During his life, Saunière recorded some 660.000 francs in spending in his account books. The, modern day, equivalent of that amount is approx. EUR 2.500.000 in a very conservative estimate. The true amount is very hard to calculate. What is clear is that it was an enormous amount for someone to spend in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
In actual fact, Saunière spent a lot more than this 660.000 francs. Some of his account books got lost. Also he never recorded travel expenses or any other personal expense., Many large spendings, are known that he didn’t record, like the, cistern he had built, beneath his reposoir and some other quite big works on his domain and in the village. It has been well documented that the priest had an enormous collection of books and stamps. We do find some, receipts for books, but not in the expected quantities. The list is endless. We’ll probably never know how much he spent in total but, it might be well over 1.000.0000 francs or EUR 3.500.0000 to EUR 4.000.000, in today’s equivalent.
In front of the ecclesiastical court in 1911, Saunière claimed to have spent 193.000 francs restoring and refurbishing his domain.
Many believe Saunière financed his lavish lifestyle and building projects by mass trafficking., Mass trafficking, was a well known practice among priests at the time., In principle it, wasn’t illegal, however, many priests would receive money for masses they never said, which was of course an activity not endorsed by the church. If a priest would receive requests for more than 3 masses a day, it would become suspect. Officially, the surplus would have to be paid to the bishopric., , A mass would cost 1 franc,, increasing up to 1,5 franc at the end of Saunière’s life.
There’s no doubt Saunière was indeed guilty of this. He kept meticulous records about it that can be found back in his accounting books from 1895 to 1915., These books are in the possession of Antoine Captier and, Laurent Buchholtzer.,
Being the, well organized man, that he was,, the Abbé, probably used ordinary directories to send out requests for money to say mass, starting at ‘A’, working his way down the alphabet. It’s well known that he spent a small fortune on postage and that the local post office in Quillan was kept quite busy by him. From his records we can see that Saunière received requests to say no less than 110.000 masses,, for which he was sent, 100.000 to 125.000 francs. That was a fortune by all standards in those days but by no means could it have accounted for his excessive spending.
Where did it all the money come from
What is a lot more intriguing than the amount is where the money came from. It came from all over France. Although many people have been looking for it for a long time, no-one has ever found an advert in a paper of the time by Saunière or a written request to any of his benefactors. Saunière received money from neighboring priests. For example Sarda, the Chaplain of Rennes-les-Bains (where Henri Boudet was the priest) donated almost 1.500 francs to Saunière between 1899 and 1902. The money also came from convents and monasteries from all over, France and, including places like Chartres and Lourdes. Not the places you would think need a mass said by the priest of a tiny dusty village on a far away hilltop in the Languedoc.
Jerôme Choloux has counted the known, requests for masses Saunière received and plotted them on the map of France. Most come from Paris with over 300 requests. The rest comes from all over France. Perhaps it is here, we have the real enigma of Rennes-le-Château.
Other income
Bérenger Saunière had several other sources of income.
Gifts, ,
When Saunière was asked to account for his expenditure during the trials of 1910 and 1911, he reported having received 82.800 francs in gifts between 1885 and 1905 from a number of benefactors, many of which anonymous. It included 30.000 francs through his brother Alfred.
Collection Boxes,
The priest placed six locked collection boxes in his church in 1897 and a big one in 1898 made of oak wood. These 7 boxes generated a steady stream of income. According to the priest, he collected 1200 francs per year. He didn’t keep any notes of the income from these collections so it’s impossible to validate this amount. From the amounts collected in comparable French villages it’s more likely he received 500 to 600 francs per year from the collections.
Salaries
Saunière had a priest’s salary of approximately 900 francs per year., In 1894, the Dénarnaud’s moved in with Saunière. Together they made, 900 francs per year in the hat factory in Espéraza.,
Postcards
When the construction of his domain was finished, he had 33 postcards made that he sold to visitors of the domain. These amounts too, where never recorded. The number 33 might be a reference to his activities as a Martinist.
Furniture
The priest made a hobby out of restoring furniture and selling it. Again, no records survive.
Gold
According to some French researchers that live closest to what is left of the original sources, the French police did some investigation after the priest’s death. Allegedly the report they produced spoke of trafficking gold with Spain.
,©2007-2009 rlcresearch.com, all rights reserved. Facts, gathered from l’Héritage de’l'Abbé Saunière by Antoine Captier and Claire Corbu, Le Fabuleux Trésor de Rennes-le-Château by Jacques Rivière, Rennes-le-Château, Saunière’s Secret by Jean-Luc Robin and the website of Jerôme Choloux. Map of France copyright Jerôme Choloux.
On 28th August 1974, 85 years old Georgette Roumens-Talon was brutally murdered in her Paris apartment. After being strangled with an electrical cord, her head was smashed in with a chandeleer. Allegedly a golden Visigoth bracelet and necklace were stolen during the event that she had been given by her aunt Marie Dénarnaud. According to the newspaper article in France Soir of 31st August, this armed robbery soon turned out to have been act of family vengeance. At the time of her death, Georgette was, a secretary at the Frères-des-Hommes charity organisation.
Rennessence News
