Three Holy Hills

"John revealed to us that from the start-in the beginning-the Logos was emanated by God and from the Logos emanated Truth and Life. The same John, in Revelations, prophetically shows us the New Jerusalem that comes down from the heart of God, adorned like a wife for her spouse. This is the very Holy Gnosis. It is again he who sees the symbolic woman coming from the sky, clothed in the sun, crowned by twelve stars and having the Moon under her feet". - JULES DOINEL (Tau Valentinus II) August 1890.The depiction of three mounts was chosen as the Gnostic ecclesiastical seal of Tau Valentinus II, better known as JULES-BENO^iT DOINEL. The number "3" reflects the preservation of an ancient tradition - one that predates the establishment of the Gnostic Ecclesia of late 19th century France, and even the Templars and the First Crusade. The Gnostic tradition within the Catholic Church in France was very strong, evidence of which we can clearly see in the attacks against "heresy" written by the infamous IRENAEUS, bishop of Lyons in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. There is every reason to think that our tradition continued even after Irenaeus's purge, evidence for which can be found in the symbol that Doinel chose to decorate his episcopal arms.The three proverbial hills or mounts in this story are Mount Sion (Zion) outside of Jerusalem, SION-VAUD'eMONT in Lorraine, and MONT-SAINTE-ODILE in the Alsace. Mount Sion is mentioned in 2 Samuel 5:7 as being "The stronghold of Sion, which is the City of David", and thereafter the seat of the House of David. Two of the three hills are not very far apart. Sion-Vaud'emont is in the canton of V'ezelise in France's northeastern region of Lorraine, which is about 50 miles or less than 100 km northwest of Mont-Sainte-Odile, near Obernai in the Alsace.Sion-Vaud'emont was the seat of the dukes of Lower Lorraine, also known as the counts of Vaud'emont, members of both the Carolingian and Merovingian lines of the French monarchy. The hill fortress of Sion-Vaud'emont is now nothing but a ruin, although the 5th century BASILICA OF NOTRE-DAME DE SION was rebuilt in the 18th and 19th centuries, and rests on the crest of that hill, towered over by a statue of the "Queen of Heaven" crowned with twelve stars. The castle of the dukes of Lorraine was destroyed under orders of Cardinal Richelieu in the 17th century.Sion-Vaud'emont passed to the Capuchin monks in 1633; and it was then sold after the revolution to the Brothers of Christian Doctrine (Fr`eres de la Doctrine Chr'etienne) in 1822. By 1867 it was sold again to the Cistercians. It is the focal point of an annual pilgrimage in Lorraine devoted to the "Queen of Heaven", which dates back to the 7th century, and even earlier using pagan names.Several conspiracy theories focus on the 19th century Catholic Brothers of the Christian Doctrine who had houses and schools on both Sion-Vaud'emont and Mont-Ste-Odile. The Brothers were by no means a new order, given that there are several references to them before 1822 in other French cities, most notably in Chartres, one hundred years before they were given a royal charter as a charitable institution headquartered at V'ezelise. It is unclear what the connections were between the several congregations which used this name, but there were at least two others in Lorraine and two in the Alsace which were incorporated between 1821 and1822. According to Joseph Scheutz's "The Origin of the Teaching Brotherhoods", the order in Nancy (Lorraine) was founded in 1817 by Dom Fr'echard, a former Benedictine abbot.Whatever the connection, the Brothers' were in fact based at Sion-Vaud'emont and Mont-Sainte-Odile, two of the most important centers of devotion to the BLACK MADONNA. Sion was previously a sacred shrine to the Gallo-Roman goddess of fertility and wealth, ROSMERTA; the partner of Esus, the local equivalent of Hermes (Mercury). Rosmerta's symbols included the cornucopia and the CADUCEUS. Christians in this part of Gaul freely used the imagery of the mother goddess Rosmerta and Hermes, simply replacing the names with Mary and Jesus.Some well-known pseudo-histories have been written about these two locations and their relationship to the so-called "Priory of Sion". According to a local history, the three brothers Baillard, who were Catholic priests implicated with the Church of Carmel of Eug`ene Vintras, were chased out of Sion-Vaud'emont by an emissary of the Bishop of Nancy. L'eopold Baillard was allowed to stay at Notre Dame de Sion as a custodian, and he received extreme unction from an orthodox Catholic priest when he died. Letters between a cleric in V'ezelise and the Bishop of Nancy corroborate the "heretical" nature of the Gnostic Catholic and Sophianic practices of the brothers at Notre-Dame de Sion and Mont-Sainte-Odile. A mention of these