The Black Madonna of Montserrat

After our extensive visits to Saint Michel de Cuixà and Sant Pere de Rodes, we have finally arrived at Montserrat, the third monastery of our quest and the holiest place of them all. It is revered in Catalonia because of the famous Black Madonna, which has rewarded the faithful with many miracles. We shall see that her powers extend to us as well as she rewards us with the missing piece of the Magic Sword, confirming the symbolism of Chrétien and Wolfram in grail romance. The latter helps us with his "second opinion", because the French poet died before he could complete his esoteric concept. Wolfram ignores the fancy decorations of the Magic Sword, leaving it up to us to accept their significance, but he adorns its hilt with a shiny ruby. We owe it to Jeroni Pujades, see below, that the ruby is the key to Montserrat. Although he never mentions the grail in his work, only griphos, we need to consider that the Catalan historian loved to write poetry. Hence, a scholar of his caliber and education was familiar with grail romance, but could not admit it openly because of the heretic elements. But during each step of our discovery process, he leads us to the right solution, which is strong evidence that he was an initiate.

We began with two Latin chronicles from the Pyrenees that describe certain historical events, but they were falsifications by the monks to cover up what really happened. With the help of Pujades, we are about to take the same approach with the legends of Montserrat. They feature the 9th century and present several familiar themes: Celestial lights in the west, a virgin and child, a hermit in a cave, and another rape! In a strange twist of the chronicle from Cuixà, an adolescent girl doesn't get raped in Flanders by Guifré el Pilós, but his daughter gets raped this time, at Montserrat of all places. The culprit is Fra. Joan Gari, a pious hermit and exorcist, who gets possessed by the devil and after he cuts the throat of the girl turns shaggier than the shaggy count. These are surprising reversals, and we are inclined to believe that a rape was attached to Guifre's name, and an erudite monk was ordered to "remove" it to far-away Flanders. The fight of Parzival comes to mind, against the protector of the lady he had raped in his first adventure. It is a bloody battle against over a hundred dragons that come alive from the armor and helmet of Orilus. Yet Parzival's mother had a cosmic daydream, her sterneblic, where a dragon announces his birth, and the wise hermit tells Parzival later that he was that dragon! Which is quite a challenge for him -- and for us. The coat of arms of Guifré el Pilós (at left) shows that his helmet is crowned by a dragon -- did Parzival fight against himself? What complicates matters are the two hermits in a cave, one possessed and the other a wise man, and that the legends of Montserrat connect to the 854-year planetary cycles, which we developed from Kepler. But this is nothing unusual because many pretended Messiahs were reported in the Middle Ages. Let's see how Pujades unfolds this magical mystery about good and evil! We have seen that when he attacks a major controversy, he makes first the subtle excuse Paraque no pase tiempo sin decir alguna cosa de Cataluna... as he does for Sant Pere de Rodes. Here at Montserrat, he uses no pasar por este tiempo sin decir algo de..., "that he can't cover this period without saying something about..."(1) This understatement, which is typical for the Catalan culture, is usually followed by long passages in the flowery language of Castilia. That this is part of his rhetoric is outlined in the prologue --  including the advice to pick the rose and leave the thorns (1a), which is a Christian way of saying it all. 

Pujades continues this poetic style with the description of the many varieties of wild flowers, herbs and trees that make this mountain such a spectacular garden (grandioso jardin), covered with springs, brooks and streams, of which many dry up in the summer and leave caves where rushing water is heard deep inside. The rocks on the mountain are very hard, like white jasper, and those "who understand" get a sense of well being when working with them. Aside from clear Artesian springs, there are also "dark, and polluted waters at the summit which enter the channels of the others and pose a threat to one's health". You'll see below that this symbolism is an esoteric introduction to the legends of Montserrat -- of what really happened once upon a time.

A good tune-up for things to come is this irreverent report for "armchair travelers" by Richard Ford (2), who lists Pujades as one of his sources. This adventurous Brit and Oxford graduate rode up to the Black Madonna on horseback in the 1830's, when slavery was still practiced in the USA and the monastery still in shambles. The London Times declared upon its publication in 1845: So great a literary achievement has never before been performed under so humble a title. We should add that we owe much to the literary efforts of Google, which not only offers a digital version of the Cronica, but also of Ford's Handbook for Travelers in Spain. A few excerpts from his entertaining eyewitness report:

"...the Convent, the cradle of Jesuitism, is now laid in ruin; more so indeed than the evil spirit hatched in that den. The extraordinary mountain is called Montserrat, quasi "Mons Serratus", and it is, indeed, jagged as a saw.... The pinnacles range about 3800 feet high. The outline is most fantastic...

