One of the first renovations Saunière undertook in his church was the replacement of the old altar. , This new altar he installed and that we can still see in the Eglise Madeleine today was bought from Maison Monna of Toulouse and cost 770FF. The altar was paid for by Madame Cavailhé de Coursan. The old altar was transported to the presbytery. It would later serve in his personal chapel at Villa Bethania after his suspension by Mgr. Beauséjour.

The new altar came with a bas relief of Mary Magdalene in a, grotto with some of the usual props: a skull, a book and a cross. The bas relief was based on a painting by Johann Gerbhard Flatz, a well-known Nazarene and painter of religious scenes in the 19th century. An engraving of this painting was discovered by German researcher Andreas Eckel early 2009 and then linked back to Rennes-le-Château.

Until halfway the 1980s, the church of Puichéric had a stained glass window almost identical to the scene on Saunière’s altar as you can see from the photo on the left (copyright André Goudonnet) of that window in 1982.

At the base of the altar Saunière had a phrase inscribed:

JESU MEDELA VULNERUM SPES UNA POENITENTIUM PER MAGDALENAE LACRYMAS PECCATA NOSTRA DILUAS.

It is bad Latin for Jesus, you remedy against our pains and only hope for our repentance, it is thanks to Magdalene’s tears that you wash our sins away. These same two lines feature at the bottom of what is known as the, Grand Parchment. Today the inscription is no longer there.

The story goes that the bas relief was colored by Saunière himself, with the help of his good friend Abbé Eugène Grassaud.

At the left side of the scene, what appears to be two buildings are painted. They don’t feature on the original painting by Flatz. People have concluded they are the Tour Magdala and the Chateâu Hautpoul, but that is far from certain. You might as well say that they are the letters J and M for Jesus and Mary or the ruines of the Château de Coustaussa as is, claimed by others. If they have been indeed been meant to show the, silhouet of the Rennes-le-Château hilltop in the distance, there would be a similarity with the view from the Grotte du Fournet in the Vallée des Couleurs that can be seen from the, Tour Magdala., That distinct possibility has become unlikely with the discovery of this engraving from 1850 as Saunière hadn’t been born yet at that time, making the whole chain of events highly complex and speculative.

Subject of much discussion has been, the way Mary Magdalene has crossed her fingers in the esoteric symbol of the XXX, indicating that she knows of a great secret (in the masonic meaning of the, symbol). There are a couple of, Mary Magdalene statues known that have crossed fingers like on the engraving and the bas relief-copy. One is, in the Provence near St. Maximin La Saint-Baume and the other one close to Rennes-le-Château in the church of Belpech. The strangely crossed fingers are also found in some enigmatic paintings of great artists that are sometimes associated with the enigma.

The most bizar anecdote around this theme is without a doubt a story about the death of, Jean Cocteau’s. The famous French artist was a painter, writer, performer and according to Les Dossiers Secrets alleged Grandmaster of the Priory of Sion. He died an unsuspicious death from a heart attack in 1963. Being a national celebrity, he was placed on the bier and an army of photographers was allowed to shoot him one last time. Jean Brunelin, a well-known French photograper with a great interest in the enigma noticed the peculiar way Cocteau’s fingers were crossed and photographed them. Much to his surprise, when he compared his photos with those of his colleagues shot earlier, he discovered that the hands were folded ‘the normal way’. In other word: someone had purposely forced the deceased’ fingers into this unnatural shape, damaging the corpse. What was so important about the position of a dead man’s fingers that someone violated his deathbed?

The information about Jean Cocteau, in this paragraph is based on an article that appeared in Les Carnets Secrets Magazine, no.5, 2006. More about the Altar and its possible relic is described in this article from 18th January 2008.

If you compare the 1850 German engraving with the bas relief of Mary Magdalene it soons becomes clear that there can be little doubt that either Monna or Saunière used the image or a copy of it as their original. The shape of the grotto, the folded hands, the cross made up of living tree branches, the hair: it is all there. If Saunière added any clues here to the location or nature of what he discovered, it has to be in the text that once stood at the foot of the altar or the J & M buildings on the left.

With the discovery of this engraving, it has become unlikely that the altar bas relief depicts the Grotte du Fournet.

Another copy in Austria

In August 2009, Austrian researcher Christof Summer drew the attention to a work of art in the old local church in his hometown of Nofels (Vorarlberg, Austria). In the back of the church, behind the altar with croix patté, a painting of Mary Magdalene occupies the central panel at the top. The church was built in 1726 – 1728 after the community had been split-off from Altenstadt. The funds came from the Mary Magdalene Humlin.

From the signature at the bottom of the painting it is certain that this concerns a work by local artist Florus Scheel (1864-1936). Apparently this painting, which was produced in 1898, replaced an earlier work of unknown of which we don’t know the subject and artist. It is likely that Scheel, like Julius Allgeyer, copied the original by Johann Gerbhard Flatz. 1898 was allegedly the period that Saunière spent considerable time away from Rennes-le-Château in Lyon.

