Rennes Les Chateau Fact
Rennes Les Château Facts
At the end of the 19. century a priest named Francois Berenger Sauniere (11.4.1852 – 22.1.1917) lived in Rennes-Les-Chateau.. Officially just earning some 100 Francs per month, which was near the existence minimum, this priest spent immense sums on buildings after 1900. Abbe Sauniere did not make any statement concerning his source of income even when questioned by his superior bishop.
Modern research yielded that he received a 20.000 Franc donation (other sources speak of 3000 Francs) from the catholic royalist Madame de Chambord, possibly because of the royalistic attitude he displayed in his sermons. Furthermore, he sold a tremendous amount of masses, much more than he could actually celebrate.
Selling masses was (and is) a common practise. But either his fraud or his refusion to name his source of income caused his superiors to sack him in 1910. Until his death Sauniere tried to get his priest position back. In 1910 this would have been possible if he had paid a financial compensation to the church. After 1910 the priest also stopped spending huge sums. When he died in 1917 his grave was very modest.
Abbe Sauniere lived with Marie Denarnaud who was also his heir. Officially she was just his cleaning woman but most likely they had a relationship. This caused a small province scandal which left Sauniere unharmed.
For four decades after the priests death there were no rumours concerning any mystery. They started in the late 1950s.
1953 Marie Denarnaud died. In 1947 she had sold her house to Noel Corbu who turned it into a restaurant after Maries death. To attract and entertain guests Corbu used Saunieres story and added a few more fantastic details. Among those who were fascinated was the journalist Albert Salamon who published in January 1956 an article labeled “The famous discovery of the millionaire priest of Rennes-Les-Chateau” in the Toulouse newspaper “La Depeche du Midi”. This was just the beginning.
In the following years further books were published who basically said that the priest had found by chance one or more old parchments in his church during renovation work. This parchment contained coded information which made the priest very wealthy. Some say the priest found antique treasure, some say he found secret documents and was paid by the Vatican to keep quiet. This was mixed with antique treasure from Jerusalem, the Knight Templars, the story of Jesus Christ etc. I prefer to spare the reader further details.
The people responsible for publishing this fraud story were Pierre Plantard (1920-2000, a convicted fraud, strange character, and founder of the so-called priory of Sion in 1957), Gerard de Sede (died in 2004, a popular hype author in the 1950s and 60s) and a man named Philippe de Cherisey. De Sede published “The gold of Rennes” in 1967.
When journalists from all across Europe wanted to see the found parchments or any other evidence the trio falsed a set of papers and had it registered in the national library in Paris. Many people do not know that everyone can register papers at the national library. The name of this institution gives the paper a credibility they do not posses.
These papers were titled “The secret files”. Written on ordinary paper of the 1960s (no parchments) these were basically a set of long family trees. Besides, it contained a list of the so called grandmasters of the priory of Sion including so famous names as Leonardo Da Vinci. Fantastic material for later hype authors like Dan Brown who do just enough research to get a great story but stop researching when they notice that the story “stinks”.
Today, however, it is certain that the “secret files” do not prove anything. On the contrary, de Cherisey admitted in the 1979 that he falsed these papers. De Sede admitted the fraud in 1988. [Source: Dan Burstein, Secrets of the code, German translation, paperback edition page 484].
Now to the “Priory of Sion”. Dan Brown says it was founded in 1099. It is possible though unlikely that indeed such an organisation was founded in the middle ages. If so it remained irrelevant. It is sure, however, that an organisation of that name was founded June 25, 1956 by Pierre Plantard in Saint-Julien-en-Genevois. It was basically an association to exchange catholic religious ideas. It remained irrelevant and was closed by Plantard 3 or 4 years later. The name of this association originated possibly from the nearby mountains called “mountains of Sion”. The fakers of the “secret files” used the name of Plantards club. There is no known real world organisation of that name that resembles even remotely Dan Browns description of the keepers of the secret of Jesus Christ “bloodline”. Brown recycled this historical nonsense from “Holy Blood, Holy Grail”. He gave credit not only by mentioning this title (scene in Teabings library) but also by mentioning the name Plantard [Chapter 61, p. 280, US paperback version. “Name of one of the two remaining merovingian lines”. Total rubbish from the historical point of view, by the way.].
To sum it up, the Rennes Les Chateau story has a true but rather unspectacular core (a rich priest with an unknown source of income) . On top of this core a construction of lies was erected, embroidered with some of the countless open questions of European history. See the chapter on hype authors for a more thorough examination of this phenomenon.
(C) Thorsten Straub www.metal-detecting.de 2006-2019.