letters is available from the "CATALOGUE G'eN'eRAL DE LA LIBRAIRIE FRANcAISE".There are many legends associated with both Sion-Vaud'emont and Mont-Sainte-Odile, but there are two important traditions that point to the Sacred Feminine, the Templars and the name "Sion" which can be illustrated without relying on poorly documented conspiracy theories.GODFREY OF BOUILLON, Duke of Lorraine, was the first ruler of Jerusalem after the First Crusade. Godfrey never took the title of King of Jerusalem, preferring to be called "DEFENDER OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE". After only one year as ruler, Godfrey died and his brother was crowned King Baldwin I of Jerusalem, whose secretary was FULCHER OF CHARTRES, canon of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and guardian of relics and treasures of Jerusalem. It is possible that Godfrey represented a group of French nobility that formed an association that was later officially chartered as the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon. The history and nature of the Confranternity of Sion is worth examining separately. We do know that Godfrey's maternal family was Merovingian as was the maternal family of Saint Odilia. Odilia's father was the duke of Alsace and closely related to the nobility of Champagne. Together with the houses of the dukes of Lorraine these families constituted much of the Templar cadre.Whatever the nature of this Confranternity of Sion might have been, Godfrey of Bouillon was considered by many to be the personification of the "SWAN KNIGHT"and it was probably during his time that the "Sion" was added to the name of the holy hill of Lorraine.The esoteric tradition of Gnostic Catholicism in France predates the Order of the Temple and even Godfrey de Bouillon, which is probably why so many researchers thirst for proof of a pre-existing knowledge of the secrets of the Temple. This is of course very much like the quest for the Holy Grail: to seek a physical chalice is a gigantic waste of time, while seeking the Grail as the mirror of understanding is the greatest quest of all.Long before the tales of the Swan Knight and Percival were well known, the Sacred Flame was being kept alight by a series of very wise and charitable women who were frankly much more important to the survival of the knowledge and traditions of Christ than any pontiff. In every sense, these women were the embodiment of the Grail of Undefiled Wisdom.These ladies revered both the original "Desert Mothers" of Israel, Egypt, Syria and Anatolia, as well as the "Merovingian Desert Mothers", who completed their tradition. By the 12th and 13th centuries, the BEGUINE movement, which consisted of religious women practicing charity and devotion free from the bonds of monastic life, had become very popular in northern France and the Low Countries. Copies of their medieval Psalters have been preserved. Their devotions were focused on the lives and examples of Mary Magdalene; MARY THE EGYPTIAN, EUPHROSINA, and PELAGIA and give us an idea of the tradition stemming from the eastern Mediterranean. But the feminine litany did not stop with Egyptians and Jews, indeed local saints such as ODILIA OF ALSACE (660-720 CE) feature prominently in their homespun liturgies.The tradition of the Merovingian Desert Mothers and of Frankish religious practice in general, was highly mystical in nature and relied heavily on personal, spiritual revelation through "visions and dreams." St Odilia features prominently among the Merovingian Desert Mothers and was of course no exception to this cultural rule. Odilia was the daughter of Adalrich (Eticho) duke of Alsace. Adalrich was also the Mayor of the Palace of Neustria, which was the modern equivalent of Prime Minister in Merovingian France. Odilia's mother was the Merovingian princess BERESWINDE, daughter of King Sigibert III.For those of you who are interested in the pseudo-historical maze that surrounds the Merovingian line, you will no doubt be very interested to know that St Odilia's uncle was the legendary King DAGOBERT II who was removed by a plot, thus effectively ending Merovingian rule in favor of the Carolingian dynasty.Notwithstanding all of these historical intrigues, the lives and works of the saints and souls surrounding those three hills give us a glimpse of the long tradition of Gnostic Christianity that found its way from Palestine to France in the dimly lit dawn of the Common Era. Site de la ville de V'ezelise, Bref historique de V'ezelise La Vi`erge de Santois V`eme au X`eme si`ecle Lagarde et Michard XX`eme si`ecle,1988, Bordas ISBN 2-04-000060-7-1`ere 'edition, pages 126 `a 131Judith Oliver, "Gothic" Women and Merovingian Desert Mothers. Gesta, Vol. 32, No. 2 (1993), pp. 124-134 Isabel Moreira, Dreams, Visions, and Spiritual Authority in Merovingian Gaul, Cornell University Press. 2000