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Cornwall, United Kingdom: Saint Michael’s Mount

About Saint Michael’s Mount:

By Chensiyuan – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60956425

Saint Michael’s Mount is less well known than its  sister-site of  Mont-Saint-Michel in France, but much like Mont-Saint-Michel, it is on an island accessible by foot only when the tide permits.

Interestingly enough, many of the religious structures on the island were built by the same monks of Mont-Saint-Michel who received the island as a gift from Saint Edward the Confessor, the King of England in the XI century.

Long before it was occupied by any order, the island was a site of pilgrimage because of frequent apparitions of Saint Michael. Stories told of the Archangel Michael guiding sailors to safety.  That is one of the reasons that he is the patron saint of fishermen, would guide nearby sailors to safety.

It was a bulwartk of defense from the anti-Catholic forces of Oliver Cromwell.

Today, the site can still be visited, although much of the monastery has been assumed by secular buildings.

Saint Michael’s Mount is one of the seven sacred sites along an imaginary line stretching from Ireland to Israel,  known as The Sword of Saint Michael“.

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