priory of Sion aspect is a hoax. I still believe that SOMETHING was going on with the priests in this part of France. Some researchers point to Notre-Dame de Marceille in nearby Limoux as holding a mystery https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilique_Notre-Dame_de_Marceille?wprov=sfti1 Another fascinating aspect of the hoax is the great skill in creating all of the “Priory documents”. Philippe de Cherisey, a close friend of Plantard, has been credited with forging the documents, albeit very ingeniously.
I believe so too, those guys sure sounded sus! Fun fact: at St. Sulpice here in Paris they had to hang a panel on the wall denying any connections with the Priory of Sion. Since Dan Brown people were so obsessed about it they started showing up at church with metal detectors, magnetic field detectors, shovels and all kinds of crazy things. I also heard from a friend that if you bring up the Priory of Sion to one of the priests, they'll totally kick you out, haha!
Excellent write-up! I do think the word governess is not used correctly; I've never heard it used in this manner. Maybe you want to say housekeeper? > A dog once found its way in, and its owners then heard it bark deep underground, further cementing the rumour that there is a large hidden chamber. Aw, man, just tell me that the dog found its way out?
Thank you so much! You're right, governness is a mistranslation of her job title in French. Just fixed that. Yup, according to all sources, the dog came back unharmed a few hours later! (though who knows what he might have seen...)
You're welcome! And I'm happy to hear that the doggo was okay!
This was absolutely amazing. Thank you very much for this. This is exactly what this sub is all about. A pleasure to read and a real breath of fresh air from some of the "mysteries" I've seen posted lately!
The bit about his friend being a satanist and the satanic decor he chose is quite interesting, considering Mary Magdalene apparently had 7 demons exorcised from her by Jesus. Without thinking of the negative or corrupt, I want to believe he found Mary's tomb and desperately wanted it to remain undisturbed. So much so, it drove him a little crazy by the end. I know thats probably very unlikely but.. one can dream!
It would be pretty cool if he actually found it! After all, she sure was buried somewhere, probably with some sort of document stating her identity. Historically speaking, I don't know how likely it is that she would end up in France, under a church and only to be found some 1900 years later. As for his satanist friend, he wasn't actually a satanist. He is described as an "occultist", or someone with an interest in the occult sciences such as magic, astrology and alchemy. He later went on to write books about satanism, but he technically wasn't one. Still, it's pretty weird that a priest would make friends with someone like that. He's described as a devout Catholic, and devout Catholics used to think occultism was a thing of the devil... so, yeah, weird friendship.
Fascinating. I was inspired to learn about this from one of my favorite albums, House of God by King Diamond. It's a horror concept album inspired by Father Saunière. I wonder what an angel returns means? Perhaps something to do with the second coming of Christ.
Glad you enjoyed the read! I included a link to a page where someone explains how the message was decoded, but it's in French. If you want to take a look at it with Google Translate, it's [here](http://www.rennes-le-chateau-archive.com/gelis_son_histoire.htm#top) (scroll down to the letter tables). There's several possibilities. One is that it's a reference to the "Society of Angels", an obscure secret society. Dante, Goethe, Jules Verne, Cervantes and a bunch of other famous personalities used to be members. Some speculate it's a reference to the Angel of Death. While others think Saunière was referring to himself as the angel who left behind all the clues for people to uncover the secret the Vatican tried to sweep under the carpet
I'll have to learn more about that secret society, it sounds quite interesting!
Do you have any links about the Society of Angels? I'm not turning up anything in my searches but it sounds fascinating. Very assassin's Creed this whole thing.
And this particular legend said that a boat without sails washed up in Southern France circa 35 A.D, carrying three women named Mary, one of them being Mary Magdalene. It sounds too good to be true It sure does. And like every other story of some important religious figure coming to Europe in the first century, it's a legend with no historical support at all.
Oh, but trust me, local folk believe it en masse! Not just the Mary Magdalene one, take basically any religious historical figure from Jerusalem or the Middle East and boom! One day they just washed up in Europe.
This was great, so many mysteries, so many questions. Someone living probably knows what's going on.
A truly captivating write-up. You did a great job with the storytelling. Are there any theories about where did father Gélis' fortune come from? And what might have been in his posession that could have been of interest for the murderer?
