Does St. Croix Island hold the key to a mysterious missing holy relic?
St. Croix's seemingly innocent past has roots reaching back to Jerusalem, next to King Solomon's temple, to be exact.
Could this lost link lead to the greatest discovery of our time?
JP Noel, spent years researching and writing about this over-looked snippet of St. Croix's history - The Knights of Malta!
People always ask me, "How did you discover the Ark story?"
I basically followed the Ark of the Covenant's bread crumbs found in Jerusalem and ending on St. Croix Island. The faint, yet clear line of crumbs could have been followed only one way; from the present to the past, meaning from St. Croix back to Jerusalem. This, and only this, could explain why other researchers in the past have failed to uncover the trail leading to a remote Caribbean island.
There was an intentional break in the historical archives stemming from the Old World, a cover-up, a secret mission if you will, but somehow the trail miracously survived in the New World. The St. Croix Ark is centered on the actions of the Knights of Malta and their highly secretive journey across the Atlantic to the unknown New World. Even more suspicious was their actions once they arrived on St. Croix Island (and St.Kitts too).
As in any great cover-up, never look to the source for answers, meaning the Malta Archives; where virtually all of the Knights historical records are kept, and have been for centuries. Conducted by Malta University History Professors and scholars who posses unlimited access to records, even the "restricted access" areas were probed during the research, remarkably there are no records about St. Croix Island during the Knights occupation from 1650 to 1667 AD(as of Spring 2011).
This little seventeen year "hick-up" of missing records, exposed a much larger missing chunk of records dating from 1650 to about 1680. This was really a shock considering how the Knights went out of their way to keep their treasured written past archives safe. This small, innocuous detail of the missing thirty years, is a massively dark crevasse waiting to explode, on many levels. All I am doing is shining the light into that darkness.
And to add more to the mystery (or hype) it was these very same years - to the date - that the Knights went to the Caribbean and eventually end up on St. Croix Island, Salt River Bay, to be exact. Make no mistake, my bread crumb line is 99% fact based presumptions, not myths or hidden agendas.
There was no way possible to discover my story until one has lived on St. Croix Island. What is funny, the locals on the island have suspected something nefarious about the Knights all along. Even in private conversations with pastors after mass, floated a myth about the reasons they came to St. Croix. How rewarding to get some of those emails confirming my hunch, some even thanking me for putting their thoughts into words. I had no idea.
My only goal now is to share this rough gem of a true story, and let the "experts" either shred or embrace it.
"After all, the only real expert on the location of the lost Ark of the Covenant will be the one who finds it."
JP Noel
Knights Templar Art
