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Saint Michael's line

The Saint Michael's Line, also known as the Sword of Saint Michael,^[1][2] is a postulated ley line connecting monasteries and other sacred sites dedicated to the Archangel Michael in Europe and the Holy Land. The aligned sites are almost all located on prominent hilltops, and include Skellig Michael, St Michael's Mount, Mont Saint-Michel, the Sacra di San Michele, San Michele Arcangelo, the Sanctuary of Monte Sant'Angelo, the Panormitis Monastery of the Archangel Michael, Symi, and Stella Maris Monastery; although the latter is not explicitly dedicated to St Michael, the mountain on which it sits, Mount Carmel, is associated with the archangel by the biblical story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18).^[3][4]

There are claims that the line perfectly aligns with the sunset on the day of the Northern Hemisphere’s Summer Solstice^[5] (however, sunrise/sunset maps show this to be incorrect ^[6]).

Interpretation[edit]

As with other ley lines, no scientific evidence indicates that the alignment was planned and meaningful, making the claim pseudoscientific, but commonly reported at these sites. Physicist Luca Amendola noted that the deviation of these sites from the loxodrome that allegedly connects them ranges between 14 km and 42 km.^[4]

According to legend, the Sacred Line of Saint Michael represents the blow the Saint inflicted upon the Devil when he cast him into Hell, as per the story of the Fall of Satan.^[7]

Some also say that it is a reminder from Saint Michael that the faithful are expected to be righteous, walking the straight path.^[8]

Stella Maris Monastery

Stella Maris Monastery on Mt. Carmel
Monastery information
Order	Discalced Carmelite Order
Established	1631
Architecture
Completion date	1836
Site
Location	Haifa, Israel
Coordinates	32°49′36″N 34°58′13″E
Other information	Facade faces South

The Stella Maris Monastery is a Catholic Christian monastery for Discalced Carmelite monks, located on the slopes of Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel.^[1]

The main church inside the Stella Maris Monastery is said to contain the Cave of Elijah, a grotto associated with the Biblical prophet Elijah.^[1]

It is also known as the Monastery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel for monks, to distinguish it from the nearby Monastery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel for nuns, located higher up on Mount Carmel.

History[edit]

Crusader-period Carmelite beginnings[edit]

In the 12th century, during the Kingdom of Jerusalem rule of the region, groups of religious hermits began to inhabit the caves of this area in imitation of Elijah the Prophet. In the early 13th century, their leader and prior (referred to in the rule only as 'Brother B', although sometimes claimed despite an absence of supporting evidence to be either Saint Brocard or Saint Bertold) asked the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Albert Avogadro, to provide the group with a written rule of life, which he did.

This was the originating act of the Order, who took the name 'Order of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel' or Carmelites. An oratory was dedicated to the Virgin Mary in her aspect of Our Lady, Star of the Sea, the latter part of which translates in Latin to Stella Maris. Within a few decades, when the capital of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, Acre, fell in 1291 to the Mamluks, these monastic hermits were forced to leave the Holy Land. The Carmelite order spread throughout Europe, where, from 1238 onwards, the Order had begun to found houses -- at the end of Saint Louis' first crusade to the Holy Land in 1254, he had taken six Carmelites back to France with him.

 New location (1631-1761)[edit]

In 1631 the Discalced branch of the Order returned to the Holy Land, led by the Venerable Father Prosper. He had a small monastery constructed on the promontory at Mount Carmel, close to the lighthouse^{[dubious – discuss]}, and the friars lived there until 1761, when Zahir al-Umar, the then effectively independent ruler of Galilee, ordered them to vacate the site and demolish the monastery.

 Current location: first building (1761-1821)[edit]

The Order then moved to the present location, which is directly above a grotto where the prophet Elijah is said to have lived. Here they built a large church and monastery, first clearing the site of the ruins of a medieval Greek church, known as "the Abbey of St. Margaret" and a chapel, thought to date back to the time of the Byzantine Empire.

This new church was seriously damaged in Napoleon's 1799 campaign. Sick and wounded French soldiers were accommodated in the monastery, and when Napoleon withdrew, the Turks slaughtered them and drove out the friars.

