08. Sacra San Michele (Italy)

The imposing abbey of Sacra San Michele (Saint-Michel-de-la-Cluse) stands at an altitude of 962 m, at the beginning of the Susa valley, on a rocky spur of Mount Pirchiriano. You get there after a long climb of 243 steps.

The cult of Saint Michael, which spread in Italy with the expansion of Christianity, arrived in the Susa valley in the 5th or 6th century. Another sanctuary had then just been erected in Italy in honor of the archangel, at Monte Sant’Angelo, on Mount Gargano. And in France, in 708 or 709, the sanctuary of Mont-Saint-Michel would also consecrate the archangel. These three high sites are today three of the key places on the paths of Saint Michael, and are part of the network of Michaelic sites. Symbol of the Piedmont region, this abbey is one of the most important architectural ensembles of the Romanesque period in Europe. Succeeding a community of hermits, it was founded between 983 and 987, by an Auvergne nobleman, Hugues de Montboissier, on his return from a pilgrimage to Rome, which he had made to repent of his faults with Pope Sylvester II . The latter gave him, as penance, the choice between a seven-year exile and the heavy task of building an abbey. The repentant sinner preferred the second solution…

This sanctuary, which was occupied for six centuries by Benedictines, quickly became a major place for pilgrimages to the Archangel. Then it fell into neglect until 1836. King Charles-Albert of Savoy, wishing to revive this high place of the Church of Piedmont, then installed a religious congregation there, the Rosminiani (Rosminians). These Rosminian Fathers are still there today, and welcome the pilgrims who come to place themselves, on these heights, under the protection of the archangel.