Le comte de Saint Germain was an adventurer, alchemist and diplomat, whose mysterious origin created a legend around him. He was rumored to have lived 2,000 years. The legend of St Germain, “the man who does not die,” was born in the mid-1700s. Since then, endless speculations and sightings of the Count after his death has continued. St Germain was also known by such figures as Casanova, Cagliostro, and Horace Walpole. The Russian writer Aleksandr Pushkin (1799-1837) mentions him in the short story ‘The Queen of Spades’ (1834):
"You have heard of Count St. Germain, about whom so many marvelous stories are told. You know that he represented himself as the Wandering Jew, as the discoverer of the elixir of life, of the philosopher’s stone, and so forth. Some laughed at him as a charlatan; but Casanova, in his memoirs, says that he was a spy. But be that as it may, St. Germain, in spite of the mystery surrounding him, was a very fascinating person, and was much sought after in the best circles of society. Even to this day my grandmother retains an affectionate recollection of him, and becomes quite angry if anyone speaks disrespectfully of him."
St Germain found his most ardent admirers from the arictocratic circles. He had an exceptional memory and he could repeat a page of print after one reading. The serious-minded middle-class viewed him with some disdain, as the English letter-writer and aesthetician Horace Walpole in 1745: “The other day they seized an odd man who goes by the name of Count St Germain. He has been here these two years, and will not tell who he is or whence, but professes that he does not go by his right name. He sings and plays the violin wondefully, is mad, and not very sensible.”
Madame de Pompadour and of Louis XV were amused by St Germain, although he was accused of being an English spy. He told that he had lived thousands of years and had known even Jesus Christ.
St Germain claimed to possess the secret of eternal youth, one of the two traditional goals of alchemy. St Germain’s accounts of his adventures had also connections to the legend of the Wandering Jew, a well known Christian tale. Its first written version was printed in Bologna in 1223.
Saint-Germain’s knowledge of diamonds, precious stones, and chemistry impressed his contemporaries; his dyeing skills were widely acknowledged. Graf Karl Cobenzl wrote in a letter in 1763, that he saw how St Germain made some experiments, “of which the most important were the transmutation of iron into a metal as beautiful as gold”.
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