The Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey is an abbey located within the city and island of Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy, in the department of Manche. Now owned and operated as a French national monument, religious services still occur and occasionally monks are invited to take up residence.
The abbey originated as a sanctuary dedicated to the archangel Michael and developed into a major religious centre during the Carolingian and Norman periods. After suffering disruption during Viking incursions in the 9th century, the site was restored under the early dukes of Normandy following the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. In 966, Duke Richard I of Normandy replaced the existing community with Benedictine monks, linking it to the wider movement of Norman monastic reform. During the 11th and 12th centuries the abbey expanded architecturally and intellectually under patrons such as William the Conqueror and abbots including Robert of Torigni. Fortified during the Hundred Years' War, the abbey later declined as a pilgrimage centre and was converted into a prison during the French Revolution which it remained until 1863.
With more than 1.335 million visitors in 2010, the abbey is among the most visited cultural sites in France and is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
History
The first text about an abbey is the 9th-century Latin text Revelatio ecclesiae sancti Michaelis in monte Tumba written by a chanoine living at Mont-Saint-Michel or at the Cathédrale Saint-André d'Avranches. This text was written at a time of power struggle between Brittany and the County of Normandy against Francia as well as during canon law reforms by Roman emperors.
When Christianity expanded to the area, around the 4th century, Mont Tombe – the original name of Mont-Saint-Michel – was part of the Diocese of Avranches. By the middle of the 6th century, Christianity had a stronger presence in the bay. By this time, Mont Tombe was populated by religious devotees – hermits (probably some Celtic monks) supplied by the curé of Astériac, who took care of the site and led a contemplative life around some oratories, but there is no archeological evidence and no serious sources of that. It is said two hermits, Saint Pair and Saint Scubilion, dedicated one of the oratories to Saint Étienne, midway through the mont, and one to Saint Symphorien, at the foot of the rock.
In 710, Mont Tombe was renamed Mont-Saint-Michel au péril de la Mer ("Mount Saint Michael at the peril of the sea", "Mons Sancti Michaelis in periculo maris") after an oratory was erected to Saint Michael by bishop Saint Aubert of Avranches in 708. According to the legend, Aubert received, during his sleep, three times the order from Saint Michael to erect an oratory on the Mont Tombe. The archangel was reputed to have left his finger mark on Aubert's skull. This skull is displayed at the Saint-Gervais d'Avranches basilica with such a scar on it.
This sanctuary should be, according to the archangel, a replica of the Gargano Sanctuary in Italy (from the 5th century). Aubert had a local religious artifact removed and instead a circular sanctuary built, made of dry stones. Around 708, Aubert sent two monks to get some artifacts from the Italian sanctuary (a rock with his foot print and a piece of tissue from the altar). During this mission, the March 709 tsunami is supposed to have destroyed the Scissy forest and turned the Mont into an island. On October 16, 709, the bishop dedicated the church and put twelve chanoine there. The Mont-Saint-Michel was born.
The remains of the oratory were found in the chapel Notre-Dame-Sous-Terre. This sanctuary contained the tomb of Aubert and most likely the artifacts brought from Gargano. The chapel Notre-Dame-Sous-Terre is today under the nave of the abbey-church.
The first buildings became too small and under the Western Roman Empire multiple buildings were added. Charlemagne chose Saint Michel as a protector of his empire during the 9th century and tried to have the place renamed Mont-Saint-Michel, but during the Middle Ages it was usually called Saint-Michel-aux-Deux-Tombes (Saint Michel with two tombs, in reference to Tombelaine).
The abbey is an essential part of the structural composition of the town the feudal society constructed. On top, God, the abbey, and monastery; below this, the Great halls, then stores and housing, and at the bottom (outside the walls), fishermen's and farmers' housing.
History of the abbey
Church of Saint Michel during 9th and 10th centuries
The Mont-Saint-Michel monks, during the first century of their institution, venerated the archangel Michael. The Mont became a place of prayer and study, but the stability period, known as the Neustria, during the reign of Charlemagne ended when he died. As the rest of Gaule was fighting invasions, religion and science found some welcoming in the diocese of Avranches and at the Mont-Saint-Michel.
At first, pilgrims kept coming to the Mont. After the Vikings captured the Mont in 847, the monks departed. But, as an island, it offered some protection for the local population and thus never stayed empty.
After the signature of the treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, Rollo (Gange-Hrólfr "Rollo" Ragnvaldsson de Normandie) started repairing the damages inflicted to the religious buildings. He generously financed the Mont and called back the monks displaced by the war, returning the Mont to its previous condition.
The wealth and support that the Mont suddenly obtained from Rollo started to fundamentally affect its inhabitants, taking them away from their solitary, religious life. After William I of Normandy took over his father's title as Duke of Normandy in 927, he expanded his support toward monasteries until his assassination in 942; but his wealth, from which they benefited, further exacerbated their mundane life style. Because of their generous contributions to the Mont, the Dukes of Brittany Conan 1st, who died in 992, and Geoffrey 1st, who died in 1008, were buried in the Mont as benefactors.
Benedictine abbey
The rapid growth of wealth of the church-abbey Saint-Michel became an obstacle to its function and nature. The religious used their wealth, coming from the piety of the rich surrounding princes, to satisfy their pleasures. Local nobles tried to obtain the favors of the Mont's religious inhabitants to spend it on meals, travels, and hunting in their company, which became their main occupation.
When Richard 1st, son of William 1st, became duke of Normandy, he tried using his authority to return them to a more monastic life. After failing to do so, and with the approbation of pope John XIII and king Lothair, he decided to replace them with a monastery of the Benedictine order, as mentioned in the Introductio monachorum ("the installation of the monks"), a treaty written around 1080–1095 by a Mont-Saint-Michel monk trying to defend the independence of the monastery toward the state.
