Antonin Gadal

Antonin Gadal was born 1877 in Tarascon, in Southern France. His birth house stood beside the house of the historian Adolphe Garrigou (1802-1897), to which he had close contact already as a child. Garrigou, who knew the history of their homeland in the smallest detail, told the inquisitive boy the history of the Cathars, of their faith, their church and their pursuit by the Inquisition.

Originally a schoolmaster, Antonin Gadal later became the director and guide of the tourist board in Ussat Ornolac, where he led visitors through the famous Pyrenaeen caves, formerly inhabitated by the Cathars. He had leased the probably most well-known cave, Lombrives, as well as a number of smaller, unexplored caves. Gadal was convinced of the fact that these small caves formed a system of sequential inauguration places of the Cathar community. Together with some aids he succeeded to access areas whose walls were covered with designs of the Grail, Egyptian divinities or a dove, which were considered to the Cathars as a symbol of the holy spirit. Antonin Gadal ensured that  these areas were also made accessible for tourists or interested persons.

He told the visitors of the different stages that the spiritual Aspirant had to go through before they could be consecrated into the Catharic priesthood as a "Parfait" (french for "Perfect"), and spoke of the links which connected the Cathars with the old hermetic Mysteries of the Egyptians.

He knew the names and the purpose of all caves, so for instance the Cave of Bethlehem, on whose wall the Pentagram, the five-pointed star, was carved: Here the soul-rebirth of the candidate took place, after he had from within completely taken leave from the world. He explained the entire initiation process through the different caves, and this is told in his book "On the Path to the Holy Grail", which is published by the Rosycross Press.

In 1956 Gadal came into contact with Jan van Rijckenborgh and Catharose de Petri, in whom he saw the spiritual inheritance of the Cathars legacy, and through who the gnostic work continued, and he remained closely connected with the School of the Rosycross up to his death in the year 1962. His work also found international acknowledgment, and he travelled throughout Europe, in order to tell the history of the Cathars. He opened a Galaad Center in 1958 and a Cathars museum in Ussat les Bains. In this time he also also wrote "The Inheritance of the Cathars", which is likewise published by the Rosycross Press.