Sacra di San Michele

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Sacra di San Michele in January
The former abbey in November

The Sacra di San Michele ("Sanctuary of St. Michael ") was an abbey of the Benedictine order in the Susa Valley (Val di Susa), in the northern Italian region of Piedmont . The Rosminians currently live in the monastery .

geography

The monastery is located on Monte Pirchiriano ( 962  m slm ) at the eastern exit of the Susa valley between the villages of Sant'Ambrogio di Torino and Chiusa di San Michele , about 35 km west of Turin . With its exposed location and castle-like construction, the monastery is reminiscent of other medieval Michael churches and monasteries, such as Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy or St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall .

history

After the summit had already been fortified by the Ligurians and then the Celts , it was used by the Romans from 63 AD as a military camp, who made the Cottian Alps one of their Alpine provinces. In the early Middle Ages, the area was under the rule of the Lombards from 569 until the Franks conquered it in 773. From 888, the Saracens were temporarily rulers of the western Alps.

In the tenth century, Giovanni Vincenzo settled as a hermit . There, as a redemption of a vow, the abbey was founded in 983 by Count Hugo von Montboissier and occupied by five Benedictines. In the High Middle Ages it became a resting place for pilgrims to Rome, an important political player with widely scattered property. After mismanagement and decline from the 13th century, the monastery was placed under the regime in 1379 , it existed until 1622, when it was after centuries of shadowy existence by Pope Gregory XV. was repealed. After two hundred years of decline, it was opened in 1836 on the initiative of the King of Savoy, Carlo Alberto, under Pope Gregory XVI. entrusted to the Rosminians and has since been inhabited and managed by the order. This structure has been a symbol of the Piedmont region since 1994 . The monastery, among others, served as the backdrop for the film adaptation of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose . A fire in January 2018 caused considerable property damage in the monastery.

List of Abbots of Sacra di San Michele

The south side of the complex
Fresco of the Assumption of Mary from 1505 inside the church

Abbots

From its founding until 1380, the monastery had 27 abbots from the monastic class, who are listed in the following list with their tenure:

  • Advertus (999-1002)
  • Benedict I (1002-1045)
  • Peter I (1045-1066)
  • Benedict II (1066-1091)
  • Wilhelm I (1091-1095)
  • Ermenegaldo (1095–1124)
  • Gaufrido (1124–1142)
  • Boniface I (1142–1148)
  • Stefan (1148–1170)
  • Benedict III (1170-1200)
  • Peter II (1200-1227)
  • Elijah (1227-1239)
  • Matthew (1239-1244)
  • Wilhelm II. De La Chambre (1244–1261)
  • Decanus (1261-1283)
  • Raimund (1283-1292)
  • Richard (1292-1298)
  • Andreas (1298–1308)
  • Anthony (1308-1310)
  • William III. of Savoy (1310-1325)
  • Rudolf of Mombello (1325-1359)
  • Hugo of Marbosco (1359-1361)
  • Giacomo (1361-1362)
  • Pietro di Fongeret (1362-1379)

Commendati abbots

From 1381 to 1826 the abbey had 26 commendatar abbots :

Web links

Commons : Sacra di San Michele  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Giovanni Gaddo: La Sacra di San Michele in Val di Susa. SALE Sodalitas, Domodossola 1935.

Coordinates: 45 ° 5 '53 "  N , 7 ° 20' 37"  E