The Search

The day the research team led by Jean-Henri Charnay, Ph.D. in Medieval History at the University of Paris, could finally clear the path and make their way towards the hidden crypt underneath the long forgotten chapel of Ancône, hardly did they imagine that that was just the beginning of a series of incredible events, with consequences that would become terribly tangible only decades after…

Down there they found the unrotten and thoroughly decorated body of a man. As we shall see later, this was not what they were expecting. There was no doubt that those were the remains the old bundles talked about: a martyr whose name was lost in the dawn of time and, according to the professor’s findings, it might have been taken there in the late seventeenth century by the Francs, after Liutpard, king of the Lombards, fetched this and other relics from all over the Christendom.

Since martyrs were whorshipped with unique devotion, it was odd that such a personality had been kept in oblivion for centuries.

Jean-Henri and his crew were soon aware of the rare discovery.

In the first place, that old chapel had been erased from all maps and old pilgrims’ routes. Only after years of research were they able to unveil its original location: to the northwest, in the thick woods of Bois Saint-Pèe.

Secondly, the entrance to the crypt had been blocked in an strangely meticulous manner: heavy tiles and chains impeded the entry, being this circumstance absolutely rare in this sort of buildings.

And finally, and this is by far the most disturbing fact, there was the position of that decayless body.