A possible connection between Pope John XXIII (The Good Pope) and the Priory of Sion

The mystery of the Priory of Sion, as the traces of its recent history, came to the public interest together around the early 40’s with the earliest Rennes le Château chronicles, subsequent to Pierre Plantard’s investigations at the village, helped by local citizen Noel Corbu, owner of the Restaurant where Villa Bethania is still located. In 1955, Noël Corbu transformed the Villa Bethania into an Hotel, calling it “Hôtel de la Tour” and opened a restaurant located under the viewpoint that connects the Magdala Tour to the Orangerie.

Those historical investigations rapidly aroused interest in the whole country and soon worldwide as well. The oral tradition and some historical artifact, indicated the possibility Dagobert II lineage survived through his descendant Sigebert IV, which could had perpetuated the merovingian descendancy.

According to the known tradition, the Priory of Sion would be the Holy Order at the protection of the Jesus Christ’s lineage perpetuated through the merovingians, the first monarchs of France.

“The Rennes le Chateau mistery came out through a local Priest called Berenger Sauniere who had entrusted a church in France, precisely in Occitanie, in the village of Rennes-le-Château
It’s opinion of some believer, that the Rennes-le-Château church, consacrated to Mary Magdalene, testifies somehow the Saint to had given a descent to Jesus and to be directly linked to the mysteries of the Holy Grail, due to the local legends as the significant allegories and symbols, that indicates clearly the will to relate the “Grail” with Mary Magdalene.
Berenger Saunière, was believed to discover important historical documents that would clearly delineate the connection between the Merovingian Dynasty and the blood line of Jesus.”

The first documental material however, appeared just in 1956, in form of an archive deposited at the National Library of Paris. For the most part these were brochures of no more than a few page, often typed or photocopied and among the most interesting documents deposited at the National Library of Paris, there are the well known “Les Dossiers Secrets”. The author of these writings signs as a certain Henri Lobineau, that later came out to be just a pseudonym used by Leo Schidlof, an austrian historian and antiquarian. Subsequent sources, led to identify the author in a French nobleman named Henri de Lénoncourt.

The Secret Dossiers consist of newspaper articles, photographs, genealogical papers and
would contain the “history” of the Prieuré de Sion, a secret, Knightly Order
old at least a thousand years and keeper of very important secrets, able, according to the Dossier Secrets, to upset the balance of humanity.

The documents also contain a sort of brief history of the Order as a list of all the Grand Masters. Among these stand out great personalities of culture and art of all times as Leonardo Da Vinci, Sandro Filipepi (Botticelli), Sir Isaac Newton and many other geniuses and excellencies of the arts, the science or of noble birth.

The most intriguing element of the Dossiers Sécrets is the Planche number 4, which contains the structure and the hierarchy of the Priory of Sion. According to those documents, there would be a Supreme Arch called Beth-Ania witch would had its headquarters in Rennes-le-Château. That supreme structure would had control over 27 Commanderies.

Before the reform under the actual Grand Master, Marco Rigamonti, the Priory of Sion, according to the “Dossier Secrets”, appeared to be a Knightly Order of 1039 members, divided into 729 Preux, 243 Ecuyers, 81 Chevaliers, 27 Commandeurs, 9 Croisés de St. John, 3 Princes Noachites de Notre-Dame and a Nautonnier. The Nautonnier, is an ancient french term, which depicts the highest rank in the hierarchy of the Order and it can be translated as “helmsman” or “navigator”. For rule, whenever a new Nautonnier was chosen, he was obliged, in moment in which he took office, to use the name Jean, as Saint Jean which baptized Jesus and considered the figure that concretely initiated Jesus himself.
According to the list of Grand Masters contained in the documents of the Priory, dated,
we recall, in 1956, the last and contemporary Grand Master was the French artist Jean
Cocteau, in office since 1918, and in 1958, when Cocteau was still alive and, according to our sources, still in office as Grand Master of the Priory of Sion, a
Cardinal named Angelo Rocalli, before becoming such, there are indiscretions came to surface, he would have associated himself with a secret society known as the Rosicrucian or “Rose-Croix Véritas”, which is still the subtitle that the Prieuré de Sion uses since 1188. Those elements, makes at least plausible, that Angelo Roncalli, at the time of his election to the Papal Throne, was a member of the Prieuré de Sion Rose-Croix Véritas.