Portrait of the young Dr. Bernard-Raymond Fabré-Palaprat
courtesy of l'Academie nationale de médecine, France.
Since the publication of my translation of The Lévitikon: The Gospels According to the Primitive Church, there is growing interest in the life and times of the Johannite Church’s first Patriarch after the Restoration, The Most Rev. Bernard-Raymond Fabré-Palaprat.
In 1773 (the document above is incorrect with the date 1775), Bernard-Raymond Fabré-Palaprat was born in the town of Cordes, which is in the department of Tarn, within the Midi-Pyrénées region of the historical province of Languedoc, in southwestern France. The nearest prefecture to Cordes is the city of Albi, namesake of the Albigensians: the Cathars.
Today Fabré-Palaprat’s birthplace lies about one hour from Toulouse by car, and two and a half hours to the north of Rennes-le-Chateâu and Montségur. The village changed its name in the 1980s to “Cordes-sur-Ciel” in homage to the skies that surround the idyllic hilltop settlement. It is significant to note that Cordes, which in the old Occitan language of southern France is known as Còrdas, was built and first given the right to be a fortified town by the Cathar Count Raymond VII of Toulouse in 1222. Even now, the principal street in the village is called the “Grand Rue Raymond VII.”
Life for the young, gifted Bernard-Raymond was likely filled with sunny days, steaming pots of the local hearty white bean stew known as cassoulet, and constant reminders of the rich and sometimes mysterious and bloody religious history of the south of France. Given his place of upbringing, it is not difficult to understand why Bernard-Raymond Fabré-Palaprat came to play such an extraordinary role in the Restoration of the Gnostic Apostolic Tradition. After all, he was a son of Albi, fabled for its links to the cult of the Black Madonna, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Esclarmonde de Foix, many Templar families, and of course, the Cathar people.
Many Johannite and other Gnostic sources mention that Dr. Fabré-Palaprat practiced medicine at the court of Napoleon I. According to the doctor’s records, still meticulously archived by the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, during the siege of Paris, Fabré-Palaprat heroically treated scores of wounded soldiers and civilians under heavy fire. In 1814 he received the Légion d’Honneur, France’s highest civilian and military award. You can see scanned originals of his inscription record and other documents at the National Archives of France.
In 1804, the same year in which Dr. Fabré-Palaprat discovered the Greek manuscript containing The Lévitikon, and 10 years prior to his own decoration at the rank of chévalier or “knight” of the Legion, Napoleon I held a great feast and ceremony for new Legionnaires while sitting in the chair of the Merovingian king Dagobert. This spectacle was organized at the encampment of the Grand Army at Boulogne, which was preparing to invade England.
Even if the Merovingians were the first royal house of France, Bonaparte’s choice of furniture, so obviously invoking the ancient House of Merovée, which some contend holds the bloodline of Jesus and Mary of Magdala, was not understood by many of the emperor’s own entourage. Exactly what Napoleon’s thinking was on the use of Dagobert’s throne is unclear given that his own confidant and biographer, the Baron C.F. de Meneval himself did not comprehend the significance of the seat chosen. The ancient chair was doubtless small and uncomfortable compared with the luxurious velvet and ermine thrones of the French Empire period. De Meneval in fact recalled that the use of the chair “held in some ridicule by the popular mind.” (Memoirs of Napoleon, 296)
Whatever the nature of the display of Merovingian regalia at the Legionnaires’ ceremony, a few months later, on 25 November 1804, and a few days before his imperial coronation, Napoleon met with the Roman Pontiff in secret. This was the social and political backdrop of Dr. Fabré-Palaprat’s discovery of the Lévitikon in Paris that same year.
