In the 1930s, the hand of the Argentine painter Benjamín Solari Parravicini began, as he told it, to move on its own. It produced strange drawings with short, cryptic captions, many of them read today as prophecies. With these psychographies came a voice. Parravicini said that the presence guiding his pencil identified itself as Fray José de Aragón, a Franciscan friar of an earlier century. Whether such a friar ever lived is uncertain, and no clear historical record of him has been found. But a more interesting question can be asked: what does the choice of this particular guide reveal about Parravicini, his faith and the spiritual world of Buenos Aires in his time? A Painter From the Elite Parravicini, born in 1898 and dead in 1974, came from a well-known family of the Buenos Aires upper class. He trained as an artist and worked as a painter and sculptor. He was also, by his own account, a devout Catholic. This combination matters. A man rooted in traditional Catholic faith and ...

Diplomat, Musician, or Spy? The London Arrest of Saint Germain

In the 1750s, the court of Louis XV at Versailles was the center of European fashion, politics and gossip. The king was known for his boredom, his love of diversion and his difficulty in finding anything truly new. Into this world came a man of mysterious origin who called himself the Count of Saint-Germain. He spoke many languages, played the violin, claimed to be very old and showed a talent for chemistry. He soon won the attention of the king, and for a few years he became one of the most discussed figures in France. Saint-Germain was never a minister or a general. His influence came from his personal charm, his learning and the favor of the court. He is remembered today as a man of legends, but the documents that survive show a real presence at the center of royal life. The Laboratories of the King According to many accounts, Louis XV gave Saint-Germain a laboratory at the Château de Chambord, the great Renaissance palace on the Loire. The king also set up smaller workspaces ...