Monday, April 23, 2007
THE HIERON DU VAL D'OR
Catholic or Masonic? Is this a crossover organization that permitted occultism to seep into Catholic doctrine?
Susanna wrote in email:
Perhaps you need to look no further than the "Hieron du Val d'Or." When I first read "Holy Blood Holy Grail", I thought it might have been bogus, but as it turns out there was such an organization. It is connected with the "Perennial Philosophy" you have previously discussed.
This is where the so-called "Catholic Freemasonry" came into play during the nineteenth century. I am just going to present some material here with links. This is one of several sites that discusses the true history of the Hieron du Val d'Or.
I will just quickly say that although the Hieron du Val d'Or claimed to be "Traditional' and "Catholic" it was anything but. People were deceived because it tried to hijack the Sacred Heart devotions and equate it with pagan symbols. There was also a related group called "Regnabit" in which Rene Guenon was involved. I think he was kicked out on account of his unorthodox "Catholic" views after Regnabit was order to clean up its act. I have to recheck my data.
A Catholic Monsignor named Monsignor Leon Cristiani, is said to have written at least one article for Regnabit. He is the author of Evidence of Satan in the Modern World. According to Msgr. Cristiani this so-called "Catholic Freemasonry" along with the inventions of Eliphas Levi, Peladan, Vintras, etc. are all examples of "modern forms of satanism." You can't get much more explicit than that.
The Hieron du Val d'Or:
The Force Behind the "Priory of Sion"
In 1873, the very curious organization called Hiéron de Val d'Or was founded. It made its base near the Catholic shrine at Paray-le-Monial. Here, two centuries earlier, the mystic St. Marguerite-Marie Alacoque beheld visions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, beginning the Catholic devotion to the Sacred Heart. Paray-le-Monial had a long history within the Catholic Church. The first of several monastery facilities, a Benedictine abbey, was established there as early as 973. Later, the area seemed to foster Protestants, and in 1618 the Jesuits were called upon to save the faithful from the usurpers. The Jesuits had remained at Paray-le-Monial ever since and the Sacred Heart became the paramount devotional symbol for the Jesuit Order, which was consecrated to the Sacred Heart in 1872. (2) Paray-le-Monial was an important point on the Jesuit compass and at least one member of the Society of Jesus would become a key founder of the Hiéron du Val d'Or. At Paray-le-Monial the Hiéron du Val d'Or built a museum and research center in 1877 and housed itself in a pentagonal building reflecting the Hiéron's interest in geometry and sacred architecture. Long established as a Catholic pilgrimage site, from 1873 onwards Paray-le-Monial began to attract more visitors. Thousands Catholics from all walks of life journeyed to Paray-le-Monial in devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, hoping to stem the changes of the times. The Hiéron du Val d'Or deliberately targeted these pilgrims as its potential recruits.
Victor Drevon, a Jesuit priest, and a nobleman from Spain, the Baron Alexis Sarachaga, were the two key founders of the Hiéron. In 1854, Drevon, then 34 years old, established the Association of the Communion of Reparation in the ancient monastery and Jesuit base at Paray-le-Monial with the purpose of atonement, or reconciliation, of man and God through the mediation of Jesus. For his part, the wealthy Baron Sarachaga was a devoted but esoterically oriented Catholic. His family linage claimed the famed mystic, St. Teresa of Avila, and he was a personal friend of the besieged Pope Pius IX and his successor Leo XIII. Drevon brought the focus and discipline of the Jesuits to the Hiéron, and Sarachaga brought his wealth, his influential Vatican and social connections, and his odd Catholic/esoteric orientation, which the Hiéron proclaimed as esoteric Christianity, or Christian Hermeticism. As the spiritual head of the Hiéron and titular head of its church approved school, the Insititut des Fastes ("Fastes" refers to Roman calendar church feast days), Sarachaga would dedicate the last forty years of his life to the Hiéron, until his death in 1918. It would be become a forge in which the shock troops of the anti-Masonic and anti-occultist Catholic Ultra-Traditionalists would be molded and it would reflect Sarachaga's eclectic ideas..................
Susanna's source is the Alpheus website. It contains much more on this odd organization that is responsible for the promotion of the doctrine of the Sacred Heart.
Additional material can be found in the Cesnur website where the "Notes on an unpublished correspondence between Rene Guenon and Louis Charbonneau-Lassay" discusses Rene Guenon's contributions to Regnabit, a magazine associated with Catholic esotericism, including the Brotherhood of the Knights of the Divine Paraclete, and the teaching of the sacred name of Aor-Agni - Light-Fire, along with the doctrine of Christ the King.
Lastly there is a brief mention of Baron Alexis de Sarachaga, director of the Institute for Eucharistic studies at Para-le-Monial (an effort of the Hieron) in a chapter of an online book titled VISIONARIES. Here this effort is labeled "devout integrism."
