The priest of Rennes-le-Château put his buildings in his servant's name, a restaurant owner spread a treasure story in 1956, and Pierre Plantard tied it to an invented secret order

Bérenger Saunière, from a poor family, became parish priest of Rennes-le-Château in 1885. He built the Villa Bethania and the Tour Magdala around his church. The bishop of Carcassonne concluded that his money came from trafficking in Masses, selling more Masses than he said. In 1909 the bishop ordered him to leave. He refused and was suspended. He had put his buildings in the name of his servant, Marie Dénarnaud, so they would not pass to the diocese. He died in 1917. Dénarnaud lived on in the village and tried to sell the property. Noël Corbu bought it. In 1956 Corbu began telling the local press that Saunière had found a treasure, to bring customers to his hotel and restaurant. That year Pierre Plantard registered the Priory of Sion. Documents claiming a secret order and a Merovingian bloodline were planted in the national library in Paris by his associates; scholars regard them as 20th-century fabrications. Historians say a medieval Priory of Sion existed but had no link to Rennes-le-Château. The legend drew digging that damaged graves and the church. In the 1960s the mayor banned unauthorized digging, and in December 2017 residents found a metre-deep hole by the church. The Villa Bethania has belonged to the commune since 2000^†.