The Church of Mary Magdalene

The small church of Rennes-le-Chateau, in a remote village in southern France, may well hold the key to the proof of Mary Magdalene's marriage to Jesus and the bloodline they founded. In 1885 the village of Rennes-le-Chateau welcomed a new priest, Abbe Sauniere, for its church dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene. Abbe Sauniere died in 1917, leaving an indelible imprint on this village both because of his unusual behaviour and the very strange restoration work he ordered for the church. It is thought that he discovered something during the renovation that brought him to the attention of the power brokers of the time and made him a very rich man. Possible identifications of his discovery range from the gold pillaged from Delphi in Roman times, the treasure bought out of Jerusalem by the Templars, who had a strong presence in the area and the missing Cathar treasure, spirited out of Montsegur mere days before the fall of the fortress. Yet even more remarkable and compelling is this church's ambiguous portrayal of Mary Magdalene.