Paul SmithThere was nothing "mysterious" about the source of Bérenger Saunière's wealth - it all stemmed from the selling of masses – Saunière advertised in religious magazines and journals like Semaine Religieuse, La Croix, L'éclair, L'Express du Midi, L'Univers and Le Télégramme and the money just poured in from all over - to such an extent that Saunière could not honour the requests, there being so many of them. And the amounts of money that Saunière received was enough to pay for the renovations of his church and his building projects – the Villa Béthanie, the Tour Magdala, etc… Saunière received large numbers of postal orders and letters each and every day. Here are some examples of requests for masses that he received: "I'm enclosing the sum of two hundred and fifty francs, amounting to two hundred and fifty separate fees for masses at 1 franc each, 124 of them to be said for our deceased sisters." "I'm enclosing a postal order for 45 francs for 30 masses which I would like you to say subsequent to those that I requested from you on 1 August: I commend especially to your prayers my dear little soldier and my poor husband." "Having once again some masses to distribute for our Reverend Mother, I have the honour of enclosing a new postal order for 16 francs for masses to be said on behalf of this dear departed. She was always happy to send on to you those that Sister Eulalie entrusted to her for you." That Saunière became so overwhelmed with requests for masses has been demonstrated by Jean-Jacques Bedu in his 1990 book Autopsie d’un mythe: "We will never cease to reiterate that Bérenger Saunière had set up a genuine 'industry', the results of which, in our opinion, he was eventually unable to control. Once the 'mechanism' was in place, he had no need to keep pestering people - everything was done automatically: when someone wanted to send mass requests it was always to Bérenger Saunière, the curé of Rennes-le-Château... All this is very clear, but did Saunière actually have the means to say all these masses? The answer is obviously 'No', and here's the proof: Priests, when they received masses, had the right to say an absolute maximum of three a day (this figure is contested by some people, who reduce it to 1 for weekdays and 2 for Sundays or feast days). Starting from this assumption it's a simple matter to calculate that, even if he had spent his whole life saying masses, it would have been impossible for him to meet the conditions referred to above. On this point we are in agreement with Gérard de Sède; he would certainly have to have performed a real 'liturgical marathon'. In the absence of such a liturgical marathon we are obviously dealing with trafficking in masses on an unprecedented scale. The proof is to be found in his notebooks for the month of January 1894, the 9th January to be precise. He notes 'Stopped there' and draws a line that will prove to be final. Never again will he fill in the fifth column, where he regrouped the masses in threes, showing that they had been said. It should be noted that, at this date, he was in the process of saying masses that dated back to September 1893, or five months in arrears. At the beginning of the same notebook we find him up to ten months in arrears. That means that in July 1893 he was saying masses requested in May 1892! Starting on 9 January 1894 he draws a line through his notebook - but also through his honesty and integrity as a priest. He chose the easy way out - that of trafficking in masses." When conscientious members of the clergy realised what was happening they reported Saunière’s activities to the Bishopric - thus bringing to an end his life of dishonesty - he was suspended from priestly duties in 1911 and never regained his priesthood, dying in poverty in 1917. If records happen to be missing from Saunière's Notebooks then that is only because he stopped keeping records in the same way that he stopped saying masses... Reproduced pages from Saunière’s Notebooks providing details of his selling of masses activities can be found on the following websites: http://bsmotta.planetaclix.pt/imgd/cidades1.jpg http://bsmotta.planetaclix.pt/imgd/cidades2.jpg http://bsmotta.planetaclix.pt/imgd/correspondencia1.jpg http://bsmotta.planetaclix.pt/imgd/correspondencia2.jpg http://bsmotta.planetaclix.pt/imgd/correspondencia3.jpg http://bsmotta.planetaclix.pt/imgd/correspondencia4.jpg http://bsmotta.planetaclix.pt/imgd/missas1.jpg http://bsmotta.planetaclix.pt/imgd/missas2.jpg http://bsmotta.planetaclix.pt/imgd/missas3.jpg http://bsmotta.planetaclix.pt/imgd/missas4.jpg http://bsmotta.planetaclix.pt/imgd/missas5.jpg http://bsmotta.planetaclix.pt/imgd/contabilistico.jpg Historical Chronology of Bérenger Saunière’s activities |