The monument to Napoleon's soldiers

In 1821, Abdullah Pasha of Acre ordered the ruined church to be totally destroyed, so that it could not serve as a fort for his enemies, while he attacked Jerusalem. The masonry was used to build Abdullah Pasha's summer palace and a lighthouse,^[2] which were sold back to the Carmelite order in 1846.^{[3][dubious – discuss]}

 Current building (1836)[edit]

Entrance to the MonasteryDome of the Stella Maris MonasteryChurch interior with the venerated cave visible under the altar

The current church and monastery, built under the orders of Brother Cassini of the Order, was opened in 1836. Three years later Pope Gregory XVI bestowed the title of Minor Basilica on the sanctuary, and it is now known as "Stella Maris", meaning Star of the Sea. For much of the 20th century it was occupied by the military, first the British, and later the Israelis, but at the end of their lease it was handed back to the Order.^{[clarification needed]}

Description[edit]

Monastery[edit]

The monastery serves as a centre of Carmelite spirituality throughout the world. The symbol of the Order is mounted right above the entrance door. During the erection of the church, friars were assaulted by their neighbors and had to defend their property and the church guests. As a result, the monastery's ground floor is built out of thick walls with few and small openings covered by bars.

Main church[edit]

The monastery's main church resembles the shape of a cross. Its dome is decorated by colorful paintings based on motifs from both the Old and New Testament: Elijah rising to heaven, David stringing his harp, the prophet Isaiah, the Holy Family and the Four Evangelists. Latin inscriptions of biblical verses are written around the dome.

The altar stands on an elevated platform situated above a small cave associated with Elijah. The cave can be reached from the nave by descending a few steps and holds a stone altar with a small statue of Prophet Elijah. The altar above the cave is dominated by a statue of the Virgin Mary carrying Jesus in her lap and holding the Scapular in her right hand, known as Our Lady of the Scapular. The Blessed Virgin Mary is the patroness of the Carmelites, and as such is known as "Our Lady of Mount Carmel".

Main church altar with the statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.Stella Maris monastery at the end of the 19th century

New embossments dedicated to Carmelite figures are hoisted on all four corners of the central hall. On the western wall of the church is a large organ that is played during religious ceremonies and at special church music concerts.

Annual procession[edit]

During the First World War, the statue of Our Lady of the Scapular, holding Baby Jesus and the scapular, was removed from the church and placed in a safer place in Haifa.^[4] After the war, in 1919, it was brought back to its place in a small procession.^[4] Since then, every first Sunday after Easter, on the same date as in 1919, what has become the second largest Catholic procession of the Holy Land after the Palm Sunday procession in Jerusalem, takes place between downtown Haifa and Stella Maris, up the western slope of the Carmel.^[4] Large crowds of Catholic Christians, including such of eastern rites, are led by the Latin Patriarch and other Church leaders in accompanying the statue on its way.^[4]

See also[edit]

• Cave of Elijah
• Monastery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel for nuns, also in Haifa, on Mount Carmel
• Shmuel Oswald Rufeisen (1922–1998), Jewish convert to Christianity, Carmelite friar at Stella Maris, who was refused Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return

Gallery[edit]

• 
  Sea view near the monastery
 
• 
  Church interior with high altar
 
• 
  Stella Maris Church dome.
 
• 
  Stella Maris Madonna statue and lighthouse in a background
 
• 
  A pre-1948 celebration of the Feast of St. Elias, on 20 July, around Madonna statue
 
• 
  1913 postcard showing the altar inside the grotto of Elijah
 
• 
  Statue of St Elias/Prophet Elijah on the altar of the cave inside the church
 
• 
  Stained glass window depicting prophet Elijah
 
• 
  Panel inside the church: Mariam Baouardy
 
• 
  Panel inside the church: Edith Stein, The Science of the Cross
 
• 
  Panel inside the church: John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel
 
• 
  Panel inside the church: Teresa of Ávila, The Interior Castle

Midnight in Paris is a 2011 fantasy comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. Set in Paris, the film follows Gil Pender (Owen Wilson), a screenwriter and aspiring novelist, who is forced to confront the shortcomings of his relationship with his materialistic fiancée (Rachel McAdams) and their divergent goals, which become increasingly exaggerated as he travels back in time to the 1920s each night at midnight.^[3]

