Characters
Bishop Manuel Aringarosa
Bishop Aringarosa serves as the president-general of Opus Dei, a Vatican prelature known for its controversial worship methods. He openly criticizes the Catholic Church's liberal movements and the reforms initiated during Vatican II. Introduced at the opulent Opus Dei headquarters in New York, adorned with an extravagant and costly bishop's ring, Aringarosa is depicted as a man driven by financial gain. He collaborates with Silas to retrieve the legendary keystone, aiming to uncover the Holy Grail's location under the guidance of the Teacher. His primary objective is to save Opus Dei: five months before the novel's events, he discovered that his organization would lose its Vatican affiliation in six months. He believes that recovering the Holy Grail for the Catholic Church might secure the Vatican's support.
Sister Sandrine Bieil
Sister Sandrine oversees the Church of Saint-Sulpice, the location Saunière names in his final words to Silas. She criticizes what she sees as Opus Dei's misogynistic practices and has ties to the Priory of Sion. For years, she has been instructed to alert the sénéchaux and the Grand Master if the church's seal is broken, a silent alarm indicating that the Priory's secrets are in jeopardy. When she witnesses Silas unintentionally trigger this alarm, she tries to warn the Priory members but is murdered in the attempt.
Marie Chauvel
Marie Chauvel is the caretaker of Rosslyn Chapel and Sophie Neveu's grandmother. She has been living in hiding with her grandson, Neveu's brother, under the Priory's protection for twenty-eight years. A direct descendant of the Merovingian families, Chauvel followed the Priory's orders to go into hiding after the car accident that claimed Neveu's family's lives. Since then, she has had to arrange covert meetings with her husband to safeguard her grandchildren and their true identities.
Lieutenant Collet
Lieutenant Collet works under Captain Fache, whom he admires for his professional acumen. He shares the admiration of his colleagues, who view Fache as a heroic and exemplary leader. Collet aids Fache in the pursuit of Langdon and Neveu through Paris's streets. He observes Fache change his tactics multiple times but remains steadfastly loyal to him. When Fache apprehends the true villain, Leigh Teabing, Collet defends him in a BBC interview, asserting that Fache used Langdon and Neveu to "lure out the real killer."
Simon Edwards
Simon Edwards serves as the Executive Services Officer at Biggin Hill Airport. He is disheartened when called upon to assist in arresting his client, Leigh Teabing, immediately after his private plane lands.
Captain Bezu Fache
Bezu Fache serves as the Captain of the Central Directorate Judicial Police in Paris. An imposing figure with dark hair and sharp features, he is nicknamed le Taureau, the Bull. Fache is initially determined to prove Langdon's involvement in Saunière's murder. He dresses formally and wears a tie clip adorned with a crux gemmata, a crucifix embellished with thirteen gems representing Christ and his apostles. As Captain, he wields significant power and is highly respected by his assistant, Lieutenant Collet. Although he initially seems fixated on Langdon, Fache's ultimate goal is to find the true murderer. When he apprehends Leigh Teabing, he releases Langdon and Neveu, despite Teabing's desperate claims that they know the location of the Holy Grail.
Claude Grouard
Claude Grouard works as a security warden at the Louvre. He views Saunière as a father figure and is determined to keep Langdon in the museum after Fache and his team leave to follow a misplaced tracking device. Grouard is outsmarted by Neveu, who uses the Madonna of the Rocks as a shield to escape the museum with...
(This entire section contains 1649 words.)
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Langdon.
Robert Langdon
Robert Langdon is a Professor of Religious Symbology at Harvard University. A year before the events of the novel, he gained fame for his involvement in a Vatican scandal linked to the secret society known as the Illuminati. Langdon has just finished a three-hundred-page manuscript titled Symbols of the Lost Sacred Feminine and is in Paris to give a lecture on pagan symbols hidden in Chartres Cathedral. At the time of his lecture, just before the novel begins, this bachelor professor is renowned both for his research and his stylish, charming appearance. He is both amused and dismayed to learn he has been dubbed "Harrison Ford in Harris tweed," and that his female students describe his captivating voice as "chocolate for the ears." An author of several books on symbols, icons, and secret societies, including The Symbology of Secret Sects, The Art of the Illuminati, and Religious Iconography, Langdon was featured in Boston Magazine as one of the city's top ten most intriguing people. He is brought in to help solve the mystery of Saunière's death.