The relevance of this newly discovered copy lies in the fact that it is executed in full color. The artist who painted Mary Magdalene on Saunière’s altar appears to have stayed very close to the original painting, reproducing Mary’s yellow gown and red mantle.

,©2007-2009 rlcresearch.com, all rights reserved. Allgeyer engraving shown here with kind permission of Andreas Eckel. Jean Cocteau photo copyright Jean Brunelin, shows here with his kind permission. Photos of the panels in the old church of Feldkirch-Nofels by Christof Summer, shown here with his kind permission

On 20th November 1896, Abbé Saunière signed a contract with Giscard, manufacturer of religious statues and plasterwork in Toulouse. As part of this contract the priest ordered the big Bas Relief that you can still see today over the confessional in the church of Rennes-le-Château. Many believe that it is in this particular work of art, that Saunière hid clues to a possible treasure he had found or to whatever his secret was.

In the contract Saunière specified the materials to be used, that the ensemble had to be very colorful, its size and that the title would be “Venez à moi etc.” (come to me etc.) At the end of the entry, Saunière added: “eleven or twelve figures”.

It has long been unclear where Saunière and Giscard got the inspiration for this bas relief. Some years ago, researcher Marion Boskemper solved the puzzle but never published her discovery until today.

Saunière and Giscard could have been inspired by the book “Life of Christ” by Dean Frederic Farrar from 1875. A 1908 German edition contains a picture by a certain A. Dietrich, depicting a scene that closely resembles the bas relief and even carries the same title.

The various poses of the figures on the Bas Relief leave little doubt that this picture was indeed Saunière’s inspiration. The woman with child on the left, the two lovers kneeling on the right, the boy with the stick, the weeping woman:

Click the picture to check for yourself.

,©2007-2009 rlcresearch.com, all rights reserved, many thanks to Marion Boskemper for sharing her discovery

The first thing you notice on entering the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Rennes-le-Château is the crouching devil just round the corner. For over a century now, the demon has been scaring the hell out of kids visiting the church with their parents (talking from experience here).

If any feature in Abbé Saunière’s domain in Rennes-le-Château has attracted attention from visitors and researchers it’s this beast. Gérard de Sède, in his book the Accursed Treasure of Rennes-le-Château, was the first one who made the connection between the statue and a demon called Asmodeus known to the wider audience. Perhaps De Sède was inspired by Le Serpent Rouge (the Red Serpent). This apocryphical document was deposited in the French National Library in 1967 as part of Les Dossiers Secrets. It mentions Jesus and Asmodeus watching the alignment of the black and white squares that make up the chessboard floor in the back of the Church.

If the statue was indeed intended to represent Asmodeus, a whole lot of opportunities present themselves to link Saunière’s works to stories of Treasure. In the 17th Century Book of Demonology Ars Goetia Asmodeus showeth the place where Treasures lie, and guardeth it. In the Talmud, he aides in the construction of the Temple of Solomon. Those are only two stories Asmodeus features in. It’s not hard to see how this statue gets the heads of Treasure hunters racing. In April 1996 one of them could not restrain himself and decapitated the poor devil, probably expecting to find a clue or a Treasure inside the statue. The original head was never found back and has since been replaced by a replica. Although it’s skillfully made, it is far from identical and has a lot less expression than the original.

Many researchers, Ben Hammott being one of them, have remarked that this Devil might be meant to sit in the Devil’s Armchair, a stone monument in the woods near Rennes-les-Bains that also appears to be depicted on the big Fresco overseeing the statue and the rest of the Church.

The crouched devil has his wings half opened. On the inside of his left wing 5 ‘runes’ are visible. Some of them don’t appear to mean anything while others have been identified as the word zouz, meaning crouch or liquid silver in Hebrew. The fingers of the right hand of the statue form a circle. Some researchers see a reference here to the Source du Cercle or Source of the Circle here, a source within 10 metres from the Devil’s Armchair. This source was earmarked by Abbé Henri Boudet as the centre of the Cromleck (stone circle) he described in his enigmatic book La Vraie Langue Celtique et le Cromleck de Rennes-les-Bains. It’s perhaps coincidence that a devil’s head features on the Map of Celtic Rennes that accompanied the book. The links and references are all quite remarkable but become a little more mundane when it’s explained that the hand has a circular opening because it originally held a trident. It was removed almost straight after installation because it tore up the clothes of the visitors. Needless to say that here too speculations about what this devil held in his hand have reached dizzying heights. Was it the Spear of Destiny, a Merovingian flag, a Habsburg Shield, a piece of the True Cross, a Templar Sword, the Holy Grail or was it a broom after all?

