Spectacular video of Mont Saint-Michel

14 Comments

1. JustaSinner says:

   3 March 2015 at 4:06 PM

   Fr. Z., when the Zombie Apocalypse happens, can we volunteer to man the ramparts?
2. Rouxfus says:

   3 March 2015 at 4:31 PM

   The shots of the statue of St. Michel triumphal over the servant are spectacular, and make one wonder in admiration at the sheer audacity and faith of those who even conceived such a project, before even considering the practical realities of construction in an age when there were no giant lift cranes. The scaffolding, long gone, must have been an amazing engineering achievement in its own right.
3. Rouxfus says:

   3 March 2015 at 4:32 PM

   Er: “…. triumphal over the serpent…”
4. yzerman123 says:

   3 March 2015 at 7:32 PM

   Can you say “Minas Tirith”?
5. CharlesG says:

   3 March 2015 at 7:44 PM

   I visited MSM last year and like Yzerman immediately thought of Minas Tirith. I wonder if Tolkien might have been partly inspired by MSM with its village with sloping street winding upwards.
6. Priam1184 says:

   3 March 2015 at 8:05 PM

   Oh France! Why did you throw it all away to become a half dead, irrelevant, atheistic (and one day in the not too distant future Muslim dominated) republique??!!!

   Stupid.
7. ghp95134 says:

   3 March 2015 at 11:09 PM

   Y’all do know there is an English analogue to Mont Saint-Michel, right? Right across the way from Penzance — in (aptly named) Mount’s Bay: Saint Michael’s Mount.

   HISTORY
   It may have been the site of a monastery in the 8th – early 11th centuries and Edward the Confessor gave it to the Norman abbey of Mont Saint-Michel. It was a priory of that abbey until the dissolution of the alien houses by Henry V, when it was given to the abbess and Convent of Syon at Isleworth, Middlesex. It was a resort of pilgrims, whose devotions were encouraged by an indulgence granted by Pope Gregory in the 11th century.

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Michael%27s_Mount

   –Guy
8. ghp95134 says:

   3 March 2015 at 11:23 PM

   My grandfather occupied one of the top rooms in the abbey during WWII; he said it made a wonderful artillery observation post. He brought back the left-behind portrait postcard of the room’s previous occupier, a German officer, who departed his digs in haste.

   –Guy
9. Chrissin says:

   4 March 2015 at 1:22 AM

   At ‘New Advent’ -right? There was no link- which you usually provide. I went there found nothing. What am I doing wrong? Saw the little clip but wanted to find more. Clip is cool. Thanks for the clip anyway.
   I’ve been wanting to go to Mont Saint- Michel forever. Also the Bayeux Tapestries aren’t too far. Beautiful country there. Plus this year is 70th Anniversary of WWII.- May 8 1945. My mother took part in the invasion of Normandy. Would love to go. There are stained glass windows in a church in Sainte-Mere-Egliseè commemorating the paratroopers who liberated that little town.
   St Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.
10. Eugene says:

    4 March 2015 at 10:02 AM

    Spectacular! …..and then this thought came to mind why did Europe throw it all away almost, there was a time when it was Christendom and now it has become a mere shadow of its former self…and we have Shepherds within its boundaries who are willing to throw what little is left of its former glory away also…God have mercy on my native continent
11. ghp95134 says:

    4 March 2015 at 12:33 PM

    @Crissin: …I’ve been wanting to go to Mont Saint- Michel forever. Also the Bayeux Tapestries aren’t too far…..

    Mont Saint-Michel is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry in scene 17:
    http://www.medievalists.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/bayeux4-e1383107643586.jpg

    http://www.medievalists.net/2013/10/29/designer-of-the-bayeux-tapestry-identified/
    Surmises Abbot Scalland of Mont Saint-Michel was the designer of the tapestry:

    “New research has identified the man who designed the Bayeux Tapestry, one of the most important artworks of the Middle Ages. Historian Howard B. Clarke believes that this was Scolland, the abbot of St.Augustine’s monastery in Canterbury, and that it was made around the year 1075…. If this interpretation is accurate, this would make the designer to be someone associated with Mont St. Michel, and Clarke believes that this person was Scolland:

    “Back in 1064, the year usually assigned to the Breton campaign, Scolland had been a senior monk at Mont Saint-Michel, acting both as treasurer and head of the scriptorium. After the Norman victory at Hastings he, along with others from the same monastery, went over to England and was effectively appointed by King William as head of England’s senior Benedictine house [of St.Augustine’s in Canterbury] in 1070.

    “Clarke adds that there are several pieces of evidence which further link the Bayeux Tapestry with Abbot Scolland, including:

    “1) Scolland was the head of Mont Saint-Michel’s scriptorium, which oversaw the creation and illumination of manuscripts. The years 1040–75 are considered to be a ‘golden-age’ for manuscript illumination at the Norman abbey, which would have given Scolland a great amount of artistic experience.

    “2) It would explain why several of the early scenes in the tapestry focus on the Breton campaign, which isn’t considered part of the main narrative of the Norman Conquest, but would have been memorable to the monks of Mont St. Michel.

    “3) Two individuals who are depicted and named in the Bayeux Tapestry, Wadard and Vital, had links with monks of St Augustine’s and Scolland….”

    –Guy
12. Belgian Catholic says:

    4 March 2015 at 2:18 PM

    “The abbot was both religious and military commander. Sounds like something we need again today.”
    Ah, you’re speaking about Cardinal Burke, isn’t it ? [Not necessarily.]
    ” Rorate Caeli: Now, Your Eminence may have a bias on this question, but would the Sovereign Military Order of Malta theoretically be able to function as an Apostolic Administration, giving faculties for traditional priests and religious?

    Card. Burke: Well, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, has incardinated priests. But it did so as a sovereign military order, not as an Apostolic Administration. The Order has a Prelate, appointed by the Holy Father, who participates in the governance of the Order. He is clearly the lawful superior of any priests incardinated in the Order. Right now, we’re studying the whole situation because we have requests from additional priests who wish to be incardinated in the Order. But certainly it has happened in the past, and there’s no reason why it couldn’t continue to happen, not in virtue of the establishment of an Apostolic Administration, but in virtue of the nature of the Order.”
13. PA mom says:

    4 March 2015 at 5:57 PM

    Gorgeous.

    If it can become an island again, maybe it can also become an abbey again…

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