Monday! The Count of St. Germain is a fascinating figure. Rumored to be (at various times) Cartaphilus (the Wandering Jew), immortal, and an alchemist, an occultist, a vampire, and, in modern parlance, "The real Doctor Who?," he is enshrined in history. And/or fiction.
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The story begins, perhaps, with Cartaphilus. As Jesus walked to Golgotha, carrying the cross, he was mocked by a man in the crowd. "Hurry up," the man said. Jesus looked at the man, a doorkeeper (or shoemaker, in some instances), and said, "I will go now, but thou shall wait until I return." Thus began the journey of the Wandering Jew.
There were various reports throughout the centuries of encounters with Cartaphilus.
Then, in the 13th century, a number of travellers returning to England from the Continent spoke of meeting and hearing of a strange blasphemous man who claimed he had been around when Christ was on earth. These curious reports were later strengthened in 1228 when an Armenian archbishop visited St. Albans. The archbishop told his astonished audience that he had recently dined with an unusual man who confessed to being Cartaphilus, the man who mocked Christ.
Many more encounters with Cartaphilus were reported in the following centuries, and each meeting seemed to be taking place nearer and nearer to Western Europe. Then one day in the year 1740, a mysterious man dressed in black arrived in Paris.
The Count of St. Germain
Another picture of the Count
(Many years ago, I found the novels of
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro in my father's library, and absolutely devoured them. In her books, the Count Saint-Germain is a vampire. I had forgotten his name until I started researching this diary. I was surprised to find that she had used the name of an actual historical figure, although I believe that her novels are historically accurate.)
The France of the aristocracy in the mid-18th century was a society in full, gaudy swing. Into their beautifully decorated and upholstered salons stepped an elegantly dressed, coiffed, and bejeweled man who introduced himself as the Count of St. Germain.
In the distinguished company of writers, philosophers, scientists, freemasons and aristocrats, the Count displayed a veritable plethora of talents. He was an accomplished pianist, a gifted singer and violinist, a linguist who spoke fluent Spanish, Greek, Italian, Russian, Portugese, Chinese, Arabic, Sanskrit, English, and of courese, French. The Count of St Germain was also a fine artist, an historian, and a brilliant alchemist. He maintained that he had travelled widely, and recounted his many visits to the court of the Shah of Persia, where he had learned the closely-guarded science of improving and enlarging gemstones. The Count also hinted that he had learned many other arcane lessons of the occult.
But what stunned his awestruck listeners most was his insinuation that he was over a thousand years old. This came about one evening when the course of conversation turned to religious matters. When the Count was invited to comment on the subject, he movingly described Christ as if he had personally known him, and talked in detail of the miraculous water-into-wine event at the marriage feast of Cana as if he were describing a party-trick. After his peculiar anecdote, the Count became tearful, and in a broken, uncharacteristically sombre voice, he said, “I had always known that Christ would meet a bad end.”
Source for both block quotes
There was a story about him meeting an aged woman, the Countess von Georgy, who thought that perhaps she had met his father in Venice, when she was young fifty years before. He told her that, no, it was he who had been there those many years ago, and reminisced about her violin playing. She was shocked, as he still appeared to be the same age (about 45) and called him a "devil." Affronted, he stomped out of the room.
He was invited to the court of Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette, and supposedly warned them of the coming revolution. The doomed Queen wrote (in one of her last diary entries) that she regretted not heeding his words.
He allegedly did not eat or drink wine, simply sipping mineral water while others dined, but some accounts have him subsisting on a diet of oatmeal, or "groats and chicken," consumed in private.
He swanned about Paris and London for quite some time, and traveled to India and various other countries.
In 1784, Prince Charles of Hesse-Cassel announced that the Count had died, and that he would be buried in Eckenforde. The funeral was attended by many notables. However....
That was not, apparently, the end of the adventures of the Count. He had been seen in the company of Freemasons, Rosicrucians, and the Illuminati at various times. He is on the record as being the representative of the Freemasons at a convention in 1785. According to Stephen Wagner,
After the taking of the Bastille in the French Revolution in 1789, the Comtesse d'Adhémar said she had a lengthy conversation with Count de Saint-Germain. He allegedly told her of France's immediate future, as if he knew what was to come. In 1821, she wrote: "I have seen Saint-Germain again, each time to my amazement. I saw him when the queen [Antoinette] was murdered, on the 18th of Brumaire, on the day following the death of the Duke d'Enghien, in January, 1815, and on the eve of the murder of the Duke de Berry." The last time she saw him was in 1820 - and each time he looked to be a man no older than his mid-40s.