 

Visit without fail the parish church which is handsome with a good tower. In it is the miraculous image of the Virgin recently brought down from her `high place' having been for nearly 1000 years the Palladium of Montserrat. Volumes have been written on this graven image and the miracles it has worked... The image was made by St. Luke and brought to Barcelona in the year 50 by St. Peter.  In 712 the pious Goths hid it away from the invading Moors in the hill where it remained until 880 when some shepherds were attracted to the spot by heavenly lights and singing angels; thereupon the bishop of Vique came in person and being guided by a sweet smell found the image in a cave but it refused to be moved; whereupon a small chapel was built on the spot, in which it remained for 160 years...

 

It is rudely carved out of dark wood and holds the child on its lap. `None however' says the Compendio (p.28) ‘can dare look at it long' and the monks in dressing and undressing it always avert their eyes...  The grand miracle was the most ancient of all, but this is usual, for in proportion as the people were ignorant, grosser cheats were palmed upon them by the cunning monks...  

 

        Towards the end of the ninth century the devil entered the body of Riquilda, daughter of Wifred `el velloso' (i.e. Wilfred the Hairy or Guifré el Pilós) so the father sent her to Juan Guarin, the hermit of the Virgin's cave, who was renowned for expelling the Evil One. The temptation was too great; and in one moment the exorciser cancelled a chasticity of a century's duration. The dread of discovery of his first crime led to the perpetration of a second, and he next cut the throat of the violated victim, and fled to Rome. There the pope ordered him to go back on all fours, and never to look up until pardoned by Heaven.  Juan became... a grazing monk, until the hair on his body grew thicker than even on the shaggy count's sole. He then lost the use of speech, and became altogether an orang outang.

 

        At last Wifred, when out hunting, caught him, and transported him into a zoological den, where he remained the full term of seven years, when a voice from heaven told him to look up; he did so, and, as in a fairy tale, at once recovered his human form and senses and became again a saint; thus in the poetical mythology of the ancients the cup of Circe i.e. brutal sensuality converted man into beast. Guarin now led the count to the mountain, where Riquilda re-appeared alive, with only a red rim on her throat, which, according to Villafane, (p.357), was like a necklace `de grana' and rather becoming than otherwise. Some Catalan theologians contend that her virginity was miraculously restored, which, if true, is the only instance even in Spanish legends... at all events she became the first abbess of the convent. Other historians are satisfied that Juan also was innocent, and that the devil, who had assumed his form, was deceived by an imaginary Riquilda, which the image of the Virgin had made out of a cloud just as Ixion was deceived by a nebulous Juno..."

        The ghastly details of the legend, as assembled by Ford, are still repeated in the official guide books that are sold at the monastery. But it seems that the cunning monks palmed upon Ford another Black Madonna for a couple of escudos, a rudely carved one that they dressed and undressed for him because the real one was hidden away. No wonder they averted their eyes! As you can see above, the original has some true grace and beauty, and her clothes are painted on. Another mistake by Ford, because of the Victorian era, is that he ignores the phallic symbolism of the thousands of tall, round pinnacles that rise at Montserrat. When your gatekeeper's American wife saw them for the first time, and heard about the rape, she felt sorry for those poor monks up there who must have a "hard time" to control their sex drive. She made a joke, of course, in fewer words that can be quoted. But aside from the horny hermit, many aspects of these legends deserve our special attention: The picture was taken in 2007 from the monastery's location :

If you follow the first pinnacle upward you'll notice the chapel in the shade that was built over the crime scene. It is quite unusual  that monastic chronicles would feature rapes -- not that it didn't happen -- but how often would the monks avert their eyes? Could it be that they were "under orders" to protect the count's reputation or to stifle rumors about an immaculate conception? Either way, it's great stuff for conspiracy buffs!

