Saint-Germain, comte de

Saint-Germain, Comte de (1690?–1784?) During the eighteenth century, a mysterious French nobleman, the Comte de Saint-Germain, was rumoured to be immortal and some people believe he is still alive more than three hundred years after his supposed death. The story began in the 1750s, when the count, a friend of King Louis XV and the king’s mistress, Madame de Pompadour, was spending a great deal of time at the French court. While there, he encountered the aged Countess von Georgy, who said she recognized him as being the same man she had met in Venice, Italy, fifty years earlier—yet the Comte de Saint-Germain did not look like he was a day older than the forty-five years of age he had appeared to be then. Saint-Germain told the countess that he was indeed the same man, and he gave her details of his time in Venice that convinced her he was telling the truth. Consequently, rumors spread that he was at least one hundred years old. Sometimes SaintGermain encouraged this belief, saying that he had lived for more than five hundred years. In fact, he told one person that he had been a friend of the Virgin Mary’s mother. Other times, though, he scoffed at those who suggested he was ancient, saying that his youthful appearance was due to his lack of vices and his healthy diet, which consisted primarily of oatmeal. Still, Saint-Germain’s many skills and broad knowledge fueled suspicions that he was immortal. The count was an accomplished violinist, artist, and jeweler who had developed a technique for painting jewels. Widely traveled, he also knew several languages: French, German, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, English, Farsi, Arabic, Chinese, Sanskrit, Latin, and ancient Greek. He had a vast knowledge of science as well, took laboratory equipment with him on his travels, and claimed to be an alchemist capable of turning base metals such as iron and lead into gold and enlarging pearls and diamonds through secret processes. He usually wore elaborate clothing with gems sewn into the fabric, and he often made a show of spontaneously giving away jewels, sometimes to near strangers. He also apparently went on secret diplomatic missions for the king. In 1760 Saint-Germain was forced out of France by his political enemies, who made it seem as though he was guilty of treason. After nearly fifteen years in exile, part of which he apparently spent as an adviser to Catherine the Great of Russia, Saint-Germain returned to France and to the court of the new king, Louis XVI. By this time Saint-Germain was involved in the occult, perhaps as a member of a secret society, and people continued to remark on the fact that the count never seemed to age. In fact, not only the Countess von Georgy but others, including composer Jean-Philippe Rameau, insisted that they had met Saint-Germain years earlier and knew he could not be as young as he looked. Mysterious Origins The count never revealed details of his early years or his origins. Indeed, his exact year of birth is a mystery. Historians disagree on where he came from. Some have suggested that he was the illegitimate son of a Transylvanian prince, others that he was the illegitimate son of a Bohemian nobleman, and others that he was the son of the former queen of Spain. Still others said that SaintGermain was of humbler birth, the son of an Italian tax collector. All of these theories, however, are based on the notion that Saint-Germain was born sometime between 1690 and 1710, dates that would have made it impossible for him to have been the forty-five-year-old count that people claimed they had met in Venice or elsewhere. The circumstances and date of the Comte de Saint-Germain’s death are also a mystery. In 1779 He apparently travelled to Germany, where he met Prince Charles of Hesse-Kassel and took up residence in the prince’s castle at Eckernförde. There the two men worked together as alchemists and, according to rumours, dabbled in the occult. When Prince Charles reported that Saint-Germain had died in his castle on February 27, 1784, some of his friends doubted the story, particularly since the prince failed to display the sort of grief that people expected. As a consequence, rumours spread that Prince Charles had no reason to grieve because Saint-Germain was still alive. Reports soon circulated from people who claimed to have seen Saint-Germain alive. Only a year after his supposed death, someone reported seeing the count with the hypnotist Anton Mesmer in Wilhelmsbad, Germany. In 1785 members of a chapter of the Freemasons claimed the count had been present at one of their meetings. In 1788 he was said to have been spotted in Venice, Italy; Vienna, Austria; and Paris, France. He was also supposedly sighted in France in 1793 and 1799. In the 1800s he was sighted several more times, not only in Paris and other parts of Europe but in the Far East, by people who had known him well. In 1896 a member of the Theosophical Society, Annie Besant, said that she had spoken with the count. In almost every instance in which someone who knew Saint-Germain claimed to have seen him after his “death,” he was said to have looked to be around forty-five years of age. Some said that this was because the count was naturally immortal, but others said that he had created an elixir—a by-product of alchemy—that could prevent aging, or at least the apearance of aging. In modern times, occasionally someone has claimed to be the immortal Saint-Germain, but such a claim has never been confirmed. This was the case, for example, when Frenchman Richard Chanfray came forward in 1972 to say that he was the count and could turn base metals into gold. He went on French television to demonstrate this, and apparently he succeeded. However, skeptics say that Chanfray’s alchemy was a clever illusion, and that the man’s claim to be SaintGermain was laughable.

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