Le Prieuré de Sion has been registered with the “Sous Préfecture” of Saint-Julien-en-Genevois (Haute Savoie) on 27 June 1956. The Official Journal on 20 July 1956 recorded its creation as required by the 1901 French law on associations. The aims are limited to study and assistance between the members. The board was formed of four people:
– Pierre Bonhomme dit Stanislas Bellas, Secretary, Accountant and President.
– Jean Delaval, vice President.
– Pierre Plantard, dit Chyren, draftsman, General Secretary.
– Pierre Desfagots, clock maker, treasurer.
These people existed and the information they gave is correct. Their only activity was the publication of a bulletin called Circuit or more precisely “Bulletin d’ Information et Défense des Droits et de la Liberté des Foyers HLM”. The first version of the Statutes has been published 17 years later by Jean Luc Chaumeil in the “Charivari”. This association had become a Knightly Order with its “Provinces”, its “Commanderies”, its “Arch”, its “Valiant Knights”, its “Esquires” and its “Seneschals”. Many such orders appeared elsewhere at the same period of time. According to a first version of the Statutes the order counted 9841 members divided in nine grades but another version said that it had only 1093 members divided in seven grades. The Statutes are composed of 21 articles in the first version and of 22 in the second. The subtitle of the Prieuré de Sion is “CIRCUIT” or “Chevalerie d’ Institution et Règle Catholique d’Union Indépendante et Traditionaliste”. In fact only Pierre Plantard, alias Chyren, seems to have worked for the association. He is born on the 18 March 1920 in Paris. During the second world war he published a bulletin called “Vaincre pour une Jeune Chevalerie” that was close to Pétain and pro-Germans. It was also linked to the free-masons. In 1964 the Prieuré de Sion seems to have discovered Rennes-le-Chateau. This legend was used to justify the assertion that the Merovingian dynasty is still alive and that the secret society “Le Prieuré de Sion” is defending it. Plantard, in these conditions, would be the actual heir linked to most European Royal Families. (n)