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| Audrey Flowers, Roxana Flores, Bob Dobbs, Carolyn Dean & Audrey Siobhain Larrainzar at Auberge Nicolas Flamel, 2016. |
Everything changed when a stranger sold him a book for two florins. It is this Manuscript of Abraham the Jew, supposed to contain the secret of the making of the Philosopher’s Stone that would change his life and that of his rich wife, Lady Perennial. He then transformed himself into an alchemist and devoted his life to the deciphering of the spellbook.
His search was motivated not by greed but by a spiritual impulse. After three years of unremitting labor, he at last reached his goal. According to one of his wills, he succeeded in discovering the secret of the Philosopher’s Stone, a pledge of eternity, and the means of transmuting gold into lead, on April 25, 1382. According to his own words, Nicolas Flamel created gold only three times. He and Pernelle lived modestly and used their wealth to help their neighbor. Nicolas Flamel financed fourteen hospitals and built three chapels, seven churches and a few houses.
In 1407, Flamel and his wife, Dame Pernelle, built a three-storey house on rue de Montmorency which is now the oldest stone house in Paris. It’s here where Flamel is said to have carried out his experiments in alchemy. Flamel and his wife set it up as an inn for the poor to serve as a refuge for the homeless of the time. In exchange, they only asked them to say a few prayers, as evidenced by the inscription on the cornice, restored at the beginning of the 20th century.
