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The Bérenger Saunière Myth:
Turning Straw into Gold
| Introduction | Early Years | Appointment as curé | Political hot water | Church project | Documents | Tomb-and-treasure | Building & borrowing | Gifts & 3-per-day | Absences | Moving the bones | Mass destruction | Fire & refurbishment | Bulk Masses | Land & luxuries | Change of Bishop | Bills & belvedere | Family estrangement | Extravagant life | Conflict with the Bishop | Continued enquiries | The Bishop & Masses | First indictment | The money fairytale | Second indictment | Continued advertisements | "Not authorised" | Final suspension | The Rome trial | Health and war | Death & Last Rites | Saunière's legacy | Conclusion |
It is known that by 1887, church repairs had begun. Saunière ordered windows for the church from a glazier in Bordeaux (Henri Feur)3 – already one can see that Saunière had more control over the repairs than most parish priests would have. This is directly due to the money he lent the Council, an act that gave him a standing and autonomy in the refurbishing of the church rare for men in his position. The windows, costing 1,350 francs, were paid in four instalments, the full cost being cleared only in 1900.
On 27th July 1887, a new altar was ordered and installed. It cost 700 francs and was paid for by Marie Cavailhé, a lady who lived in Coursan.
Saunière, in order to survive upon the low wage paid to him, was forced to catch his own fish and game. There is no hint that he had access to a large sum of money which would make such straits necessary.
Discovery of documents
Now comes the point in Saunière’s life where mythology starts spinning its fool’s gold.
It is generally accepted that the young priest found some documents in the church at this time. How exactly and where exactly is not agreed upon, nor do the documents exist (except as a forgery used in a later development by someone who used the existing mythology concerning Saunière for his own purposes). Several possibilities have been mentioned, arising from local contemporary rumour and hearsay rather than from any contemporary documented account.
2. As related by Gérard de Sède, the writer who collaborated with Noël Corbu (owner of the Villa-turned-restaurant), Saunière discovered some documents concealed in a hollow pillar supporting the altar, made from part of a Visigothic column. There is no source for this information given by de Sède.
3. As mentioned by husband-and-wife Claire Corbu and Antoine Captier, there is another tale that the documents were discovered by Saunière in a box found during the replacing of the altar. The source is, again, village talk.
4. As related by Claire Corbu in the same book, and her preferred version (she had the tale from her father-in-law Joseph Captier, who apparently had it from his grandfather Antoine Captier, the bell-ringer at the time of the documents’ discovery), Antoine himself saw a bright reflection coming from the capital of a baluster which had been moved in the course of the church renovations. His story is that he found a glass phial inserted in a slot within the timber – the slot had previously been covered up by a shaped piece of wood which had now been dislodged. In this glass phial, he said, there was a roll of paper, which he took to Abbé Saunière.