According to Helena Blavatsky, he wasn't dead: She had her picture taken with him, as one of her "three teachers."
Madame Blavatsky and the Count of St. Germain, on right
Moreover, to this negative we have the alleged positive proof that he was living several years after 1784. He is said to have had a most important private conference with the Empress of Russia in 1785 or 1786, and to have appeared to the Princess de Lamballe when she stood before the tribunal, a few moments before she was struck down with a billet, and a butcher-boy cut off her head; and to Jeanne Dubarry, the mistress of Louis XV. as she waited on her scaffold at Paris the stroke of the guillotine in the Days of Terror of 1793.
(Blavatsky)
Wagner goes on to say that the Count, under a couple of different names, actually lived until 1983, when he committed suicide (in St. Tropez, according to another source.)
Richard Chanfray: the last incarnation of the Count?
Many reports claim that he was an alchemist of great renown, an occultist, and that he had discovered the secret of eternal life.
There is also, of course, the expected vampire story:
In the beginning of the 20th century, Saint Germain is the central figure of a strange urban legend I New Orleans. In 1903, a handsome and charismatic young Frenchman named Jacques Saint Germain, claiming to be a descendant of the Comte, arrived in New Orleans, taking residence in a house at the corner of Royal and Ursuline streets. Possessing an eye for the ladies, Jacques was seen on the streets of the French Quarter on a nightly basis, with a different lady on his arm every night.
His incursions came to an abrupt end one cold December night, when a woman's piercing scream was heard coming from Jacques' French Quarter home. The scream was quickly accompanied by the woman herself, who flung herself from the second story window, to land on the street below. As bystanders rushed to the aid of the young woman, she told them how Saint Germain attacked and bit her, and that she jumped out of the window to escape. She died later that evening at Charity Hospital in New Orleans.
By the time the New Orleans police kicked in the door of Saint Germain's home, he had escaped. However, what they did find was disturbing nonetheless. The stench of death greeted the nostrils of the policemen, who found not only large bloodstains in the wooden flooring, but even wine bottles filled with human blood.
The house was declared a crime scene and sealed off. From that evil night to the present day, no one lives in that home in the French Quarter. It is private property and all taxes have been paid to date, but no one has been able to contact the present owner or owners.
Journey Into Darkness. Ghosts & Vampires of New Orleans, Kalila Katherine Smith, 1998.
In conclusion....I have no conclusion. There is a wealth of material on the Count all over the Interwebz (far too much for a simple morning diary, so this is highly truncated) and I highly recommend Ms. Yarbro's books. I looked for them after Daddy's death, but they were nowhere to be found. It's possible that my youngest brother has them.
I found this article, well worth the read, while trying to find a video of Richard Chanfray supposedly changing lead into gold on French television in 1972. And I still have no conclusion. More reading might lead to more confusion. I will say that I do not believe in vampires, under any circumstances. Enjoy your day!
I knew that I should have stopped reading...
The New Orleans Vampire
Posted on May 20, 2013 by lynglyngibsonauthor
New Orleans and surrounding areas have been home to the undead for centuries. Perhaps the oldest and most famous, Jacques de Saint Germain, was one of the first. Jacques, or who we all know today as Vampire Jack is often sighted near his old home on the corner of Ursuline and Royal in the French Quarter where he lived around 1909. Jack is said to have walked the earth before Christ and has a left lengthy record of his existence since. Having held company with many of the elite throughout history such as: Casanova, Madame de Pampadour, Voltaire, King Louis XV, Catherine the Great, Anton Mesmer and many more. Voltaire, the 18th Century philosopher, described Saint-Germain as “a man who never dies, and who knows everything.” His most recent publicized appearance was in 1983. Using the name Richard Chanfray, Jacques confessed his true nature and then subsequently faked his own suicide, disappearing from the publics’ eye once more. Though Count de Saint Germain is still known to roam the streets of the French Quarter, he is maintaining a much lower profile these days, unless you know where to look.
Lol =) Some very interesting posts on Ms. Gibson's blog, covering Lilith, the Carter brothers, etc....
Why would he only eat oatmeal? Odd, if true. And maybe chicken.