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On January 17, 1917, at the age of 65, Berenger Sauniere, the priest of Rennes-le-Chateau, suffered a major stroke. Besides the suspicious date, what made the priest’s sudden stroke even more mysterious was that only a few days earlier many of his parishioners remarked that he seemed to be in an enviable state of health for a man his age (and yet, despite appearing to be in good health it was later discovered that his coffin had been ordered 5 days previously). As he lay on his deathbed, another priest was summoned from the neighboring parish of Esperaza to hear his final confessions and to administer the last rites. This priest was Sauniere’s old friend, the abbe Riviere. At the dying priest’s bedside, Sauniere is believed to have imparted to his friend a terrible secret. According to the testimony of several eyewitnesses, the once jovial Riviere emerged from the sickroom visibly shaken. Whatever Sauniere’s final confession was, abbe Riviere was so shocked that he refused to administer Extreme Unction. This secret also had a traumatic effect on him. He became withdrawn and later suffered acute depression - to the point that it was said that he never smiled again (although this is probably an exaggeration). Five days later on January 22 Sauniere died. The following morning his body was seated upright in an armchair on the sunny terrace of his chessboard-looking ‘knight’s tower’ (Tour Magdala). In a bizarre ceremony, the significance of which has never been fully explained, one by one certain mourners solemnly filed past him, pausing to pluck a scarlet tassel from the dead man’s ornate garment, perhaps in remembrance of the seigneur of Rennes. In the years that followed his death, Sauniere’s housekeeper and confidant, Marie Denarnaud (who was 16 years younger than the priest), used to say that she would one day reveal "a secret that would make one rich and powerful." On other occasions she was heard to say that "the people who live here are walking on gold without knowing it." But perhaps the most telling of all was the following statement: "With what the Monsieur le Cure has left, one could feed all of Rennes for a hundred years and there would still be some left. (NOTE: She, too, later suffered a stroke and was never able to divulge her master’s secret). In the pages that follow we will offer a plethora of information and clues pertaining to what has been called the grandest puzzle of all. Some of this information is our own, but other findings are based on the research of the various Rennes investigators. In the end, we will reveal what we believe may have been the terrible secret that Sauniere imparted to abbe Riviere in his final hours - the deathbed confession that so shocked his fellow priest. We will also attempt to explain the significance of the inexplicable ritual involving the scarlet pompoms. But first it is necessary to start at the beginning, or at least to go back to the year 1885 when Sauniere was first appointed to the church at Rennes-le-Chateau. (BMB) |
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