By Corjan de Raaf

In October of this year, we interviewed Dutch author Karl Hammer-Kaatee for Radio Rennessence. Before Karl published his book Satan’s Lied (Satan’s Song), he was active on Graham Hancock’s forum under the pseudonym of Mark Harlem (an anagram of his name). His posts drew much attention amongst Rennes-le-Château enthusiasts.

Satan’s Song is a great book. It has adventure, mystery, love, war and even better: Hammer claims it actually happened just as in the book. The story deals with the life of a certain Tom R. After WWII this Tom started working for the Art Looting Investigation Unit (ALIU), the secret service entity investigating German art thefts during the war. During his work in Munich he came across the files of one of the most bizarre art robberies in history: the theft of two panels of Jan van Eyck’s ‘Adoration of the Mystic Lamb’ or ‘the Ghent Altar Piece’.

Jan van Eyck’s Ghent Altar Piece in opened state

A copy of the Just Judges panel (left) and the Altar Piece in closed state

One of the panels, called the Just Judges was never retrieved, but the Nazis spent 3 years looking for it during the war. Tom discovered that Jan van Eyck’s masterpiece was supposed to contain the key to the geographic location of the Arma Christi, the instruments used during the Crucifixion. When Tom decided to give his assignment back to the CIA he was ordered to pursue and find the Arma Christi for them instead. When he had come within arm’s reach, Tom stalled the investigation and went into hiding. To hide his tracks he covered his life in false traces and disinformation. That trail was eventually picked up by the writers of Holy Blood, Holy Grail. During the interview, Karl stated that the basilica of Notre-Dame-de-Marceille was once the hiding place of the Arma Christi.  At one moment in time they were moved to Rennes-le-Château and later moved back to ND-de-Marceille when Otto Rahn, who was after them for Himmler, got too close to Rennes-le-Château.

Mary watching over the Basilica of Notre Dame de Marceille in Limoux

Meersel-Dreef painting of a friar being blessed by a Black Madonna with child
did the painter mean  to display the statuette of Notre Dame de Marceille? (top left)

In his book Hammer-Kaatee claims that the Arma Christi are protected by a networked group of individuals using the name of Ebionites. During the interview Karl suggested that there are Franciscan forces at work here, the Franciscans, being the primary advocates of keeping and worshipping relics in the Catholic Church.

From Joan of Arc to La Sanch

When the discussion turned to Joan of Arc, who is also mentioned in Karl’s book, he briefly mentioned that her motto ‘JesusMarie’ had been copied from Saint Colette of Corbie (Colette Boillet). Colette was the woman who single-handedly started to reform the Franciscan order in 1406. The mention of Colette of Corbie also rekindled other memories. She formed a team with Vincent Ferrer to use their combined power to try and end the Babylonian Captivity (1378-1417) also called the Great Schism in the Catholic Church in which dual and later tricephalic papal courts ruled in Avignon, Rome and Pisa. Vincent Ferrer was the founder of La Sanch, the penitent movement in Perpignan, practitioners of the death cult and sponsors of Bérenger Saunière. We realised that we had now come full-circle. La Sanch is explicitly known for their worship of the Arma Christi. They count no less than 19 of them. On our question if there could be links between the Franciscans, Ebionites and La Sanch, Karl responded that the similarities are probably no coincidence. It was then that we noticed on Karl’s website he is always wears a Tau-cross which was given to him by Tom R. The Tau-cross is best known through St. Francis, who proclaimed to his fellow friars that their monastic habit was their Tau-cross.

The emerging picture here is the silhouette of a European penitentiary movement, guardians of relics, perhaps even of the most sacred ones. A Franciscan penitentiary group. In the last couple of months Andrew Gough demonstrated that La Sanch, the Franciscan penitentiary brotherhood founded by Vincent Ferrer, is as much alive in Gerona as it is in Perpignan. Karl Hammer-Kaatee suggested during our interview that I should look a bit closer to home to find traces of the Franciscan penitentiary movement, namely to the small Belgian border town of Meersel-Dreef. Following his advice I went to Belgium and found many binding elements with the Penitent movement of La Sanch.

