Count Saint-Germain
Sorting fact from legend in the life of the enigmatic Count (or Comte de) Saint-Germain is tricky. By some accounts, his mother was the widow of Charles II of Spain; by others, he was the son of the prince of Transylvania. Either story would place his birth in the 1690s. A talented painter and violinist, he traveled widely in Europe during the eighteenth century and amazed people with his skills as a magician and seer. The charismatic count also moved in influential political circles, in France, England, the Netherlands, and Italy.
The count specialized in alchemy, turning base metals into gold. He claimed to know how to cause pearls to grow in size and supposedly could take several small diamonds and merge them into a single, large stone.
The count's death is as mysterious as his birth. Although he supposedly died in 1784, according to Freemason documents, he represented the Masons at a meeting in 1785. Theosophist Annie Besant claimed she met Saint-Germain in 1896, at which time he would have been 200 years old.
Saint-Germain professed to know the secret of eternal youth, an objective of alchemy. Voltaire described him as “a man who never dies, and who knows everything.” The count's charm, plus his extensive knowledge of secret societies, led people to believe he'd been present at ceremonies that occurred a century earlier. This may explain the rumors that he'd been born much earlier than the late seventeenth century. Long after his death, numerous people insisted they'd seen him alive in various parts of the world, perhaps supporting the alchemist's claim.
