The Prieuré de Sion, which means "Priory of Sion" in English, was a group created in France in 1956 by a man named Pierre Plantard. He started the group to try to make a new kind of knightly order that would be respected and powerful. In the 1960s, Plantard claimed that his group was connected to a secret society started by a knight named Godfrey of Bouillon in 1099. He said this society was part of a long plan to help a special family, the Merovingians, take control of France and Europe. Plantard also said he was a descendant of this family and that he was the "Great Monarch" predicted by a famous writer named Nostradamus.
Plantard’s ideas were later combined with stories about a hidden bloodline of Jesus by writers of a book called The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, published in 1982. This book inspired a novel by Dan Brown called The Da Vinci Code in 2003.
From the 1960s to the 1980s, many people talked about the Prieuré de Sion, but later, experts and reporters proved that it was a trick. The group had never existed before 1956, and many of the documents used to support its history, like the Dossiers Secrets d'Henri Lobineau, were fake. Plantard and his friends had created these documents and hidden them in France. Later, Plantard said the Dossiers Secrets were made by someone else named Philippe Toscan du Plantier, who had been arrested for using a drug called LSD.
Even though the Prieuré de Sion was shown to be a hoax, some people still believe it was a real secret society with ancient powers. Some researchers outside of schools claim, based on stories they say are true, that the group still exists today. Others worry that books, websites, and movies inspired by the hoax have made fake ideas about history and secret societies more popular. Some people are also concerned that these stories have made old, extreme ideas from the far right seem more appealing.
History
The fraternal organization was founded in the town of Annemasse, Haute-Savoie, in eastern France in 1956. According to the 1901 French law of Associations, the Priory of Sion needed to be registered with the government. The statutes and registration documents were dated May 7, 1956. However, the registration occurred at the subprefecture of Saint-Julien-en-Genevois on June 25, 1956, and was recorded in the Journal Officiel de la République Française on July 20, 1956. The headquarters of the Priory of Sion and its journal, Circuit, were located in an apartment owned by Pierre Plantard, in a social housing block called Sous-Cassan, which was newly built in 1956.
The founders and signatories of the organization included Pierre Plantard, also known as "Chyren," and André Bonhomme, also known as "Stanis Bellas." Bonhomme served as the President, while Plantard was the Secretary General. The registration documents also listed Jean Deleaval as the Vice-President and Armand Defago as the Treasurer. The name "Sion" was chosen because of a local hill called Mont Sion, located south of Annemasse, where the founders planned to create a spiritual retreat center. The full name of the organization was "Chevalerie d'Institutions et Règles Catholiques d'Union Indépendante et Traditionaliste," which forms the acronym CIRCUIT. This translates to "Chivalry of Catholic Rules and Institutions of Independent and Traditionalist Union" in English.
The statutes of the Priory of Sion stated its purpose was to support members in studying and helping one another. The articles of the association aimed to establish a Traditionalist Catholic chivalric order. Article 7 of the statutes required members to perform good deeds, assist the Roman Catholic Church, teach the truth, and protect the weak and oppressed. By the end of 1956, the association planned to collaborate with the local Catholic Church in Annemasse, including a school bus service operated jointly by the Priory of Sion and the church of Saint-Joseph.
Plantard was described as the President of the Tenants' Association of Annemasse in the journal Circuit. However, the activities of the Priory of Sion did not match its stated goals. The journal Circuit was described as a news bulletin for an "organization for the defense of the rights and freedom of affordable housing," rather than promoting chivalric charitable work. The first issue of Circuit was published on May 27, 1956, and a total of twelve issues were released. Some articles addressed local council elections, while others criticized real-estate developers in Annemasse.
A letter from Léon Guersillon, the Mayor of Annemasse in 1956, noted that Plantard had been sentenced to six months in prison in 1953 for fraud. The officially registered association was dissolved sometime after October 1956 but was revived intermittently by Plantard between 1961 and 1993, though only in name and on paper. The subprefecture considers the Priory of Sion dormant because it has shown no activity since 1956. Under French law, later references to the Priory of Sion have no legal connection to the 1956 organization, and only the original signatories were legally allowed to use its name. André Bonhomme did not participate in the association after 1956 and officially resigned in 1973 after learning that Plantard was associating his name with the group. Since Plantard's death in 2000, no one alive currently has legal permission to use the name of the Priory of Sion.
Myth
Plantard aimed to make the Priory of Sion appear as a respected secret Christian group, composed of influential people in finance, politics, and philosophy. These members were said to support the idea of a future king, predicted by Nostradamus, who would rule France. Plantard used the name "Chyren" as a reference to a name Nostradamus used in a puzzle about this future king.
