GR300 Way of St Michael

The Ways of St Michael

Since time immemorial, people have sought to protect themselves against the forces of evil, and to make sure of as peaceful a death as possible. Already in Egyptian religion, the god Seth fought the serpent Apophis, a symbol of the return to chaos. Among the Greeks, it is Zeus who fights the giants and the monsters of Tartarus. When Christianity arrived, it was natural for the archangel Michael, who, as the Book of Revelation tells us, victoriously fought Satan and his angels, to be celebrated as the protector saint par excellence. And since time immemorial too, the idea that we will be judged after death on our good and bad actions during our lives has preoccupied people. Already among the Egyptians the god Anubis holds the scales bearing the heart of the deceased, which must weigh less than the ibis feather on the other pan. Here too, Michael took his place on the portals of cathedrals, as the one who holds the scales and snatches souls from the claws of the devil. Believer or not, the figure of the archangel “speaks” to what is buried deep in people's hearts, and the path is no doubt a good way of getting back in touch with oneself on all these questions. On the way to those symbolic places, the Mont and Saint-Michel d'Aiguilhe, the walker will be accompanied by a myriad of small signs of the archangel's presence: sometimes a statue, a stained-glass window, a wall painting that has survived the centuries, a last judgement that appears in sometimes unexpected places. The archangel Michael is often discreet, but he is omnipresent, and each time the walker will rediscover the questions, fears and hopes of those, powerful or wretched, who turned to the archangel in this way.

The stages below are only suggestions.