According to Prince Karl of Hesse, the Count revealed himself as the son of Prince Ferenc Rakoczy II of Transylvania, while others have speculated he was a Portuguese Jew or son of the king of Portugal.
He was a scholar, linguist, poet, musician, artist, raconteur and diplomat admired throughout the courts of Europe for his adeptship. He spoke at least twelve languages so fluently that everywhere he went he was accepted as a native. He was ambidextrous and could compose simultaneously a letter with one hand and poetry with the other.
His skill as an alchemist was praised by Louis XV, who provided him a laboratory and residence at the royal castle of Chambord. And his alchemical demonstrations were nothing short of miraculous according to his chroniclers. He was known for such feats as removing the flaws in diamonds and other precious stones.
He formed secret societies, was a leading figure in the Rosicrucians, Freemasons and Knights Templar of the period,[16] and penned the occult classic The Most Holy Trinosophia, using a mixture of modern languages and ancient hieroglyphics. Voltaire described him as the “man who never dies and who knows everything.”[17] The count is mentioned in the letters of Frederick the Great, Voltaire, Horace Walpole and Casanova, and in newspapers of the day.
Working behind the scenes, Saint Germain attempted to effect a smooth transition from monarchy to representative government and to prevent the bloodshed of the French Revolution. He visited Marie Antoinette and her intimate friend, Madame d’Adhémar, who later wrote the story of his adeptship and his warning of the coming debacle and death of the king and queen.[18] But his counsel was ignored. In a final attempt to unite Europe, he backed Napoleon, who misused the master’s power to his own demise.
But even prior to this, Saint Germain had turned his attention to the New World. He became the sponsoring master of the United States of America and of her first president, inspiring the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He also inspired many of the labor-saving devices of the twentieth century to further his goal of liberating mankind from drudgery that they might devote themselves to the pursuit of God-realization.[19]
In the latter part of the eighteenth century, Saint Germain received from the lady master Kuan Yin her office as chohan of the seventh ray—the ray of mercy and forgiveness and of sacred ceremony.
As chohan, or lord, of the seventh ray, the violet ray, Saint Germain initiates our souls in the science and ritual of transmutation through the violet flame. He is the seventh angel prophesied in Revelation 10:7 who comes to sponsor the finishing of the mystery of God “as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.”