Black Magic in Nineteenth Century France

Pierre-Eugène-Michel Vintras (1807-1875) claimed to have visions in which the archangel Michael appeared, as well as the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary. They informed him that he was the reincarnated prophet Elijah and that he had to found a new religious order connected with the true king of France. This could only be Louis XVII, they said to him: the son of the beheaded Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, who allegedly died in prison. But as one also could clearly read in some prophecies of Nostradamus, Louis XVII had escaped from prison. The “dauphin” was alive and kicking, he was in fact Nostradamus’ “Great Monarch” – and his name was Charles-Louis Naundorff.

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Vintas started out together with the political organization of the “Saviours of Louis XVII”, wich later took a mystical turn. He apparently also had some kind of a “mentor”, a certain Madame Bouche who went under the name of Sister Salomé and lived in the Place St. Sulpice in Paris. Together with this “visionary”, he formed his own “Church of Carmel”.  Vintras traveled through the French countryside, wearing an inverted cross on his vestments, and he acquired many followers. His masses included visions of a Black Madonna, lilies steeped in blood, saints disguised as troubadours and angels habited like knights. Vintras had bloody sweats and his blood also appeared on hosts, where it pictured often a heart with an inscription in his own handwriting, spelling his own name. And empty chalices were suddenly filled with wine, leaving stains of blood…

By 1848, the Church of Carmel was condemned by the pope and in 1851, Vintras was accused of homosexuality, conducting black masses in the nude and masturbating while praying at the altar. At that time, he had already followers in England and Belgium, and they had set up “religious houses” at St. Odile in Alsace and at Sion-Vaudemont in Lorraine. 

Shortly before his death, Vintras befriended Joseph-Antoine Boullan (1824-1893), a defrocked priest and also a supporter of the Naundorff claim. Boullan became the successor of Vintras in Lyon, outwardly maintaining pious practices, but conducting satanic rituals in secret. Boullan would soon become the most famous satanist of the 19th century. He claimed to be a “Missionary of the Holy Blood”, the reincarnated St. John the Baptist.