        Before we return to Pujades, who will clear things up, we should point out that the first collective analysis of medieval history was started in the 17th century. Two religious groups copied the working style of Pujades and visited every monastery in Europe to compile their version of medieval history. They were the Bollandists, Belgian Jesuits under Bolland (d.1665), and the Maurists, reformed Benedictines of Paris under Mabillon (d.1707). Zimmermann writes that both groups "remain leading in medieval research" (3), which makes it difficult for other historians to question their findings. We can only speculate why these projects were launched, but it is a fact that the Bollandists showed up in Paris, right after archbishop de Marca's death, and went on to Rouen, where the Cronica of Pujades was last seen. That got the Maurists started, which is difficult to dismiss as a coincidence. Did they intend to eliminate the Gesta, "primitive edition", because it questions the cover-up? Both versions of the Gesta disappeared with the works of Pujades, allegedly taken by de Marca using the "force of arms", and it is conceivable that some pious ecclesiastics attempted to eliminate his findings. It would have been a fait accomplit if the manuscripts had not found their way to the Bibliothèque Royale in Paris, now the old Nationale (rue de Richelieu), where they are consulted regularly for our interactive project.

 The Third Latin Chronicle

Ford's abbreviated account of the legends complies largely with the Benedictine tradition, but Pujades make a few major corrections. He has two sources, one public and the other privileged. One is the chronicle of Montserrat, un libro antiquisimo escrito de mano en pergamino, a very ancient book, written by hand on vellum. The pages were mounted on wood panels and displayed at the cloister of Montserrat. In addition to the public edition, Pujades discovered the missing pages in Barcelona, in the house of the ancient counts (p.369), which is now a monastery. Based on this information, he dedicates an entire chapter (4) to the cover-up: "Ascertainment of certain difficulties of abbot Antonio Yepez with the history of brother Joan Gari", because the "badly informed Benedictine historian" claims that the cave stories happened in 861 CE (p.370), and because he has them in the wrong order. This is an important clue, because a reversal fuses them easily into one continuous story!

Pujades describes the temptations of the devil and the rape by the hermit more or less like Ford, except that he is an Anchorite, and Riquilda becomes Richildis. In his version, Guifre el Pilos takes his daughter personally to the exorcist and waits in the nearby town Manresa for her recovery. When he returns, the hermit and Richildis have disappeared. According to the legend, the girl was buried after the rape and murder, and the hermit on his way to Rome. Later, when the count catches the shaggy beast while hunting, he ties a cord around its neck and leads it away like a sacrificial lamb (5), which is a first hint that the "grazing monk" was innocent. But so far, we only learned that young shepherds discover one Saturday evening the so-called Holy Image in a cave. This is told by Pujades in the next chapter with details Ford did not mention:

"They see a cave at the eastern mountain with many lights descending from heaven, like candles of great brightness... Accompanied by beautiful songs and sweet music, which follow the lights into the cave...  where the chapel of St. Michael is today, facing towards the east and the river Llobregat..."

 According to Pujades, the story of the shepherds is not believed in town, but eventually, the village-priest of Monistrol takes a few brave men up to the cave. Pujades describes the statue in detail, how the mother is holding a boy "of three or four months " who is as dark as his mother. Ford mentions a "voice from heaven", but Pujades has all the details: The count gives a "great fiesta" at his residence in Barcelona to celebrate the baptism of his son. When some guests throw bones to the beast under the table, there is another miracle: At the sight of the shaggy hermit, the child "three months old and in the arms of a wet-nurse" opens his mouth and for all to hear begins to speak:

Rise brother Joan Gari,  
because God has forgiven your sins!

            Because God has forgiven the count forgives as well and is rewarded with an even greater miracle: Richildis is found alive and, of course, becomes first abbess of Montserrat. At the fiesta, where the child is with a wet-nurse, Pujades fails to mention of the mother -- as if she were absent for some reason. At this point, we could easily rush to conclusions: According to Chrétien's "meillor conte", Perceval rapes a virgin who is fused symbolically by tears with "Blanchefleur", the woman he marries. Hence, Guifré could have raped the girl and forced the hermit to take the blame. And later, the count repents and takes the shaggy name as atonement for his sin. This would explain why the matter was removed to far-away Flanders -- and that a redactor at Cuixà was ordered to support a cover-up. And because too many rumors were still circulating at the court, he used ambiguities that could safely be removed a hundred years later, in the final edition of Ripoll.

            But why would Pujades feature the Messianic elements? Is it a rhetorical trick to show that the little Jesus in the Black Madonna's lap is really the little boy at the fiesta? Why else would he compare both children as being of the same age, about three months old, and ignore both mothers? Before the child utters divinely inspired words, Pujades seems to actually "confuse" them:

This son of the Catholic Church and the New Holy City of Jerusalem (who after all was human and had the ability to speak) left his mother's breast to discover the power of the eternal God and gave him Glory...