After getting the approval from the local warlords and religious of the Norman abbeys, the monastery of Saint-Wandrille, Saint-Taurin-d’Évreux and Jumièges, Duke Richard I sent an officer and some soldiers to the Mont Saint Michel to announce his order: return to a religious life style and become a member of the Benedictine order or leave the Mont. Only one accepted and all the others left, leaving the abbot Maynard 1st, coming from Saint-Wandrille abbey, to establish a Benedictine house. The installation of the Benedictine monks took place in 966, which is marked as the founding year of the Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey. Those monks added the double-nave, pre-Romanesque church Notre-Dame-sous-Terre.
12th century
The Mont-Saint-Michel was at its apex during the 1100s, with the abbot of Torigni, private counsel of the Duke of Normandy, Henry II of England, reinforcing the structure of the buildings, and building the main facade of the church.
13th to 15th centuries
In 1204, France's King Philippe-Auguste started to take over the fiefs of Duke of Normandy John Lackland. His ally, Guy of Thouars, Duke of Brittany, undertook the siege of the Mont-Saint-Michel. After having set fire to the village and massacring the population, he failed to conquer the abbey, due to its stone fortifications. But the fire from the village extended to the abbey and damaged it significantly.
Horrified by the exaction of his Brittany ally, Philippe-Auguste offered abbot Jourdain a grant for the construction of a new Gothic-style architectural set, which included the addition of the refectory and cloister. The "Merveille", built in medieval Norman style, with a circular capital, some spandrels in Caen stone and some plant motifs, was completed in 1228.
Under the rule of the 29th abbot, Pierre le Roy & Charles VI, from 1386 to 1410, new fortifications were built: at the northeast corner of the Merveille, an octagonal crowning element was added to the Corbins tower; at its base, a long curtain wall-terrace overlooking the woods. In 1393, two turrets were added to flank the 1257 gate. Large steps were built in front of the barbican, and the abbot had a fortified residence built, as well as the square-based Pénine tower, designed to guard the Grand Degré.
When King Louis XI founded the Order of Saint Michael in 1469, he intended that the abbey church of Mont Saint-Michel become the chapel for the Order, but because of its great distance from Paris, his intention could never be realized.
Becoming a prison
Even as some oubliettes have been mentioned since the 11th century, the abbey started to be used more regularly as a jail during the Ancien Régime, becoming a state jail during Louis XVI's reign.
Mont Saint Michel's popularity and prestige as a center of pilgrimage waned with the Reformation, and by the time of the French Revolution there were scarcely any monks in residence. The abbey was closed in 1791 and converted into a prison, initially to hold clerical opponents of the republican regime (up to 300 priests at one point). The abbey was then nicknamed "bastille des mers" (Bastille of the sea).
In 1794, an optical telegraph system, designed by Claude Chappe, was installed on top of the dome, making the Mont-Saint-Michel part of the Paris-Brest telegraph line. In 1817, the numerous modifications of the structure by the prison administration led to the collapse of the hostelry built under Robert de Torigni.
During the reign of Louis Philippe I, some prisoners started a protest that led to the replacement of the prison director, Martin des Landes. Thanks to a corrupt system, the richest prisoners could visit the Mont Saint Michel town, others could borrow books from the monks' scriptorium.
Up to 700 prisoners worked in a workshop set up in the abbey, making straw hats, which started a fire in 1834 and partially damaged it.
After some higher-profile political prisoners were held there, such as Victor Dubourg de La Cassagne, Desforges, Martin Bernard, Armand Barbès and Auguste Blanqui, some influential figures, including Victor Hugo, launched a campaign to restore what was seen as a national architectural treasure, that led to its closure by Napoleon III in 1863. The 650 prisoners were transferred to other prisons.
Becoming a monument historique and World Heritage Site
It has been a monument historique since 1862 and the abbey was rented by the bishop of Coutances in 1863 when the prison closed.
In 1835, Viollet-le-Duc visited the Mont and later his students, Paul Gout and Édouard Corroyer (the famous Mère Poulard was his maid), were commissioned to restore it. Urgent work to consolidate and restore the abbey was conducted by Édouard Corroyer. In 1896, a neogothic spire, rising 170 meters above the sea level, was added.
The archangel Saint Michel at the top of the spire (completed in 1898) was started in 1895 by the sculptor Emmanuel Frémiet at the "ateliers Monduit" that previously did some work for Viollet-le-Duc.
In 1898, during an excavation under the floor of the church, Paul Gout discovered the Notre-Dame-Sous-Terre. It was completely excavated in 1959, after architect Yves-Marie Froidevaux had a concrete beam installed.
In World War II, the abbey and its surrounding area came under German occupation starting on June 20, 1940. A cable car facility was installed but the abbey was otherwise kept intact, with the German Armistice Commission recognizing Mont-Saint-Michel's historical significance. During the German retreat after D-Day in 1944, no attempt was made to defend the area, which was clear by July 31.
Mont Saint Michel as a whole and its bay were added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1979, and it was listed with criteria such as cultural, historical, and architectural significance, as well as human-created and natural beauty. It is managed by the Centre des monuments nationaux.
Return of the monks
Starting in 1922, Christian worship was again practiced in the abbey.
In 1966, with the celebration of the abbey's first millennium, a few Benedictine monasteries sent monks to spend the summer there. At the end of the summer a few stayed, led by Bruno de Senneville, from Bec Abbey, with the approval of the state, owner of the place. They slowly started to leave after 1979.