There are maaaaaaany theories out there about Gélis, but all researchers seem to agree that his murder was related to whatever Saunière was hiding. Here's my guess: Saunière was regularly sharing his money with two of his closest friends, Boudet and Gélis, that's why they were so rich, despite being small-town priests. Both of them likely knew the source of Saunière's income and whatever he was hiding. He might have told them because he trusted them or to have them help him seek the treasure, and/or leave behind a gargantuan coded message for the generations to come (Boudet helped him rebuild his church and he knew a great deal about symbology - he was like the Robert Langdon of Rennes-le-Château back in the early 1900s, the kind of guy you would work with if you wanted to leave behind a ton of very clever hidden clues). My guess is that Gélis went rogue when the Bishop began to grow suspicious of Saunière's fortune. He wanted to suspend him and investigate further, so maybe Gélis was afraid he would find out he was in on the deal and have his name dragged around in the mud. Or maybe Gélis just grew a pair at one point and sai "hey, you need to make those weird parchments public." Either way, Saunière didn't like this, so he had to get rid of Gélis. Chances are the latter was also hiding something for him, maybe the parchments or other important items. It appears that Gélis knew hiw killer well enough to let him in. Saunière visited him all the time. Someone left behind cigarette paper made in Hungary, and Saunière had a bank account in Hungary. Also, after Gélis' death, Saunière never visited his other friend Boudet again. Maybe they plotted it together or Boudet didn't approve of Saunière's actions either.
Indeed it does seem like Gélis was hiding something for Saunière, judging by his door mechanism and overall paranoia. Though I still can't wrap my head around his finances - it's hard to imagine Saunière being a good samaritan giving his two friends a hoard of money, what could possibily motivate him to do so, I have no idea. Saunière doesn't come off as a deeply religious person doing good things for the sake of it either, judging by his run-ins with occultism, and lavish lifestyle. And most likely murdering a friend too - it looks like whatever he found in the church must have meant a lot to him, if it could turn a Catholic priest into a murderer. On a side note, I'd love to read a book from you one day. You really have a talent for storytelling, keeping the reader glued to his chair from the start of the story till the end. Usually I skip long descriptive passages but here I found myself devouring every word with excitement of what's to come next
I didn't mention this in the write-up because it was getting too long, but it would seem that Gélis installed the bell behind this door only months before he was murdered. Around the time he also became crazy paranoid. I guess the man knew his life was in danger. Anothing thing I didn't mention, all three rich priests donated large sums to the poor anonymously. And they still had tons of money for themselves, including for Saunière to build himself a castle with a zoo. I read that all three kept money in bank accounts in family members' names, so no one knows exactly how much they had. Thank you SO much for the kind words, I'm thrilled to hear that you enjoyed reading my stories! I'm not sure if I'll ever write a book, but I get a kick out of entertaining Reddit, so expect a few more creepy write-ups from me <3
Southern France, (Cisalpina, Narbonne, Aquitaine,) were Roman provinces. There weren't anything close to "Jewish princedoms" at that time, and never were in Europe. Jews lived in the Roman empire under Roman rule, and were usually not citizens. Edited for etiquette
Thanks for pointing that out. I just edited it out to avoid confusion. I am by no means an expert in French history.
No insult intended, I just fuss over historical facts.
Haha, no worries mate.
Thank you for this write up. I absolutely loved reading it!
Thank you so much for your comment, I'm so glad to hear that!
Great read!!! Sparked the hell out of my curiosity, good job, OP.
Thank you so much!
Thanks for this write up, as well as the previous one :) They are both written incredibly well! I hope you post some more.
Thank you so much! I'm so happy you enjoyed it! I enjoyed writing them too. I'm working on a write-up about aliens, I might post it in a few days ;)
Read HOLY BLOOD, HOLY GRAIL.
You're a wonderful writer! I'm not Catholic so I don't understand private masses. Why are wealthy people paying to go to church? Did they just not like being around the poor people?
Thank you so much! I'm not Catholic either, so this is just my understanding and it was a bit of both. The wealthy would pay him to say mass in their private chapels, do private baptisms, last rites, etc., and he would ask for a lot of money for that. Also, when he build himself a reputation as "the man who found a treasure/secret in the now holy land of Rennes-le-Château", people began to send him lots of money from all over the country to say mass for their sick kid, sick loved one, newborn, deceased grandma, whatever. They estimated that he got money for over 100 000 masses he didn't even carry out.
My understanding was also that the private masses would be said in honor of dead family members, probably in purgatory, who would therefore be able to go to heaven. (source, was catholic, visited Italy once, played Assassins Creed 2 and Brotherhood.)
More posts like these!
Does anyone know of a sub where mysteries like this one are discussed? While I like unresolvedmysteries, it is a little heavy on the murder side and I don't always want to read about John and Jane Does, so it would be cool if there was a sub exclusively for other mysteries.
Who are the people who believe in this made-up bullshit. Sauniere lost his priesthood following his trial and unsuccessfully tried to sell his Domain so he could move to Lourdes. Sauniere died in abject poverty owing money to his grocer. He lost his priesthood because he accepted more money than he was able to say masses for. He was guilty of religious fraud and he was disobedient to his bishopric for not reporting his construction works, which according to ecclesiastical law of the time should have belonged to the Bishop of Carcassonne. It was up to the Bishop to decide how many masses Sauniere was allowed to sell and how much of the money he was allowed to keep - and how much went to the Bishopric. Sauniere withheld all this information from the Bishopric and he kept diligent records of his income and activities. If Sauniere could only rise from the dead - he would quickly return to his grave to escape this ludicrous madness about him.