Saint Michel Abbey – the ocean wonder

Tsunami waves, some over 9 meters high, quicksand and mud that can swallow you in a moment, a road that opens only when the nature desires, obstacles that people have always associated with the road to perfection and divinity … At the end of this road, one of the most beautiful creations that mankind has ever created … Saint Michel Abbey, the Normand wonder off Atlantic …

Saint Michael’s Mount

Legends say that in the year 708, the Archangel Michael would have appeared to St. Aubert, then bishop of Avranches, and that he commanded the building of a church on the small island of the Normandy coast, the place which once had been a stronghold of the Gauls and then the Romans. Aubert ignored the appearings despite the fact that the miracle was repeated several times. Enraged, the messenger of God would have made a hole into his skull, with his finger or fire, so convincing him to obey the divine demand. A year later, in 709, the first building on the island had already been completed. So was born, one of the wonders of the medieval world.

The island was annexed by William I “Longsword”, duke of Normandy, in 933, and in 966 a community of Benedictine priests found permanent refuge in the church of Saint Michel, building a good part of what was to become, finally, the abbey with the same name. The glory years of the monastic settlement began with the ascension of William the Conqueror and the occupation of England by him. In exchange for the support allocated to the future monarch, the priests have received large possessions, including an island near Cornwall, the place where a sister of the Normand wonder would be built, the Penzance priory of Saint Michel.

The Hundred Years’ War between England and France turned the abbey into a war theater, but it had not been conquered thanks to the fortifications raised in the XI-XIV centuries. Today, two of the British bombards, abandoned by the invaders, called Le Michelettes, are still displayed near the abbey walls. So much fame for the settlement had gone along with Rome and Compostela, the Saint Michel abbey became the third pilgrimage place, by importance, in medieval Europe. Even King Louis XI of France, founder of the Order ofArchangel Michael, in 1496, intended for the monastery to become head of this order, only thelong distance between Paris and Normandy making that dream not come true.

Then came the French Revolution, so Saint Michel was almost deserted and then turned into a prison for the supporters of the royalty. It took the intervention of French intellectuals, led by Victor Hugo, to redeem the abbey to French national heritage. Only in 1966, a community of priests returned to the island, reprising an old tradition of over 1300 years.

With time, around the monastery, the medieval village began to revive, and now the island has a population of 80 people, of which 50 are monks. UNESCO World Heritage since 1979,the Saint Michel abbey became again a Mecca for pilgrims, annually receiving over 3 million believers.