Thurs May 16, 2024
Hi All! We docked in St Malo, France today and while it looked like a beautiful walled city on the water, we spent the entire day on a tour to Mont-Saint-Michel (I’ll call it MSM for short!).
The long history of MSM dates back to 708 when the Bishop of Avranches had a sanctuary built here in honor of the Archangel Michel. The sanctuary soon became a major focus of pilgrimage. In the 10th century, the Benedictine Monks settled in the abbey while a village grew up below it. An impregnable stronghold during the Hundred Years War, MSM is also an example of military architecture. It resisted all the English assaults and as a result became the symbol of national identity.
The people of the Middle Ages regarded it as a representation of the heavenly Jerusalem on earth, an image of Paradise. For centuries, devout Christians endeavored to make a great pilgrimage once in their lifetimes. If they couldn’t afford Rome, Jerusalem or Santiago de Compostela, they came here, earning the same religious merits. Today, several million visitors and a steady trickle of pilgrims flood the island each year. (It seemed like we saw all of them today!).
It was a very nice tour and our tour guide did a great job leading us to the abbey at the top and giving us lots of good history. I took a ton of pictures so I’ll split them up in two updates. I’ll also post something tonight after dinner. Hope everyone is having a great Thursday!
The Wandering Italian 