The secretive meeting between Napoleon and the pope took place in Paris, but not as a State visit. During their private talks, the pope reportedly pressed Napoleon to sign a document in which Louis XIV “disavowed the articles of the declaration of the clergy in 1682, which was drawn up by Bishop Jacques Bénigne Bossuet as the foundation of the liberties of the Gallican Church. Bossuet, although never condemned by the Vatican, held carefully crafted and well thought out ideas on Church-State relations that one might interpret as being Jansenist. The pope promised to keep this act of complaisance secret.” (Memoirs, 310)
Was Napoleon hedging his bets? Was the sneaky little Corsican planning the launch of an established Church of John for his new French Empire - in the face of the See of St. Peter? Perhaps, he was by all accounts a brilliant tactician, but this little intrigue days before the imperial coronation tells more about the events of 1682 than it does about Bonaparte’s religious leanings. The pope was asking that Napoleon sign a document repudiating the authority of the French Monarch to his extraordinary authority over the established Catholic Church in France, which was claimed – and never relinquished legally – by Louis’ successors. Here, it is important to recall that after Louis XIV, his nephew, Philippe d’Orleans, served as regent for Louis XV. This Philippe is the Duke of Orleans who was appointed Grand-Master of the Order of the Temple, and reformer of its statutes. In name alone, but still by intention, this made Philippe and his successors the Johannite Patriarchs – privy to the secrets and the succession of St. John and everything that entailed. With a rewnewed monarchy, such as the one Napoleon was about to create, all of these prerogatives would eventually fall into the imperial lap. And the pope knew it.
Judging from Napoleon’s own writings on religion, it is likely that he was more concerned for the welfare of his enterprises than any religious revolution. While serving in Egypt, Napoleon frequently showed his respect and even preference for Islam over his native Catholicism. By all accounts Napoleon Bonaparte was a well read, disciplined and fairly just person for his time. But he was no mystic, and he knew that cultivating an empire based on the civil code and reverence for France as the cultural leader of Europe must bow to Roman Catholic tradition, if only for convenience.
Fabré-Palaprat no doubt knew of the emperor’s feelings regarding Rome, which enabled the legal beginnings of the restored Johannite Church, but this realization probably greatly dismayed the Johannite imagination of a new kind of Christianity for a new kind of Europe.
Nevertheless, Fabré-Palaprat stayed in good standing at court, and most importantly, he remained in Paris for most of his adult life working on many high-level social and medical projects. Aside from his service as Grand-Master of the Order of the Temple and later as Patriarch of the Johannite Church, Fabré-Palaprat was appointed to the Société Galvanique of the Academy of Sciences which was responsible for identifying and rewarding the best and brightest scientific minds in France, particularly in the quest for understanding and harnessing electricity. See: Un héritage des Bonaparte :Le prix du galvanisme (1802-1815) et le prix Volta (1852-1888)
Throughout his lifetime, Bernard-Raymond Fabré-Palaprat excelled in both the society in which he was born, and in cultivating and implementing the sciences which he valued so much: physical, social, and spiritual. While he lived in Paris, Fabré-Palaprat worked within his own community as Director of health and social services for the 9th Arrondissment of the city. (Presse médicale. 1947. 55. pp. 729-730, portr.) Whether as a medical doctor, a public servant, an esoteric practitioner, or as Patriarch of the Johannite Church, he consistently projected the inner meaning of his own spiritual path into service for his community. As much as his writings on ecclesiological and liturgical matters might be seen as rather stuffy for our day and age, make no mistake: this Patriarch and his successor today share much in common. They both work in the world and serve both spiritual and temporal needs as a part of their difficult task as leaders of a unique and very ancient tradition. It is therefore fitting and true to the spirit of the Johannite Tradition that the Patriarchate of +Ioannes IV has ushered in the Lévitikon discovered by +Bernardus Raymondus, now made public to the wider world in English.
Although after his death, the Johannites splintered and perhaps many of Fabré-Palaprat´s dreams were broken temporarily, his indefatigable approach to living the Johannite Tradition gave many gifts to the people of France, and now to all of us.
In his older years the esoteric doctor from the Cathar country left Paris and retired to Pau, a city located in the Pyrenees along the same border with Spain over which thousands of Cathars fled the fires of oppression so many centuries before. According to the City of Pau’s records, The Most Rev. Bernard-Raymond Fabré Palaprat died at the age of 65 on 18 February 1838, 34 years after the Johannite Church and the Order of the Temple were reinvigorated, and ten years after the official foundation of the Johannite Church of Primitive Christians was recognized by the French Government. At the time of his death he was a widower of the late Genviève Blusse. (Archives Nationales, Dossier : LH/922/16)
While there are many criticisms to be made regarding Fabré-Palaprat and his epoch, his service to his fellow citizens clearly illustrates his commitment to this great task which we call humanity.
