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St Michael’s Cult

Saint Michael the Archangel, prince of the celestial army, whose name means “who is like God ?” is the premier Archangel. It is he who, Saint john’s apocalypse, Throws satan and his rebel angels into the abyss.
Protector of the Israelite people in the Old Testament, he became the defender of the Church and of France. In the eyes of men who are protector, since, as provost of Paradise, it is he who weighs the souls of the Day of Judgment.
The plentiful iconography of Saint Michael illustrates this dual function. As the weigher of souls, he is represented at the gates of heaven, with the scales in his hand, separating the saved from the damned. As a warrior, he overcomes the Devil in the form of a dragon, halfay between a man and a monster. Until the 14th century the Archangel, with his gaze fixed in the distance, is represented clothed in an alb, armd with a lance and shield.
In the 15th century, saint Michael’s sanctuary resisted the assaults of the English forces throughout the Hundred Years’War. During this period, the Saint is pictured dressed in the military costume of a knight. He brandishes a sword in his right hand and, in his left hand, a shield to protect him from the attacks of the Devil, who is struggling beneath his feet. The archangel is often represented as a beardless young man, the image of perfection and youth ;
In the Renaissance and Classical periods, he is represented “in the old style”, clothed in a Roman military costume.
From its origin in the Orient, the cult of saint Michael spread to Byzantium, them to Italy where Pope Gregory the Great dedicated the Château Saint-ange to him, following a vision. The most important sanctuary, Mont-Gargan, is in the south of the peninsula.
This worship site, consacrated on 8th May 492, was the inspiration for many sanctuaries, including Mont-Saint-Michel itself. Places dedicated to the archangel are on high ground, halfway between the earth and heaven. But the cult of Saint Micheal enjoyed its most remarkable development with the construction of the sanctuary in Normandy, in western Europe.

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