Abbé Saunière ordered the demon statue in 1897, together with most of the rest of his Church decorations from Maison Giscard in Toulouse. Where most of the pieces where selected straight from a catalogue, the demon was made especially for Saunière. Unfortunately, no correspondence about it has been preserved apart from the bill, dating from June1897. This bill offers us a clue as to what Saunière actually ordered. It says: Bénitier avec Diable, meaning Baptismal font with Devil. As it appears here, Saunière just ordered a statue of the devil supporting a baptismal font. Looking from the perspective of inversions, a method the priest applied throughout his domain, it must me noticed the Devil is in the same position as Jesus being baptised by John on the opposite wall. This too would indicate it is the devil we are dealing with here. This hypothesis makes even more sense in relation to Saunière’s sermon from October 4th 1885, the one that got him suspended only 8 months after he had become the priest of Rennes-le-Château. He said:

Les Republicains, voilà le Diable a vaincre et qui doit plier le genou sous les poids de la Religion et des baptises. Le signe de la croix est victorieux et avec nous…

The Republicans, now there’s the Devil to be conquered and who needs to bend its knee under the weight of Religion and baptisms. The sign of the Cross is victorious and with you…

If you take a step back from the Devil, you’ll notice he is carrying a baptismal font surmounted by four angels making the sign of the Cross. If there is any doubt left there is a text painted below them stating:

Par ce Signe tu le vaincras
(by this sign you will conquer him)

This group of statues appears to be nothing other than Saunière’s maiden speech turned to stone. It’s a one hundred year old practical joke.

,©2007-2009 rlcresearch.com, all rights reserved. Thanks to Klaas van Urk. The issue on display in thsi article of French magazine Tous Savoir 1958 can be found in the extensive library on the website of Patrick Mensior

French researcher Jean Brunelin has made some astonishing discoveries on the big bas relief in the church of Abbé Saunière in Rennes-le-Château. This enormous fresco on the west wall of the church was made-to-order for the priest and has puzzled researchers for almost 100 years now. Jean, with the help of friend and researcher Jean-Pierre Garcia, managed to get approval from the community council to make a series of extremely close-up photos of the fresco using special lights, revealing every little detail of the paintings on both sides of the relief.

Jean Brunelin has been investigating ever since Robert Charoux’s book guided him to the little village 40 years ago. Having worked as a professional journalist and photographer for many years, Jean has a huge photo library and is an expert on the terrain around Rennes-le-Château and Rennes-les-Bains.

In 2006 he did a series of close-up photographs of the bas-relief on Saunière’s altar with Marie-Madeleine. In the paintwork he revealed a hidden miniature station of the cross and a miniature book. It was this discovery that gave him the idea that Saunière might have applied a similar technique in his biggest work.

It seems Saunière personally signed his work. Brunelin was puzzled by a little box painted behind the head of the baluster. Some have referred to this as depicting the Ark of the Covenant but Brunelin wasn’t convinced. A search for old French farmer funrniture taught him that this box most probably represents a box with a slide in the middle in which people used to keep salt in Saunière’s time. The very object was in fact even called a ‘Saunière’ in French, making it probable the priest introduced this feature as a gimmick referring to his own name. Anyone who uses an automatic translator to turn French texts on Rennes-le-Château into English, will have noticed that Saunière, consistenly turns out as ‘saltbox’.

According to Brunelin, a cartoon story is told on this fresco, hidden in plain sight. Some of the images he discovered are really remarkable, like this serpent, that has been painted in great detail. There are many other animals and artefacts displayed on the fresco. Features from the region feature in small miniature paintings, like the peculiar rock displayed in the background of the large painting of the Crucifixion in Abbé Boudet’s church in Rennes-les-Bains. There are also famliar stories on display here. Jean mentions the example of Charlot, the hero from Philippe de Chérisey’s ‘Circuit’. Charlot follows a tunnel underground until he reaches a fork. He decides to take the left tunnel to discover a treasure and a tomb. The hole, the fork and the tomb at the end of the left tunnel appear to have been painted in miniatures on the fresco.

Jean Brunelin has only just started his quest to uncover all the miniatures left to us by Abbé Saunière. No doubt, many interesting discoveries will follow in the next couple of months. The big photo of the elbow-shaped rock, taken near Rennes-le-Château, might be proof that Saunière painted an actual landscape within walking distance of his church.

Continuing research of Jean Brunelin on Jean-Pierre Garcia’s forum
French interview with Jean Brunelin on Terre de Rhedae

,©2007-2009 rlcresearch.com, all rights reserved. Photos copyright Jean Brunelin, displayed here with kind permission.

This panorama gives an excellent impression of the entrance of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Rennes-le-Château. It was in this church, Abbé Saunière is alleged discoveries, kicking off the mystery of Rennes-le-Château.

To the left is the statue of what is believed to be the demon Asmodeus, guardian of the Treasure of King Solomon. In the far corner at the end of the checkered floor is the statue of St. John the Baptist, baptizing Jesus. Also notice there are four locks on the door to keep out treasure hunters during he night.

,©2007-2009 rlcresearch.com, all rights reserved. Panorama copyright Gilles Vidal