Abbé Antoine Bigou (1719-1794)

Saunière’s predecessor as prête of Rennes-le-Château from 1776 to 1792. Bigou was the priest and confidant of the family Hautpoul de Blanchefort. On her deathbed, Marie de Blanchefort, allegedly confided her family’s secrets to him as she was the last member of the main branch of the Hautpoul family. Bigou is believed to be responsible for the enigmatic engraving of her horizontal (arcadia stone) and vertical tombstone and allegedly hid parchments, with clues to, her secret in the church at Rennes-le-Château, where Saunière later found them. Antoine Bigou is at the very root of what most people consider to be the mystery of Rennes-le-Château., 

Like Saunière, Antoine Bigou started his career in the Pays-de-Sault region, in the tiny village of Le Clat. This village lies close to Niort-de-Sault, the birthplace of Marie de Blanchefort.

In 1774, Bigou succeeded his oncle Jean Bigou as priest of Rennes-le-Château, which had by then become the home of de Hautpoul de Blanchefort family. Marie de Blanchefort died in 1781.

In August 1792, as a result of the French Revolution, a law was passed dictating that the clergy were to be made employees of the state, elected by their parish or bishopric, and the number of bishoprics was to be reduced. All priests and bishops were, to swear an oath of fidelity to the new order or face dismissal, deportation or death. A group of some 20 priests from the region of Alet-les-Bains fled to Spain headed by, Charles de la Cropte de Chanterac, the last bishop of Alet. At least 5 of them arrived in Terrassa, close to Sabadell and one in Llorena, both villages in northern Spain. One of them, whose presence in Spain is actually documented was François-Pierre Caneuille, the priest, of Rennes-les-Bains at the time., 

It is in this climate of unrest and revolt that Bigou had to hide his alleged secret. He was 73 when he left Rennes-le-Château and perhaps knew it was unlikely he would return. It is believed he covered the external entry of the church crypt with Marie de Nègre’s tomb and encoded a message in her tombstones. Additionally he is said to have left a parchment in the wooden baluster supporting the pulpit on which he indicated the location of the tomb and its special significance. It was this parchment, Abbé Saunière is said to have retrieved over 100 years later.

Before he left, Bigou wrote a peculiar page in the parish registry reading multiple time “Jesus de Gallilée n’est point icy” (Jesus of Galilee is not here). This phrase has led to much speculation as to what the priest meant. Veteran French researcher André Douzet has written some interesting articles about this.

A religious Spanish group claims to have Bigou’s diary in their possesion. Patrice Chaplin, in her book City of Secrets, claims that Bigou lived his last years and was buried in a forest near Bésalu in northern Spain. That last claim can’t be true.

Bigou signed over his possessions to the state before he left Rennes-le-Château in March 1793 (first document in this article). If he really went to Spain is a question that is impossible to answer. There is a chance that he didn’t leave France at all. Early 2009, an unknown French researcher found Bigou’s death certificate in the ancient church register of Collioure, a beautiful village on the Mediterranean shore. Antoine Bigou died on 21st March 1794 and was buried in the local cemetery. He was 75 years old.

,©2007-2009 rlcresearch.com, all rights reserved. Photo of Antoine Bigou’s Death Certificate Copyright Le Rendez-Vous des Chercheurs

Abbé François Bérenger Saunière (1852-1917)

François Bérenger Saunière was born on 11th April 1852 in Montazels, a small village not far from Rennes-le-Château in the department of the Aude in the South of France. The house of his birth is still there today on the village square (La Place) behind an 18th century dolphin fountain. He was the eldest of the 7 children of Marguerite Hugues and Joseph Saunière. He had two brothers (Alfred, Martial and Joseph jr.) and three sisters (Mathilde, Adeline, and Marie-Louise). His father Joseph, nicknamed le Cubié, was the mayor of Montazels, manager of the local flour mill and steward to the Marquis de Cazemajou. Joseph was a quick-tempered man and his marriage to Marguerite wasn’t always a happy one.

Bérenger was a healthy and athletic child of the country and spent much time playing in the fields and mountains of the region. He went to the school of St. Louis in Limoux. Being the eldest son almost automatically meant that young Bérenger was destined for a career in the clergy. So in 1870, at the age of 18 he entered the Grand Seminary of the city of Narbonne. His brother Alfred would follow in his footsteps some time later. Bérenger was ordained priest in july of 1879. After having served as a curate in Alet-les-Bains for three years, he became the parish priest (Abbé) in the humble village of Le Clat in June 1882. Le Clat was situated on the lands of the De Negre d’Ables family that would come to play a big part in his later life. After two months he was asked by his old professor in Narbonne to become a teacher at the Seminary of Narbonne. It was there that he got a reputation for being a headstrong insolent man. On June 1st 1885 it resulted in him being assigned to the tiny and utterly unimportant parish of Rennes-le-Château, a community of not more than 300 souls. He was to succeed Abbé Croc, who had died after just a year of service. In his journal the new priest wrote: ‘La croix du milieu existe, mais il n’y a pas d’allées’. He was 33 years old and effectively exiled.

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Dame Marie de Nègre d’Ables (1714-1781)

Dame d’Hautpoul, d’Auxillon, et de Blanchefort. Widow of François d’Hautpoul-Rennes (last Seigneur of Rennes-le-Château +1753), Marquis de Blanchefort.

In November 1732, François d’Hautpoul Rennes married a young 19 year old orphan. Her name was Marie de Nègre d’Ables, Demoiselle de Niort et de Roquefeuil. Her ancestors where bailiffs for the kings of the Pays de Sault, a valley not far from Rennes-le-Château. Through this marriage, the lands of the Hautpouls where extended by the Seigneury of Niort, the Seigneury of Roquefeuil and territories in Mérial, Fontanès with a number of tenanted farms and canals. François died in 1753, being the last Seigneur de Rennes in the main bloodline of the Hautpouls. Marie lived for another 28 years in the Hautpoul’s manor (currently known as the Château Hautpoul), with one of their three daughters Marie Anne-Elisabeth d’Hautpoul de Rennes.

the Château Hautpoul in the early 1900′s (left) and in March 2007 (right)

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Elie Bot (1861-1947)

Elie Bot was a local limonadier (soda-maker), mason and builder, from Luc-sur-Aude who knew Saunière very well. It was Bot who did all the major building work for the priest including the renovations of the church, the Tour Magdala and the Villa Bethania. He was also a guest during some of Saunière’s lavish parties in the Villa Bethania. It is hard to think that he knew nothing of the priest’s secret. Bot is buried in a big tomb he built for himself and his family that he decorated in the same fashion as Saunière’s church.

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Ariduchesse Marie-Thérèse de Modène, Comtesse de Chambord (1817 – 1886)

Member of the Habsburg family. Widow of Henry V d’Artois (1820-1883), last of the Bourbons and pretender to the throne of France. She donated 1.000 goldfrancs to Abbé Saunière for restoration of the church in Rennes-le-Château. The amount was paid out in two installments in 1886. She died in the same year and never saw the results of her donation. The Abbé used the money to start the restoration during which he did his discoveries.

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