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ORDO SUPREMUS MILITARIS TEMPLI HIEROSOLYMITANI®
The Magistral Grand Priory of The Holy Lands
(Notre Dame, Saint Mary of Magdalene)
The Legend Of The Skull Of Sidon
- A Knights Templar Myth -
Researched by The Most Revd. Gary Beaver KGCTJ
It is well known that the order of the Templars were
monastic in nature and therefore forbidden to have involvement with women (see
Templar Rule of Order). The legend of the Skull of Sidon states that one Templar
knight had a relationship with a woman who died. He dug up the woman's corpse
and consummated their relationship resulting in a most grisly birth nine months
later.
"A great lady of Maraclea was loved by a Templar,
A Lord of Sidon; but she died in her youth, and on the night of her burial, this
wicked lover crept to the grave, dug up her body and violated it. then a voice
from the void bade him return in nine months time for he would find a son. He
obeyed the injunction and at the appointed time he opened the grave again and
found a head on the leg bones of the skeleton (skull and crossbones). The same
voice bade him 'guard it well, for it would be the giver of all good things',
and so he carried it away with him. It became his protecting genius, and he was
able to defeat his enemies by merely showing them the magic head. In due course,
it passed to the possession of the order."
This tale can be traced back to a twelfth century
author named Walter Mapp, although the story at this time is not connected with
the Templar Knights. However, at the time of their trials 1307-1314 CE it was
well woven into the Templar legend. In fact it was called upon during the actual
trials of the Templars.
Edward Burman in his book Supremely Abominable
Crimes tells of an Antonio Sicci, an apostolic notary from Vercelli,
Northern Italy. Sicci recounts to the inquisitors the tale of the Lord of Sidon
which he claimed he learned while working for the order in the Holy Land. His
accusation and recounting of the tale is similar to that quoted in Baigent and
Leigh's book.
As unbelievable as this tale seems to modern eyes, it was easily bought during the period. The inquisitors and theologians would have picked up on the fact that the woman of the piece was Armenian by background. This they would have connected with the Armenian Church and its Paulician sects. The Paulicians and the Bogomils were practitioners of Catharism which the church had all but wiped out during the Albigensian Crusade. Since the church believed the Cathari to be practitioners of the Black Mass and necromancy, the woman's Armenian background would make the story guilty by association.
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