When his friend, Father Andrei, is killed on a train en route to the Vatican, Father Nil, a Benedictine who teaches the Gospel of St. John to novices, decides to conduct his own investigation. The dead priest possessed proof of the existence of a thirteenth disciple and an epistle stating that Jesus was nothing more than an inspired prophet, not the Son of God - two things that would spell great danger for the Church. Father Nil then discovers a previously unpublished account of the origins of Christianity. It tells of the Nazarenes, a community excluded from the official Church by Peter and Paul, which appears to have thrived until the 7th century and given birth to Islam. While he pushes ahead with his investigation, the Pope's advisors, rival factions and secret societies (including the Congregation for the doctrine of the Faith and the Society of St. Pius V), are trying, by any means, to lay their hands on the priest's findings. From the Mossad to Fatah, everyone seems to have a very good reason to keep the 13th disciple a secret...The story of an ancient sect detailed within papyrus sheaves hidden in the caves at Qumran (now known as The Dead Sea Scrolls) forms the foundation of this exhaustively researched novel.
"The Secret of the 13th Apostle" contains lore perhaps more familiar to the "Knights Templar" than readers of Dan Brown, but will excite similar passions.
Michel Benoît (a nom de plume) is a religious scolar and novelist. After obtaining a PhD in Pharmacology, he entered the Benedictine order as an unordained monk at the abbey of Saint Benoît sur Loire (from which he took his pen name), remaining a monk for twenty-two years. Because of his ideological non-conformity, he eventually left the Catholic Church and decided to devote himself to research and writing. His first book, Prisoner of God, an autobiographical account of his lfe in the monastery, became an international bestseller when it was published in 1992. This was followed by two religious essays, a travel book based on a trip to India, and then the thriller The Thirteenth Apostle, which although fiction, is claimed to be derived from his lifetime's research on the life of Jesus.
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