Monseigneur Félix-Arsène Billard (1829-1901)

23 Oct 1829 Born in Saint-Valèry-en-Caux
17 Dec 1853 Ordained Priest of Rouen
17 Feb 1881 Appointed Bishop of Carcassonne
3 Dec 1901 Died Bishop of Carcassonne

Bishop of Carcassonne and protector of Bérenger Saunière. He succeeded Monseigneur Leuillieux on 17th February 1881. In his new function as a bishop, Billard inaugurated the new gardens and the renovated church of Rennes-le-Château in 1897. It was also to Billard that Saunière turned to for advise after he had discovered the parchments. Billard allegedly advised him to go to St. Sulpice for help. The anomalies in the decorations of Saunière’s church must have been as obvious to him, as the funding was unclear. It doesn’t seem to have bothered him very much. Billard was busy managing his own intrigues and shared a taste for money with his priest.

In 1891 Billard privately inherited 2.000.000 gold francs in 1891 from Victorine Sabatier of Coursan. The reason for this inheritance is not quite clear. Fact is that he was accused and taken to court for getting the inheritance under false pretense by Sabatier’s family and was suspended by the Vatican for a period of three months.

Billard played more strange games. In what appeared to be a fiscal battle, the bishopric of Carcassonne fiercely attacked the sell of the sanctuary of Notre-Dame de Marceille to Mr. Bourrel, a banker from Laroques d’Olmes. Notre-Dame de Marceille, described by Abbé Théodore Lassere (probably aided by Henri Boudet) in Histoire du Pèlerinage de Notre-Dame de Marceille près de Limoux-sur-Aude, had a long tradition of pilgrimage and veneration of a small statue of a black madonna with child. Many miracle stories are associated with it. After a series of court battles, Bourrel won the case and had become the sole owner of the basilica. The bishop then had the Black Madonna removed on the grounds of the basilica now being in secular hands, no longer deserving an ecclesiastic status. Bourrel, who realized he would never earn back his investment admitted defeat and sold the basilica to the bishop. What is striking here is that Billard acquired the church and the grounds in private and not in name of the diocese of Carcassonne. In July 1893, he had announced that the Madonna would be brought back to Notre-Dame de Marceille and the cult was reinstated.

The last 10 years of his life he spent largely developing the Dominican monastery of Prouilhe near the old town of Fanjeaux and close to the spot where St. Dominic had his vision. He spent massive amounts there, trying to make it into a new pilgrimage site. Prouilhe would be the place where he died. Billard lies buried in the cathedral of Carcassonne.

©2007-2008 rlcresearch.com, all rights reserved, photo of the Bonnat painting by Al Sufi

Abbé Antoine Gélis (1827-1897)

Curé of Coustaussa, neighboring village of Rennes-le-Château. He was a secretive man that had large sums of money at his disposal. Gélis was viciously murdered in 1896 and left in a peculiar position like a buried templar with one leg crossed over the other. No valuables or money had been removed from the house. The murderer was never caught. In 1996, a book was published about the affair named Le Secret de l’abbé Gélis, la piste Cors, by J. Rivière, G. Tappa et C. Boumendil.

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Police Report of the murder of Abbé Antoine Gélis 

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Abbé Jean Jacques Henri Boudet (1837-1915)

Curé of Rennes-les-Bains during Saunière’s priesthood in Rennes-le-Château. They certainly knew eachother but the nature of their relation is unknown. Boudet is often regarded as the supreme machinator behind the scenes of the enigma. Henri was an enthusiastic amateur photographer and writer, publishing three known texts of which the best known is La Vraie Langue Celtique. This strange book about the Cromleck of Rennes-les-Bains is believed to contain 12 coded locations of treasure in the area surrounding Rennes-les-Bains, a village near Rennes-le-Château (a Cromleck is a circle of druid stones).

Boudet had to leave his presbytery on 30th April 1914 because he could no longer afford the rent. He moved back to the house of his parents in Axat, the place where he died and was buried with his beloved brother Edmond who had passed away a a couple of years earlier. Being both his brother and his best friend, the notary Edmond made the drawings and the map of Celtic Rennes for Henri’s book.

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Antoine Captier (1833-1903)

Captier was the gardener of Saunière and the carrilloneur (bell ringer) of the church in Rennes-le-Château. It was him who found a small glass tube in the wooden support pillar of the pulpit. It contained a small piece of paper signed by Antoine Bigou and gave it to the Abbé. He told his grandson that it was because of his discovery that Saunière had become a rich man and if only he had known… It was after this discovery that Saunière started his excavations in the cemetery.

Abbé Jean-Marie Alfred Saunière (1855-1905)

Brother and close friend of Abbé Bérenger Saunière. His role in the play is unclear. Being a Jesuit, he was teacher in Narbonne and later to the family of the Marquis the Chefdebien, grandson of the founder of the Philadelphes Masonic Lodge. He was sent away after accusations of theft in 1903. He died an alcoholic in 1905. After his death, a son was born from his relation with Marie-Emilie Salière, who lived with his uncle Bérenger for a while.