The murdered body of Abbé Gélis was found on the floor and laid out in parody of the Roman Catholic Burial Ritual. He was killed sometime at Halloween or All Saints Day. An autopsy proved he had been hit by the heavy fire-tongs and then with an axe. He had fourteen wounds to the head and multiple skull fractures, with a wound to the nape of his neck – appearing to have been made with a thick cudgel or hammer.

Abbé Gélis is known to have been vocally quarrelsome with Republican Supporters. None of his money was stolen.

A cigarette paper holder of the brand ‘Le Tzar’ manufactured in Hungary, with one of the cigarette papers having the handwritten words ‘Viva Angelina’ was found. Abbé Gélis was a non-smoker.

Abbé Gélis’ murder was first hijacked by the Rennes-le-Château “mystery-buffs” by Gérard de Sède in his book, “L'Or de Rennes, ou La Vie insolite de Bérenger Saunière, curé de Rennes-le-Château” (Chapter 4: ‘A Certain Danger’, René Julliard, Paris, 1967).

That’s almost 70 years without a whisper of Abbé Gélis being connected with any “mystery” of Rennes-le-Château!

Much has been made of the gravestone of Abbé Gélis and its “unusual ” decoration of a rose – although there is nothing unusual in that [1] [2]

The pro-Republicans also got to Bérenger Saunière, as we know, through legal means.

There is a prosaic solution to everything related to the Rennes-le-Château “mystery”.