            This could be a coincidence, unless Pujades was an initiate and familiar with Wolfram's symbolism. When the sorceress Kundrie invokes Plato's fullness of time by naming the sun and the planets, she venerates Parzival as the crown of man's salvation. This theme connects to his birth, and was established by his mother (P.113). The quote is from the Mustard & Passage translation:

The queen took those little brownish-pink buds of hers--I mean the tips of her little breasts--and pressed them into his tiny mouth...  Wisely the Lady Herzeloyde said: The supreme Queen gave her breasts to Jesus, Who afterwards for our sake met a bitter death in human form upon the Cross and who kept faith with us...

            Here is an example where Pujades takes the "confusion" even further -- practically over the top. He applies the Messianic symbolism to the birth and life of Guifré, as if he could be the child in the Black Madonna's lap:  

There rose a certain shining star (i.e. rutilante estrella) that filled their hearts promising good news and rewards. Thus were the circumstances of  Guifré's birth...   Guifré was so loved by his people that many said that he reigned with peace and love... because of his goodness and humility a thousand services and gifts were bestowed upon him daily.

            The allusion to Matthew and Balaam with the "shining star" and the gifts may seem flowery exaltation, but Pujades matches even Wolfram's symbolism with the child at his mother's breast. He follows up with a reference in the next chapter that connects directly to grail romance, and could be further proof that he was an initiate. It pertains to the legends of Montserrat, because he says (see above), that the "dark, and polluted waters at the summit enter the channels of the others and pose a threat to one's health". The explanation is hidden by Pujades in an earlier chapter about the death of Sunifred of Urgell (Tomo VI, p.263). Because of some false accusations, the count is allegedly ordered to take his little son Guifré to the royal court of Charles the Bald, and is murdered en route to France. Although Pujades never mentions the grail directly, this allegory explains clearly why Chrétien had to correct the story "that was told at the royal court":

Kings rarely inform themselves of the truth by drinking from the pure waters of a source, but from what has passed through dirty conduits that are darkened, corrupted and polluted, or presented in vessels that are neither vases of Portugal, nor porcelains from India or horns of the Unicorn...

  Our search raises a lot of questions about the many "corruptions" we are forced to deal with: Why did two Benedictine scholars (Vic and Vaissette) insist that Guifré was born around 840 CE? Does it mean that they worked "under orders" to secure the official sequence of the Montserrat legends? Although the date is accepted by the Wikipedias and most scholars, they fail to recognize the importance. Instead of "illuminating" manuscripts, it seems that modern monks have learned to do it virtually -- on the internet.

None of these virtual encyclopedias mention that the first to speculate about the birth date was the Dominican historian (and inquisitor) Francisco Diago who proposed in 1603 that "Vuifredo, llamado el velloso" (Guifré) was ten in 858 CE, when his father was killed in Narbonne (6). Pujades sides in a careful rhetoric, and concedes that  Guifré's father may have been killed in 858, although other chronists say 854. Then, Pujades proposes that the boy was only six at his father's death and concludes that Guifré was born in 852 "more or less", which would allow a birth date between 848 and 852. This time span includes the planetary hexagram of 849 CE. and might explain a major correction by Wolfram, because Parzival is born after the death of his father, correcting Chrétien and the Gesta, where he is about six. In this and other contexts, Pujades brings up always the famous "four-year-error" of the Church to add his own calculations. The discussion of Biblical chronology was very much en vogue in the early 17th century as we have seen in Latin tracts by Scaliger, Baronio, Kepler, et al.

According to Pujades (citing Baronio), Abderramen, the Moorish king of Cordoba, began a cruel persecution of the Christians in Spain because they re-established image worship in 851 or 852 (i.e. ten years after Rome). However, Pujades emphasizes that the persecution did not involve Catalonia, because Guifré's father "did not venerate the holy images" (7), which could mean that he was a disciple of Felix of Urgell, an Adoptionist, and did not believe in the divinity of Christ like the Visigothic Arians. Consequently, the historian proves rhetorically that the legend about the statue can't be true -- because image worship was prohibited at the  time.  If we consider that he maintains that the legends are told in the wrong order, we are probably invited to "pick the rose" and leave the Christian "thorns" behind:  

The young shepherds didn't see a statue, 
but a real mother and child!

This conclusion is not only supported by the earlier "rape" and the iconoclasm, but also by the official guide books: The Black Madonna was carved three centuries after the legends, in the "late 12th century" -- which, thanks to Chrétien's Magic Sword confirms the Peace of Venice (1177) as most likely cause.

