Freemasonry, Christian theosophy and Illuminism
The Count of Saint-Germain
A real but mysterious European adventurer, musician, courtier and experimenter with interests in chemistry and alchemy.
- Dates
- c. 1691 or 1712 – 27 February 1784
- Dating
- approximate dates
- Died
- apparently Eckernförde
The life
He became surrounded by stories that he did not age, had lived for centuries, or possessed the philosopher's stone.
Place in the tradition
The gap between the man and the legend is itself instructive about how occult reputations are built.
a note on the record
History and later legend
No major occult treatise can be securely assigned to him, and proposed birth dates range across two decades. His later transformation into the immortal Master Saint Germain belongs to nineteenth-century Theosophy, not to his biography.