성 미카엘(Saint Michael). 몽생미셀 수도원(Mont Saint Michel Abbey)

성 미카엘(Saint Michael).

몽생미셀 수도원(Mont Saint Michel Abbey). 프랑스(France)

 

Saint Michael, head of the heavenly militia, was of great importance to Medieval religious

sensibility. In the New Testament, Saint Michael appears in the Book of Revelation: he fights and

defeats a dragon, symbol of the devil. To Medieval man living in expectation and dread of the

hereafter, Saint Michael was the one who led away the dead and put their souls in the balance

on the day of the last judgement. Very widespread in the East from the 4th century, the worship

of Saint Michael only appeared in the West in the late 5th century with the building of the first

sanctuary at Monte Gargano (Italy) in 492. Around the year 1000, churches and chapels

dedicated to the Saint proliferated all over Europe, often on the top of hills of promontories.

After the Hundred Years War, devotion to Saint Michael took on a special dimension because of

the resistance of the Mount against the English.

Finally, this worship expanded rapidly with the Counter-Reformation, for in the eyes of the

Church it was only the warlike angel who could fight against the Protestant heresy. In Christian

iconography, Saint Michael is often depicted holding a sword and a set of scales.

Popular traditions and cults have made Saint Michael the patron saint of knights and of all guilds

associated with arms and scales. The statue that stands on top of the belfry has the traditional

attributes of the archangel. It was made in 1897 by the sculptor Emmanel Frémiet and

commissioned by the architect Victor Petitgrand who wanted to see the new 32-metre steeple

suitably crowned. The statue was restored in 1987

 

 

 

 

 

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