In the spirit of Lancelot and the grail knights, Pujades supports us by quoting from an old song: There is no good historian that doesn't dare to attack with his lance, even if he gets hurt to explain that there is only one truth, but that historians don't have the authority of the book of Daniel, where king Nebuchadnezzar had to live seven years with wild animals and eat grass like cattle (Daniel 4:25-33). After this strike at the hermit's tale, practically killing it, Pujades administers one blow after the other as if this were a joust: From the re-conquest of the mountain from the Moors, from hunters as witnesses, and the name Richildis (Richella), to show that the discovery of the "statue" could have only occurred in the era of Guifré's father. He quotes from a Latin document (p. 386), to conclude that "la capilla de nuestra Señora estaba ya fundada, y hallada la santa imágen ántes de aquel año ochisientas setenta y tres" which means that the chapel existed before 873.

He offers his own "contes du graal" by calculating that Guifré could have only been 24 or 25 in 873, much too young to have a daughter of Riquilda's age, who was raped, murdered, and after seven years found alive again. Because Guifré ruled Barcelona in 870 CE, and married Gunedildis in 871, the calculations of Pujades continue with a comparison of Virgil's Dido to Judith, the daughter of Charles the Bald, to show that she was the widow of the king Ethelbald of Wessex, (d. 12.20. 860) when Baldwin Ironarm of Flanders married her in 862. He shows that eight years are insufficient to conceive a daughter, who is noticeably pregnant herself and in 871 old enough to marry Guifré in Barcelona. It should be noted that historians have firmly established today that Guifré's first wife was not from Flanders, which we covered extensively with Chrétien's "meillor conte".

According to Pujades, Church historians reverse the two legends by (con)fusing a father and son. The Gesta names them Guifredus and Guifredo, other chronicles use Seniofredo (Sunifred) and Wifredo (Guifré), which he says is a custom to differentiate a father and son by the same name. Most historians contend that Guifré el Pilós was married twice, first to Gunedildis and then to Richella (Richildis), which happens to be the name of the virgin that was raped in the cave. Pujades reveals an important key in Vol. VI (pp.476-478), that Suner of Urgell made a donation in 936 CE with his brothers to the cathedral of Barcelona for their mother: quae fuit Gondinildis, et fratris mei, qui fuit quondam Ermengardus, et Borrellus. But this is followed by a quote from Borrell: Sunarii quondam prolis Richellis, which adds to the confusion. 

However, when several generations use the same names, nothing is what it seems. We owe it to the brilliant rhetoric of Pujades that reverses the legends of Montserrat, but limited to the evidence that the discovery of the "holy image" was in the era of Sunifred of Urgel. This means, although Pujades is careful not to go into detail, that the story of the hermit was even earlier, before Guifré el Pilós was born. We should add that Pujades never states verbatim that the two cave stories are connected. He works with subtle hints, with the omission of the mother at the grande fiesta, and comparisons like the child and statue being of the same age, and by directing his "religious exaltation" at the child and the statue, as if confusing the two. This is probably one of the examples where Pujades hoped that one of his peers, a judge or lawyer, would analyze his work some day to extract the hidden facts. Our efforts are only an uneducated, first step -- but they have hopefully opened the door!   

  Tentative conclusions:

We have seen Ford's slander of Jesuitism, and the subtle hints by Pujades. It is an established fact that the mystic experiences of St. Ignatius de Loyola in 1522 at Montserrat led to the foundation of the "Society of Jesus" (8). He spent a night vigil before the Black Madonna, then laid his sword and dagger down in front of her, and chose the seclusion of a nearby cave for a retreat of several months. Quite a coincidence, right? Or had he discovered the secret of Montserrat and decided to exchange his sword for a pen? Did he assume that the long-awaited "second coming" was overlooked by the Church and decided to create a "spiritual army" to save Christianity?  And did the Jesuits show such interest in Kepler's "cometary star" because it could disclose this secret? This hypothesis is supported by the attempt of another Jesuit, the astronomer Burke-Gaffney, to ridicule the findings of Kepler at a seminary in Toronto in 1936. It could also be part of the same concerted effort to "establish" the birth of Guifré ten years earlier, in 840 CE.

