Dwight Longenecker
Could the life of St Galgano be linked to the Arthurian legend of the Sword in the Stone?
In an earlier essay for The Imaginative Conservative, I recounted my discovery of the famous “Sword of St Michael” while on a hitch-hiking pilgrimage from England to Jerusalem. For those who are unfamiliar, the Sword of St Michael is a remarkable phenomenon: seven ancient monasteries dedicated to the Archangel Michael that are on a geographical straight line stretching from the Irish Sea eastward to Mount Carmel. My aforementioned essay and this one at Aleteia have more information.
Ever since that summer pilgrimage in 1987 I have been intrigued by the St Michael Line. Was it real? I tracked down a fellow who uses satellite technology to improve the accuracy of maps and gave him the coordinates of the seven sites. He came back with the information that not only were the sites on a straight line, with a variance of less than fifteen miles, but the line seemed to accommodate the curvature of the earth. The monasteries were founded as early as the fifth century—most of them the result of a vision of the Archangel Michael to their founders. Were their foundations linked? Was the geographical straight line intentional? If so, who devised it? I met with an expert in medieval cartography at the British Museum, and he confirmed my suspicion that the medieval world did not possess the knowledge or technology to accomplish such a feat.
Some researchers rightly point out that there are dozens of churches on hilltops dedicated to St Michael as the archangel would be—according to Christian lore—the first of the heavenly cohort to set foot on earth at the Lord’s second coming. Giving him a hilltop was therefore to give him a first foothold in his invasion of this world from the heavenly realm. » Read More
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2024/09/st-michael-galgano-sword-stone-dwight-longenecker.html