Last week, my husband and I went to visit Mont Saint Michel, an iconic island monastery in the muddy shores off Normandy. For those of you who don’t know what it looks like––which I can’t imagine is many people––here’s a picture.
It was the kind of visit that reminds you of why it’s so stupid to call places “too touristy,” which someone did about MSM later that day. There’s a reason so many people want to see a spot like this one.
Anyway, afterward I was doing a little Googling on the Fraternity of Jerusalem, the religious order that now lives there (the Benedictines were the original tenants, and were invited back in the nineties after exile post-French Revolution, but decided it was a little too bustling for them.) I came upon the following from an article in the Telegraph. Guess which part caught my eye:
“After many ups and downs – post-Revolution, the Mont was a jail – a religious presence returned to the rock in the Sixties. It is now maintained by monks and nuns from the Fraternity of Jerusalem. “There are two realities here, spiritual and tourist,” Sister Nathanaël told me. She had travelled widely as a commodities trader before taking holy orders. The realities meet up when Sister Nathanaël walks from her quarters up to the abbey church. She may be stopped two dozen times in 200yd by people with questions (“Is this place religious, then?”) or wishing to have photos taken with her. “The smile is vital,” she said. “And we usually manage it, but not absolutely always.” There are rewards. A visiting Japanese woman had recently been called to Christianity by St Michael. A medium on a retreat had renounced his spirit-contacting activity as displeasing to God.”
I must find this Japanese woman! If you get this, reach out to me! I’ll come to Japan to talk to you…
Other things I want: a pink ombre sweater and a French straw hat. Ugh, I’m such a WORLDLY creature!
Itinerantdaughter's Blog 
Leave a Reply