Who was the Count of Saint-Germain?
The Count of Saint-Germain was a mysterious figure who really existed in 18th-century Europe. His birth and real name are unclear; he spoke several languages fluently, excelled at music, painting and chemistry, and was rumored to know a technique for removing flaws from gemstones. He became known in London in the 1740s, and from around 1758 he frequented the court of King Louis XV of France and is said to have won the king’s trust.
Rumors of immortality
Whenever people met him, the count looked about 40 or 50, and he was rumored not to age. Stories spread that “he spoke of events from hundreds of years ago as if he had seen them” and “he drinks an elixir,” and some believed he was an immortal who had obtained the philosopher’s stone through alchemy. However, many of these rumors are thought to have been exaggerated in later memoirs and the like.
Sightings after death
According to records, the count died in 1784 in what is now northern Germany. Yet sightings continued to be told afterward: that he warned Queen Marie Antoinette on the eve of the French Revolution, and that he appeared in the 19th and even 20th centuries. That is why today he is a subject of urban legends and fiction as a “time traveler” or “immortal man still alive today.”
In 19th-century Theosophy, the Count of Saint-Germain was considered one of the spiritual “Masters” who guide humanity, and became an object of devotion in groups following Blavatsky.