Produced by the Spanish group Mediapro and Allen's US-based Gravier Productions, the film stars Wilson, McAdams, Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody, Carla Bruni, Tom Hiddleston, Marion Cotillard, and Michael Sheen. It premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and was released in the United States on May 20, 2011.^[3][4] The film opened to critical acclaim. In 2012, it won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay. It was nominated for three other Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Art Direction.^[5]

In 2010, disillusioned screenwriter Gil Pender and his fiancée, Inez, vacation in Paris with Inez's wealthy parents. Gil, struggling to finish his debut novel about a man who works in a nostalgia shop, finds himself drawn to the artistic history of Paris, especially the Lost Generation of the 1920s, and has ambitions to move there, which Inez dismisses. By chance, they meet Inez's friend, Paul, and his wife, Carol. Paul speaks with great authority but questionable accuracy on French history, annoying Gil but impressing Inez.

Intoxicated after a night of wine tasting, Gil decides to walk back to their hotel, while Inez goes with Paul and Carol by taxi. At midnight, a 1920s car pulls up beside Gil and delivers him to a party for Jean Cocteau, attended by other people of the 1920s Paris art scene. Zelda Fitzgerald, bored, encourages her husband Scott and Gil to leave with her. They head to a cafe where they run into Ernest Hemingway and Juan Belmonte. After Zelda and Scott leave, Gil and Hemingway discuss writing, and Hemingway offers to show Gil's novel to Gertrude Stein. As Gil leaves to fetch his manuscript, he returns to 2010; the cafe is now a laundromat.

The next night, Gil tries to repeat the experience with Inez, but she leaves before midnight. Returning to the 1920s, Gil accompanies Hemingway to visit Gertrude Stein, who critiques Pablo Picasso's new painting of his lover Adriana. Gil becomes drawn to Adriana, a costume designer who also had affairs with Amedeo Modigliani and Georges Braque. Having heard the first line of Gil's novel, Adriana praises it and admits she has always longed for the past.

Gil continues to time travel the following nights. Inez grows jaded with Paris and Gil's constant disappearing, while her father grows suspicious and hires a private detective to follow him. Adriana leaves Picasso and continues to bond with Gil, who is conflicted by his attraction to her. Gil explains his situation to Salvador Dalí, Man Ray, and Luis Buñuel; as surrealists, they do not question his claim of coming from the future. Gil later suggests the plot of "The Exterminating Angel" to Buñuel.

While Inez and her parents travel to Mont Saint Michel, Gil meets Gabrielle, an antique dealer and fellow admirer of the Lost Generation. He later finds Adriana's diary at a book stall, which reveals that she was in love with Gil and dreamed of being gifted earrings before making love to him. To seduce Adriana, Gil tries to steal a pair of Inez's earrings but is thwarted by her early return to the hotel room.

Gil buys new earrings and returns to the past. After he gives Adriana the earrings, a horse-drawn carriage arrives, transporting them to the Belle Époque, an era Adriana considers Paris's Golden Age, they go to the Moulin Rouge where they meet Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, and Edgar Degas, who all agree that Paris's best era was the Renaissance. Adriana is offered a job designing ballet costumes; thrilled, she proposes to Gil that they stay, but he, observing the unhappiness of Adriana and the other artists, realizes that chasing nostalgia is fruitless because the present is always "a little unsatisfying." Adriana decides to stay, and they part ways.

Gil rewrites the first two chapters of his novel. He retrieves his draft from Stein, who praises his rewrite. Still, he says that on reading the new chapters, Hemingway does not believe that the protagonist does not realize that his fiancée, based on Inez, is having an affair with the character based on Paul. Gil returns to 2010 and confronts Inez, who admits to sleeping with Paul but disregards it as a meaningless fling. Gil breaks up with her and decides to move to Paris. The detective following him takes a "wrong turn" and ends up being chased by the palace guards of Louis XVI just before a revolution breaks out. While walking by the Seine at midnight, Gil encounters Gabrielle. As it begins to rain, he offers to walk her home and learns that they share a love for Paris in the rain.

Main cast