The Paris church of Saint Sulpice has played a role in the Mystery of Rennes-le-Château ever since Gérard de Sède made mention of it in his book l’Or de Rennes also called Le Trésor Maudit in 1967. We now know he was prompted by Pierre Plantard. Les Dossiers Secrets,  deposited in the French National Library between 1964 and 1967 also make mention of St. Sulpice several times. The direct connection with Saunière is that according to De Sède, Saunière visited the Seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris to have the parchments he allegedly discovered in his church deciphered. Its claimed that Bishop Billard sent him there and covered his expenses. At St. Sulpice, it is said, Saunière met Emile Hoffet who indeed deciphered the texts for him.

Although this story is highly controversial and not substantiated by any evidence, the name of St. Sulpice comes back in many of the lines of research. There were strong ties between St. Sulpice, the Compagnie de Saint Sacarament, the Fouquet brothers and Notre Dame de Marceille. Some of Saunière’s best friends like Abbé Eugène Grassaud studied there. Also Louis de Coma studied at St. Sulpice. It features prominently in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.

The Great Seminary of Saint Sulpice was founded by Jean-Jacques Olier, a pupil of Saint Vincent de Paul. He lived an exemplary Christian life. Like De Paul, Olier was a member of the legendary Compagnie du Saint Sacrament. Olier did a staggering amount of good works during his life. Central to his ideas was that the Christian Perfection was not only achievable for the clergy but for everybody who is prepared to lead a devout life in piety. Olier was a great organizer. He took his self proclaimed vocation of reviving religious life in France very serious and lived in poverty for many years devoting all the money that came in to making St. Sulpice into the leading national religious institution.

One thing for sure is that St. Sulpice is not your average church. The second largest church in Paris after the slightly larger Notre-Dame, it is dedicated to Saint Sulpitious the Pious. It’s a testament to the works of Olier and De Paul and an impressive signature for the seminary. The current, huge building was erected over a much smaller and older church. It was finished in its current state in 1733 with exception of the façade. The old church itself was built on the ruins of a Roman temple devoted to the Goddess Isis.

In 1737, father Languet de Gercy had a giant sundial installed. Officially only to be able to determine the exact date of Easter. It also stipulated more esoteric notion that the church was built on top of the old Paris Meridian. To represent this, a meridian line of brass was runs across the floor, ascending a white marble obelisk, nearly eleven meters high, at the top of which sits a sphere surmounted by a cross. The contruction was done by the English astronomer Henry Sully. In the south transept window a lens was inserted. At noon on the winter solstice (December 21), the ray of light touches the brass line on the obelisk. At noon on the equinoxes (March 21 and September 21), the ray touches an oval plate of copper in the floor near the altar.

Between 1820 and 1875, the city of Paris asked 17 artists to redecorate the church, the most famous one being Eugène Delacroix. During the decoration some imagery was introduced in the church that is claimed by some researchers to contain clues of an esoteric or masonic nature. It concerns the two stoups, the inversed texts in the signature and Crucifixion mural of Émile Signol and some oddities in two works of Delacroix in the Chapel of the Angels. The works of Delacroix in Saint Sulpice are commonly considered as his spiritual testament, especially ‘Jacob fighting the Angel’.

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Nicolas Pavillon (1597-1677)

It was during the reign of Pavillon as bishop of Alet-les-Bains that allegedly the Shepherd Paris fell into a hole while chasing a sheep and found gold. It is in this story that the mystery of Rennes-le-Château finds his historical roots. According to French researcher and author Franck Daffos, the shepherd discovered the hiding place of the material and spiritual treasure of Jerusalem. What followed was a fierce legal battle between Blaise d’Hautpoul on whose land the gold had been discovered, King Louis VIX, the brothers Nicolas and François Fouquet and Pavillon. According to some researchers it was no coincidence Pavillon was sent to the Languedoc. It is claimed that he was sent there with the specific purpose to recover the treasures and relics of Jerusalem by the secret society Compagnie du Saint Sacrament. If you want to understand the mystery of Rennes-le-Château and what the stakes could really be, you should start investigating this corner of French history.

Pavillon, a follower of Saint Vincent de Paul, made history as the French icon of Jansenism. Some time after he had been sent to Alet by Richelieu to become the new bishop he converted to Jansenism and became a fierce advocate of orthodox catholicism. Jansenism took a stand against France portraying itself as the ‘most christian nation’, while at the same time allying with the protestant Netherlands and Germany for the sole purpose of bringing down the Austrian House of Habsburg. This was no small thing. By choosing Jansenism the bishop not only allienated himself from his King and Country but also from pope Alexander VII.

According to Daffos, Pavillon had much of the treasure hidden in a specially made vault below the sanctuary of Notre-Dame de Marceille in Limoux. It was this money that was used to build Saunière’s estate and to code and record the nature and location of what has become known as the treasure of Rennes-le-Château.

The whole story is explained (in French) by Franck Daffos in this video I made for Radio Rennessence:

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