Another of the strange "coincidences" is the publication of "The Virgin and the Grail" in 2005 by J. Goering, a historian in Toronto, who may have taken classes from Burke-Gaffney. He follows our etymology of "graal" to Urgell in the Pyrenees, which your gatekeeper proposed in the 1980's, and introduces eight paintings of actual grails in the Pyrenees that predate Chrétien, and which he considers unique "in all of Christendom". They were discovered in the late 1800's in the county of Sunifred and Guifré, where the Adoptionism of Felix of Urgell was established earlier. This explains their Iconoclasm, and why Sunifred of Urgell was praised as Almondir (the extraordinary) by an Arab historian. However, the Canadian historian concludes: "Chrétien seems to have had only a vague notion of what a graal might be, where it might have come from, or why it should be so important" (9). He says this in a chapter about Hélinand , whom he quotes as a reliable source. We disagree, of course, because he was one of the most ardent preachers of the Albigensian Crusades and promoted the "Matter of Britain" with equal success to divert from Chrétien's roman à clef.   

The  complex "cosmic connection" of reincarnation will be explored later as it is still too heretical for our current level of researches. Some teasers were included as a preview, but these "tentative conclusions" are limited to the historical aspects. The legends of Montserrat fulfill the symbolism of the Magic Sword  by adding the missing piece, the third Latin chronicle, to the other two from Cuixà and Sant Pere. Before all three pieces are fused where the source is in darkness (Wolfram), we already know that there is some truth to these legends, and that some very strange events did indeed occur at Montserrat. As long as the legends remain in the wrong order, as they are officially, they are disconnected cave legends. There is the hermit's cave, where virgin is taken to be exorcized, and there is the cave where she gives birth, according to our interpretation. This is enough circumstantial evidence to attempt a first reconstruction of the truth -- at least as much as that's possible eleven centuries after the fact:

In 848, or after the planetary hexagram of 849, a child is born in a cave at Montserrat. When the shepherds see the woman and child, the nativity scene reminds them of the birth of Christ. It is a starry night, there is sweet aroma from the hermit's fire, rays of light reflect in the smoke, and angelic chanting by the devout and happy mother. When they return to town and mention their experience, there is immediate action . The local priest takes a few good men to the cave, which is high in the mountains. The hermit hears their approach and escapes into the woods. The men take the mother and child away, probably to the bishop or a nunnery. When they return to the village, the priest explains that the boys had seen a statue of the Holy Mother and Child, a divine miracle with heavenly lights and angelic voices. He claims that the statue was hidden there because of iconoclasm, which led to the legend that the Visigoths had to hide it from the Moors. When the villagers do not believe him, the poor priest has to invent another miracle: The statue could not be moved, neither forward nor back.

            According to Chrétien's symbolism, which is supported by Wolfram,  Perceval's mother was related to the "grail family", which implies that she was a descendent of Guillem de Gellone. Wolfram makes him the hero of Willehalm, his only other major work, which supports the Messianic implications because Zuckerman (10) presents a good case that Guillem was of Jewish descent. (i.e. We are currently comparing Willehalm, who married Arabel from Bagdad, with Parzival's father, who was first married to Belakane, a black women!) Zuckerman's research helps explain why Parzival is related to the guardians of the grail, the 854-year cycles, and supports the scenario we developed with the help of Pujades: Sunifred of Urgell was probably the rapist, and his victim may have been the daughter of Bernard of Septimania.

This conjecture makes Sunifred the young fool who encounters the virgin in the forest while out hunting and he “rapes” her without knowing what he is doing, as indicated by grail romance. Except, of course, that it happens at Montserrat and not in Flanders. Some time after Richildis is found with the child, the count restores her honor by marrying her, and officially, a miraculous return from the grave is invented. He catches the shaggy hermit in the woods, proclaims his innocence, and honors him by adding "pilosus" to his son's name.

            The confusion of two generations is also pointed out by Wolfram, when he adapts this scene from Chrétien. The young girl in the tent becomes a duchess, the hermit is moved from the chapel back to the cave, and the Fisherking changes from cousin to his uncle. Wolfram ends by saying that his informant Master Kyot corrects Chrétien's account and identifies the right generation by showing which part of the story had happened earlier. Along those lines, our "happy end" included, was quite probably the chain of events that led to the legendary fame of Montserrat. We deeply regret to disappoint the faithful, but we are forced to conclude at this time:

The Black Madonna is

Richildis and Guifré!

    Appendix:

This is a work in progress!