Rémy Legaludec
Rémy Legaludec is Leigh Teabing's butler. A Frenchman in his fifties, Legaludec wears a formal white tie and tuxedo when he welcomes Langdon and Neveu in the middle of the night. He is the only person who has seen the Teacher in person and works under him to gather information using an extensive network of surveillance equipment. The Teacher entices Legaludec with promises of a luxurious retirement, but ultimately poisons him once his tasks are completed.
Sophie Neveu, a young and attractive cryptologist for the Central Directorate Judicial Police in Paris, is also the granddaughter of Saunière. At the age of four, she tragically lost her parents, grandmother, and younger brother in a car accident. Raised by Saunière, she enjoyed a happy childhood, inspired by his fascination with mathematical puzzles and codes to pursue a career in cryptography at Royal Holloway in England. However, she ceased all communication with him ten years ago after witnessing a disturbing ritual. The afternoon before Saunière's murder, he calls her, warning of danger and promising to reveal a family secret. Sophie aids Langdon in deciphering her grandfather's clues and joins him in the quest for the Holy Grail. Ultimately, she discovers she is part of the Merovingian lineage, believed to be descendants of Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ.
Jacques Saunière
Jacques Saunière served as a curator at the Louvre museum for two decades. A revered yet reclusive art scholar, Saunière authored numerous books on goddesses and pagan symbols in art. As the Grand Master of the Priory of Sion, he guarded the secret of the Holy Grail, dedicating his life to concealing both his true identity and the Grail's location. Following the tragic car accident that claimed Sophie Neveu's family, Saunière became a loving and devoted grandfather, sharing his passion for mathematical symbols, puzzles, and secret codes with her, which led her to study cryptology. Their relationship, however, was severed for ten years after Sophie witnessed him in a disturbing ritual. Though Saunière is murdered at the beginning of the novel, his presence lingers through the series of clues he leaves at the crime scene and in Sophie's memories.
Silas
Silas, an albino monk, is the one who kills Saunière. He has no surname and has suppressed memories of his abusive childhood to the point where he can't recall his real name. The one thing he does remember is the traumatic event of stabbing his father to death at seven years old after witnessing his mother being beaten to death by his father. This initial act of violence sets off a chain of violent behaviors that eventually lead to his imprisonment. While incarcerated, he endures a torturous life. When an earthquake demolishes the prison, allowing him to escape, he roams aimlessly until he encounters Bishop Aringarosa. The Bishop names him Silas after reading a Bible passage about a prisoner named Silas who prays to God despite frequent beatings and is ultimately freed by an earthquake. Aringarosa converts Silas to Catholicism and enlists him to help build his church. As a devout Christian, Silas wears a spiked cilice around his thigh and uses a discipline whip to remind himself of Christ's suffering. He grapples with his role as the assassin of the three sénéchaux, Saunière, and Sister Sandrine.
Sir Leigh Teabing
See The Teacher
The Teacher
The Teacher is the enigmatic mastermind behind the quest to locate the Holy Grail. His identity remains concealed until the novel's conclusion. Throughout the story, he is only heard, mainly through phone conversations with Silas and Bishop Aringarosa. He possesses an astounding amount of information and seems omniscient regarding the events of the novel. He learns the identities of the three sénéchaux and the Grand Master of the Priory of Sion, orders Silas to kill them, and updates Bishop Aringarosa on the progress of their mission to find the Holy Grail. Due to his close relationship with Silas and the Bishop, his seemingly limitless wealth, and his references to doing God's work, he initially appears to be connected to the Catholic Church. However, it turns out he operates solely for his own gain. His true identity as Leigh Teabing is disclosed at the novel's climax. Posing as Teabing, he assists Langdon and Neveu in deciphering the clues left by Saunière, summarizing some of the novel's more controversial theories. His enthusiasm for helping Langdon and Sophie decode the cryptex and uncover the Grail is mistaken by them for scholarly interest, but his actual intentions are soon exposed. In the climax, he reveals himself as the Teacher, the orchestrator behind the murders and the manipulator of Silas and Aringarosa, as well as the mastermind of the entire plan to find the Holy Grail.
André Vernet
André Vernet, the President of the Paris Depository Bank of Zurich, is determined to avoid media attention. He assists Langdon and Neveu in fleeing from his bank, which has always remained free of controversy. He is later revealed to have been a close confidant of Saunière, entrusted with safeguarding the safety deposit box that the Grand Master had placed in his bank.