La Sanch Procession in Perpignan (left) and La Sang Cross in Gerona
photo Gerona (copyright Andrew Gough)

Capuchin Monastery, Meersel-Dreef, Belgium

 The crowned A(ve) M(aria) and Capuchin sign over the entrance to the Monastery

St. Francis, watching over the entrance to the Chapel

Meersel-Dreef, Chapel with the Arma Christi Cross, identical to the La Sanch Cross

Some History

On 30th January 1648, the Munster Peace treaty was signed, signalling the end of the 30-year war between Catholic Spain and Protestant France and Holland. At the signing the city of Breda and its domains were given to Holland, at that time being predominantly calvinist. The catholics expelled all calvinists from their territory, however, in 1686 a Fransciscan priest managed to persuade his powerful half-brother Jan de Wyse (John the Wise) into opening negotiations with Maria Gabriella de Lalaing which resulted in the foundation of a Capuchin monastery on her grounds in Hoogstraten (present Meersel-Dreef). King Charles II of Spain and the Netherlands ratified the outcome on 10th September 1686. In June 1687 work was started on a new monastery. After having been expelled again in 1796 (this time by the French) they returned permanently in 1864. The Meersel-Dreef Capuchins had their origins in the movement of the Penitents. These were people who desired to grow in holiness in their daily lives without initially joining a religious order. Eventually, a religious order did grow out of the Secular Franciscan Order and which later became known as the Third Order Regular, an Order of laymen priests or friars. One of their symbols was the Franciscan Tau cross.

TAU on a habit in Meersel-Dreef and Karl Hammer-Kaatee with idenitical TAU
Karl Hammer (photo copyright Karl Hammer-Kaatee)

 Meersel-Dreef, Fransciscan Capuchin Friars doing penance

Stolen Statues

In the night of 30th September of this year, the small statue of the Black Madonna, known as Notre-Dame-de-Marceille was decapitated. Her head and golden dress were stolen. The crime upset a great many people in the Limoux area, since the statuette has been worshipped for many centuries. It was but one in a long series of thefts that has befallen this black Madonna with child. It was stolen at the time of the French Revolution and again in the 1980s. That time it was recovered several months later from an Antiques dealer in Lille. This time no trace has been found of it yet.

Coincidentally or not, in the night of 16th September, two statues were stolen from the Chapel in Meersel-Dreef. It concerned one meter high wooden representations of St. Francis and St. Anthony that had been standing two meters high on both sides of the altar for 250 years.

Meersel-Dreef Chapel in 1914 (top) and 2007, note the two empty spaces left and right of the Altar on the bottom picture where the stolen statues once stood

Arma Christi in the wooden panelling behind the Altar

Coat of Arms and Motto of Lodewijk Delebecque, Bishop of Ghent 1838 to 1864 (left)
Cross with Fleur-de-Lys on the Altar (middle) and the Stigmatised hands of St. Francis and Christ (right)

Meersel-Dreef Chapel, Crucifixion in Straw

Concluding the Obvious

In summary, it is possible to draw a simple conclusion. The Ebionites that Karl describes in his book have more than a passing resemblance to La Sanch and the Franciscans. In fact, he was quite clear about that during the interview. The Franciscans were always known for their worship of sacred relics. It’s not farfetched to conclude that it is most probably a Franciscan-based group that guards the most sacred relics of them all: the Arma Christi, the instruments that touched Jesus in his hour of death. If Karl’s account of Tom R.’s life is true, the Arma Christi appear to have survived to this day and rest somewhere safe under Franciscan custody.

Epilogue: A Nothern Lourdes

There’s a lot more to see in Meersel-Dreef than the Monastery and the Chapel. After the French Revolution, part of the domain was devoted to Mary of Lourdes. In 1895 a giant Mary Grotto was constructed after a pledge made by Father Jan-Baptist Rutten. On a mission to the Punjab in British India, his ship ended up in a three day storm on the Mediterrenean Sea. Afraid they would be shipwrecked, he promised to build a Grotto for Mary in Punjab if he would survive. When the local inhabitants refused him to do so because of their own religion he brought the plan home. Over the course of the last 100 years, the domain has turned into a veritable mini-Lourdes, which is visited by many thousands of people each year.

Meersel-Dreef, Grotto Our Lady of Lourdes

The Virgin Mary over the Grotto

Meersel-Dreef, Source

Christ giving the Stigmata to St. Francis on Monte Alverno

St. Michael

Credits
Back to the Source Internet Forum
www.satanslied.nl
www.hoogstraeten.be
Web Gallery of Art, the best source for high resolution photos of Jan van Eyck paintings.
Original photos by Corjan de Raaf

 

Corjan de Raaf

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