Important 2009 update: Inspired by Pujades, that "attacks with a lance" are necessary "even when it hurts", we have admittedly gone a bit too far. To identify the venerated Black Madonna and Child with historical figures invites the wrath of most church historians, and their comments will fluctuate between "blasphemy" and "ridiculous". But if Pujades can emulate Cervantes, why can't your gatekeeper play the fool? Many of you have surely noticed that he has a good understanding of languages, but that his Spanish is somewhat limited. Because of the bulk of the work, which interconnects everywhere, Chretien's jeux de mots are much easier to solve than the rhetorical word games and ambiguities of Pujades. This is why our Castilian and Catalan participants are solicited for their support! Please send your comments to: info@grailgate.com.

The Catalan scholar Eulalia Miralles is a major informant for "The Pujades Affair" who questions the authenticity of tomes VII and VIII, the last two volumes. We are currently reconsidering our position, because the last books lack "inspired" chapters and the usual esoteric keys. After Sant Pere de Rodes and Montserrat, an equally important investigation of Sant Michel de Cuixà seems to be missing from the time line, as well as references to the "grail virgins" near Urgell. There are, however, other esoteric messages that address a higher level of this mystery, which need to be explored in detail. An examination of the handwriting in ms. 119 in Paris suggests that Fransesc Fornés worked as a scribe for Pujades in the 1630's, because on p. 409, Book XII, first chapter, Montserrat is introduced in the hand of Fornés, and in chap. 29, p.472, after "reinaba en Francia Cárlos craso” Pujades continues in mid-sentence by writing “…poseyendos aquellos estados por lo menos hasta…” It is a clean page without any manipulation and solid proof that Pujades and Fornés worked together.

1. The problem of Bernard of Septimania

            The repetitious references to the four-year-error by the Church forces us to look at the theory that Guillem's son, Bernard of Septimania, could have raped the girl while out hunting. Because he had often been accused of being a sorcerer, it would make sense that Richildis went to Joan Gari for help, who was a well-known exorcist. His protection of the pregnant girl, and refusal to identify the father, made it easy to accuse him of rape. According to official history, Bernard was killed by Charles the Bald in 844 CE, which is about four years too early. But these were very turbulent times, and it is difficult to find any independent historical records. After 840 CE, the death of his father Louis the Pious, Charles was occupied with his ambitious, older half-brothers. He was considered a parvenu, and they were not willing to part with any of their heritage. This complicated the role of Bernard, who was accused of being the real father of Charles. That they looked alike is mentioned in the context!  Here again, the mystery man is the scholar Etienne Baluze who had full control of the Cuixà cover-up until his death. It is a strange coincidence, to say the least, that he had a document ready to prove the murder of Bernard in dramatic details, had it ever been questioned: It is the "d'Odo Ariberti" where Charles kills Bernard after accusing him of having dirtied the bed of his father. There is a lot of Lancelot here, because Bernard's affair with the queen of France is well-documented. It seems that Wolfram added the story of Parzival's father to illustrate the confusion of two generations. He also implies Bernard, because there is an insert (P.64-68) that make no sense otherwise (11):

The King of France had died, whose wife got him often into trouble with her love. Now the noble Queen is asking for him, (Parzival's father!) to please depart from Heathen lands and come back home. She was longing for him with great love.

            When Perceval meets the hermit, the scene opens with a time-lapse of five years, when he was without memory and without God. Wolfram picks this up, but adds three months to the five years. When your gatekeeper questioned brother Joan at Cuixà about the real father of Guifré, the poor Cistercian monk began sweating heavily and kept insisting it was Sunifred of Carcassonne, he didn't even dare bring up Urgell or Barcelona. We didn't dare bring up Helinandus, but he volunteered that his order took up arms in the Middle Ages. We may be on to something here, and disprove the Gesta once again. Maybe two children were born and the legends fused? But this is merely a conjecture at this point, because the death of Bernard in 844 is well established, thanks to the Maurists and Bollandists who have medieval history pretty much nailed down. A good reason to study the "Odo d'Ariberti" and the "manual de Dhuoda" once again!