Between 1961 and 1984, Plantard created a fake history for the Priory of Sion, claiming it was linked to a real religious group that once lived in the Abbey of Our Lady of Mount Zion. This group was said to have been founded during the First Crusade in 1099 and later taken over by the Jesuits in 1617. However, the Abbey of Sion was not the same as the Priory of Sion. Plantard may have chosen the name "Priory of Sion" in 1956 to later claim his group had ancient roots tied to a medieval knight named Godfrey of Bouillon.
Plantard was inspired by a 1960 magazine article to focus his claims on the Merovingian king Dagobert II, who was killed in the 7th century. He also used the phrase "Et in Arcadia ego…" from paintings by Nicolas Poussin as a motto for his family and the Priory. This phrase was connected to a tomb near Rennes-le-Château, which Plantard claimed symbolized the Merovingian legacy and the idea that Dagobert II would return as a royal claimant.
To make his fake history seem real, Plantard and his friend Philippe de Chérisey created and hid false documents. One famous example was the "Secret Files of Henri Lobineau," which they placed in a French library. They also forged two medieval parchments with hidden messages about the Priory of Sion.
They used earlier false claims about a priest named Bérenger Saunière, who supposedly found ancient parchments in his church in Rennes-le-Château in 1891. Inspired by stories about the Dead Sea Scrolls, they hoped their fake parchments would gain attention. These documents were meant to support the idea that the Priory of Sion was a secret medieval group connected to hidden knowledge in Europe.
Plantard asked author Gérard de Sède to write a book based on his fake parchments, claiming Saunière had discovered a hidden treasure. The 1967 book, The Gold of Rennes, became popular in France. It included copies of the fake parchments, though the hidden texts were not revealed. The Latin texts in the parchments were copied from books published in 1889 and 1895, which made it clear the documents were not as old as claimed.
In 1969, an English writer named Henry Lincoln read the book and found an encrypted message in the parchments: "To Dagobert II, King, and to Sion belongs this treasure, and he is there dead." This may have referred to a tomb linked to a son of Dagobert II, suggesting the Merovingian dynasty continued after his death and that the Priory of Sion protected his relics.
Lincoln later wrote books and made BBC documentaries about the mysteries of Rennes-le-Château. He also claimed to have discovered the "Secret Files" that connected the Priory of Sion to the Merovingian bloodline. These documents falsely claimed the Priory and the Knights Templar were part of the same organization until 1188.
Letters from the 1960s between Plantard, de Chérisey, and de Sède show they were working together on a hoax. They planned ways to respond to criticism and create new claims to keep the story alive. These letters, along with original envelopes, are now in the possession of a French researcher named Jean-Luc Chaumeil. A letter found later showed Plantard had a criminal record for fraud.
As Lincoln’s documentaries gained popularity, he worked with Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh to study the topic. They discovered the "Secret Files" at a French library, which were actually written by Plantard and de Chérisey under a fake name. Unaware these documents were fake, Lincoln, Baigent, and Leigh used them in their 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. The book presented myths as facts, including claims that the Priory of Sion was linked to the Merovingians and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an antisemitic text.
The book’s mix of historical research and conspiracy theories led many to believe in the Priory of Sion’s existence, even though it was a hoax.
Alleged Grand Masters
The idea of the Priory of Sion first appeared in the 1960s. It was said to be led by a "Nautonnier," a French word meaning "navigator," which in the group's special terms referred to the Grand Master. A list of Grand Masters comes from a book called Dossiers Secrets d'Henri Lobineau, written by Pierre Plantard under the name "Philippe Toscan du Plantier" in 1967. All the people named in this list had died before 1967. Most of them also appear on lists of supposed "Imperators" (supreme leaders) and "distinguished members" of the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, a group active in France during that time. Many of these individuals were known for their interest in the occult or heresy.
According to Dossiers Secrets, the Priory of Sion and the Knights Templar shared the same Grand Master until a split happened during the "Cutting of the elm" event in 1188. After this, the Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion were listed in French as follows:
A later document, Le Cercle d'Ulysse, names François Ducaud-Bourget, a well-known Traditionalist Catholic priest who worked with Plantard as a sexton during World War II, as the Grand Master after Cocteau's death. Plantard himself is later listed as the next Grand Master.
In the late 1980s, Pierre Plantard stopped using Dossiers Secrets and changed the history of the Priory of Sion. For example, he removed the connection to the Knights Templar but kept the link to Godfrey of Bouillon. Plantard tried to return to prominence. A second list, published in Vaincre No. 3, September 1989, page 22, included the names of Roger-Patrice Pelat, who had died, and his son Thomas Plantard de Saint-Clair.