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Home arrow Theories arrow Rennes le Chateau arrow Bérenger Saunière
Bérenger Saunière PDF Print E-mail
In the late nineteenth century a new character discovers connections with this famed treasure. On 1st of June 1885, a young Bérenger Saunière is ordained as a priest and has arrived to take office in the village of Rennes-le-Château in France.

As a child Bérenger Saunière enjoyed playing in the woods of Rennes-le-Château with his friends and having adventures looking for what he called the 'lost treasure'. When he was later to become a priest, his knowledge of the treasure was enough, some believed to make him follow this vocation, in hope of gaining access to the church and thus the treasure.

On approaching his church for the first time, he discovered it was almost a complete ruin. The roof was all but missing and when it rained, water would pour through the gaping holes, falling directly upon the altar. The windows were all boarded up to prevent even more damage occurring to the stained glass from the violent storms.

In the October of 1885 the State elections were occurring and to the astonishment of everyone in Rennes-le-Château, Bérenger Saunière, began openly campaigning for people to cast their votes against the Republican Party.

Unfortunately for Saunière the Republicans won the elections and were obviously bitter towards a priest who had encouraged people to vote against them. They went out of their way to seek retribution and he was promptly denounced to the authorities of the region for inciting public disorder and trying to influence the electoral system.

Saunière was suspended yet during his suspension from the church he somehow managed to form an acquaintance with the Countess of Chambord, an exceedingly illustrious and important person. She advanced him the princely sum of 3000 Francs equating to almost three and a half year's salary. The amount of which was not coincidental. Saunière had obtained an estimate for the repairs to the church, which came to exactly 2797.97 Francs.

With immediate effect, Saunière began to restore the church. The altar, being the most important object, required his immediate attention having been severely damaged by the elements. The heavy stone lintel stood on an ancient Visigothic carved pillar. With the aid of some local masons Saunière removed the heavy altar stone. To the distress of the group, the pillar cracked and fell apart only to reveal that it was hollow and contained dry bracken.
 
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