Rennes Le Chateau Maintains Its Secrets

 

BERENGER SAUNIERE

 

Rennes le Chateau Mystery

The story of Rennes le Chateau started when Henry Lincoln read a thriller by a French author. In the story the treasure of the title had been found around 1891 by the priest after he deciphered some old documents hidden in the local church. That priest was Berenger Sauniere who had been the priest since 1885. The church sits on top of a hill about 40 kilometers from Carcassonne in France.

Crumbling Church Mysteriously Resurrected

The church dedicated to Mary Magdalene was almost in ruins when Sauniere arrived. Having raised some money the priest started restoration around 1887. By moving a heavy stone that served as the altar Sauniere found that one stone pillar supporting the slab was hollow and contained four parchments. Two of them detailed a genealogy while the other two presented enigmatic writings that, once deciphered by experts in Paris, allowed Sauniere to obtain some very strange messages.

Priest Becomes Art Collector In Paris

While in Paris the priest bought reproductions of a few paintings including The Shepards Of Arcadia. The painting from shows some people standing close to a sarcophagus. It was said that the sarcophagus really existed near Rennes le Chateau and was identified by matching the mountain profile on the painting with the real one. Work at the church continued. Another stone slab was found under the floor but only Sauniere had access to it and could see what was behind it.

Secret Only Church Priest Was Privvy To

The priest then began long and secretive searches of the surrounding area. The restorations started once again. This time funds were limitless. Sauniere used them to buy land and to build a number of constructions around his parish church including a bizarre Tower of Magdala honoring Mary Magdalene. He also filled the church with mysterious statues and had various Latin inscriptions written all around the place.

What Was Source Of Unexplained Wealth

Sauniere found a treasure that included much more than valuable antiquities. Buried in Rennes le Châaeau were documents confirming that Jesus Christ had come to live in France with his family and that his child initiated a dynasty which eventually became known as the Merovingian Kings of France. One of the secret messages stated that the treasure belonged to Meroingian King Dagobert II and to the Priory of Sion.

Is Tomb Of Jesus Christ Shown In Painting?

And he is dead there indicates the presence of a sepulchre containing the body of Jesus Christ. Such a tomb was the one painted by Poussin since the phrase could be anagrammatized to mean Go away! I hold the secrets of God. With such notions in hand Sauniere could have turned Christianity on its head and inspired a whole new interpretation of world history. So why would the priest not use it to blackmail the Vatican and obtain virtually unlimited wealth?

UNEXPLAINED: Turin Shroud Remains Mysterious Artifact

Physical Evidence Of Jesus Christ Existence?

The Turin Shroud is a linen cloth bearing the image of a man who appears to have been physically traumatized in a manner consistent with being crucified. It is kept in the royal chapel of the Catherdral Saint John Baptist Church inTurin, Italy. It is believed to be the cloth placed on Jesus Christ at the time of his burial.

Image Unlike Any Other

The image on the shroud is much clearer in black and white negative than in its natural sepia color. The striking negative image was first observed on the evening of May 8, 1898 on the reverse photographic plate of amateur photographerSecondo Pia who was allowed to photograph it while it was being exhibited in the Turin Cathedral. He almost dropped and broke the photographic plate from the shock of seeing an image of a person on it.

No Shortage Of Controversy

The shroud is the subject of intense debate among some scientists, people of faith, historians, and writers regarding where, when and how the shroud and its images were created. In 1958 a pope approved of the image in association with the Roman Catholic devotion to the Holy Face Of Jesus Christ, celebrated every year. Some believe the shroud is the cloth that covered Jesus when he was placed in his tomb and that his image was recorded on its fibers at or near the time of his alleged resurrection. Skeptics contend the shroud is a medieval forgery. Still others attribute the forming of the image to chemical reactions or other natural processes.

Testing Fails To Settle Debate

Various tests have been performed on the shroud, yet the debates about its origin continue. Dating in 1988 by three independent teams of scientists yielded published results indicating that the shroud was made during the Middle Ages approximately 1300 years after Jesus lived. Claims of bias and error in the testing were raised almost immediately and were answered by others. Yet the dating controversy has continued.

Questions About Testing Methods Surface

Published followup analysis claimed that the sample dated by the teams was taken from an area of the shroud that was not a part of the original cloth. The shroud was also damaged by a fire in the Late Middle Ages which could have added carbon material to the cloth resulting in a higher radiocarbon content and a later calculated age. This analysis itself is questioned by skeptics who reason that the conclusions result from starting with the desired conclusion and working backward to the evidence.

Turin Shroud Confounds All Scientific Methods

The 2008 research at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit may revise the 1260-1390 dating toward which it originally contributed, leading its director to call the scientific community to probe anew the authenticity of the Shroud. With the radiocarbon measurements and with all of the other evidence which we have about the Shroud there does seem to be a conflict in the interpretation of the different evidence after the new research emerged. The director had stressed that he would be surprised if the 1988 tests were shown to be far off, let alone a thousand years wrong and insisted that he would be keeping an open mind on the subject.

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