            2009 update: According to Chrétien, Perceval leaves the grail castle and meets a weeping virgin in the forest, with a beheaded knight in her arms. We have shown earlier that the tears of the girl he had raped fuse with the tears of Blanchefleur, indicating that they symbolize the same woman. Hence, the weeping virgin could be part of the fusion, but because she identifies herself as Perceval's cousin is only adding the information both are lacking. The only two knights that connect to our scenario, and are known to have been beheaded were Bernard and his son William. This may be a first indication that "Perceval" was related to Guillem de Gellone. Then, there is Bernard's other son, Bernard Plantapilosa (d. June 22, 885), whose name means "hairy feet". This could mean that Guifré and Bernard had a hairy birthmark, which supports the evidence that they were related! It is in this context that Zuckerman's Jewish concept should be fully considered, and compared with Moslem records. Zuckerman contributes some excellent research and information to our project, but he promotes Jewish collaboration with the Carolingians and Abbasids of Baghdad to reduce Guifré and family to rebels and collaborators of the Umayads of Cordova. For example, he writes in his book: (under construction)

2. Other unsolved problems:

            If you check the Pujades Affair, you'll note that there is substantial controversy regarding the year Pujades died. If he died in 1635, only the First and Second Part of his Cronica is 100% authentic, while the Third Part (volumes VII and VIII) may have been tampered with. For example, Pujades relates a legend about an enchanted cave in the mountains of San Lorenzo, near Barcelona, with an entire city inside and its inhabitants under a spell. Originally, a fiery dragon lived there and consumed people and large animals, until it "died at the hands of count Guifré of Barcelona." (12). The way, Pujades tells this Arthurian tale and overstresses emphatically in tome VII that he doesn't believe any of this goes beyond his rhetorical style and does not ring quite true. Because the dragon contradicts (or negates) the symbolism of Montserrat, and of Wolfram and Chrétien, we must consider that it is part of the cover-up. Thus, the work of Pujades may have had the same fate as Chrétien's, where we decided not to trust the continuators either.  We'll have to wait until the experts come forwards with additional evidence, and meanwhile, your gatekeeper will return to the Bibliothèque Nationale as soon as possible. The originals can be reviewed at the rue de Richelieu, upstairs, if you can charm the librarian and she allows you to reject the microfilms.

            Once we review the symbolism of Chrétien and Wolfram on a higher level, the events at Montserrat may reveal that Guifré el Pilós  is not the right candidate for the Elisha-Jesus cycle. He would fit much better into the Elijah-John tradition as a "shaggy count". More research is needed and our focus will be the "Black Madonna", of which there are several in Europe. At Montserrat, the dark color is often explained away as exposure to centuries of candle smoke, and contact by pious pilgrims. That's why she is now under glass like the Mona Lisa. We are familiar with this problem from the Kaaba in Mecca and Peter's bones at the Vatican. We should consider that Parzival's father was first married to Belakane, a black African queen. Yes, another one of those strange "coincidences"! Their son Feirefiz plays an important role during the final grail rites, probably because of a fusion of Gawain, Parzival, and Jofreit fils Idoel. We'll start with the Odo d'Ariberti to show that Charles was as bald as Bernard, and that the latter should help us find the "baldhead" of the Elisha-Jesus cycle. The key to this experimental alchemy will be Wolfram's hidden numerical code, which was discovered by Otto Springer. Now that the Cronica has been scanned and digitized by Google, there are good chances they'll get to Wolfram soon. This will be our main quest for the next four years, not because of what we might learn about the past, but more important, because of what we could learn for our future!

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NOTES:

1.    Geronimo (Jeroni) Pujades, CRONICA UNIVERSAL, Imprenta de Jose Torner, Barcelona, 1830, tome VI, p. 366

1a.  Ibid., 1829, tome I, p. xxxix

2.    Richard Ford, Hand-Book for Travelers in Spain, Vol.II, Centaur Press, 1845, pp.737-9

3.    Harald Zimmermann, Das Mittelalter, 1. Teil, Westermann Verlag, 1975, p.126 or p.9

4.    Pujades, op.cit., tome VI, pp.384-88

5.    Ibid., p.376 

6.    Fr. Francisco Diago, Historia de los Victoriosissimos Antiguos Condes de Barcelona,  Cormellas al Call, Barcelona, 1603, pp.61-2

7.    Pujades, op. cit. Vol.VI. p.247

8.    Ernesto Buonaiuti, The Mystic Vision, Bollingen Series XXX, Princeton University, 1968,pp. 189-91 

8a.   Pujades, op. cit., Vol.VI, p.279

9.    Joseph Goering, The Virgin and the Grail, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2005, p.58 

10.  Arthur Zuckerman, A Jewish Princedom in Feudal France,768-900 Columbia University Press,  N.Y./London 1972, pp.372-3

11.  Rough translation from Wilhelm Stapel, Wolfram's PARZIVAL,  Albert Langen/Georg Müller, München/Wien,  1977, p.37

12.  Pujades, op. cit.,  tome VII, p.89

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