Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
St Michael and St
Aubert
Top 10 Events in
the History of
Mont-St-Michel
1 708: Aubert, Bishop of
Avranches builds an
oratory on Mont Tombe
2 966: Duke Richard I
imposes Benedictine rule
3 1017: work on
Romanesque abbey
church begins; village
grows up below
4 1434: ramparts
completed during
Hundred Years' War
5 1789: monks leave;
abbey converted to a
political prison during
the French Revolution
6 1874: becomes a
Historic Monument and
opens to the public
7 1877: construction of
causeway linking the
Mont and the mainland
8 1969: Benedictine
monks return
9 1979: UNESCO desig-
nates Mont-St-Michel a
World Heritage Site
0 2003: work starts on
bay project including
bridge to mainland
According to legend, St Michael, the archangel,
appeared three times in a dream to Aubert, Bishop
of Avranches, commanding him to build an oratory
on Mont Tombe (tomb on the hill). When Aubert
delayed, the impatient archangel prodded a finger
into Aubert's forehead, leaving a dent. Aubert's
church rapidly became a centre of pilgrimage for the
miquelots
, followers of the cult of St Michael, which
had taken root in the West in the 5th century. The
brightly gilded statue on top of the abbey spire,
sculpted in 1897 by Emmanuel Frémiet, portrays the
archangel in traditional fashion (below). Armour-clad,
he is slaying a dragon (symbol of the devil) with his
sword. In his other hand he carries a set of scales -
a reference to the medieval belief that it was his role
to weigh the souls on Judgment Day.
Saint Michael
The Archangel Michael is the warlike angel of
the Apocalypse, who slays the devil - in the
form of a dragon - in the great conflict at the
end of time. In Normandy, he is the patron saint
of mariners.
St Michael defeating the
dragon above Mont-St-Michel
For more on Norman abbeys
See pp46-7
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