Seven sanctuaries of Archangel Michael sit on one line from Ireland to Israel. The sun climbs that line like a ladder, and each step is one of the seven heavens.
Start on Skellig Michael, a rock off the coast of Ireland, and hold one compass bearing for 2,600 miles. You cross St Michael's Mount, Mont Saint-Michel, the Sacra di San Michele, Monte Sant'Angelo and the monastery of Michael on Symi, and you land on Mount Carmel in Israel.
Documented RecordMeasured from the coordinates of the seven sites, no sanctuary sits more than 21 kilometers off a line 4,255 kilometers long. The bearing is 299.6 degrees, which is 60 degrees off north, the angle of the hexagon.
TraditionThe monks said the line is the cut Michael made when he threw the dragon out of heaven in Revelation 12:7.
Who is like God?
A cave in Italy in 490, a tidal rock in France in 708, a mountain peak in the Alps in 983. Different centuries, different kingdoms and different builders put them on the same line.
At each sanctuary the sun sets straight down the line on a different day of the year. At Skellig it is May 10. At Mont Saint-Michel it is May 15, at Monte Sant'Angelo May 28, and at Symi it is June 21, the summer solstice.
Documented RecordEvery step east, the date moves closer to the longest day. At Mount Carmel, the seventh step, the sun never reaches the line at all. It stops one degree short.
Engineering InferenceMichael has two feasts, May 8 in the West and November 8 in the East, six months apart. In 708, the year Mont Saint-Michel was founded, the calendar ran four days behind the sun, so May 8 fell on the sun's May 12, the day the sun sets down the line at the Irish and Cornish end. On November 8 of that calendar the sun rose along the line at Skellig.
The Talmud, in Hagigah 12b, names seven heavens stacked one on top of the other. Lay them over the seven steps of light, from Ireland up to Israel, and the first, the fourth and the seventh land where the text says they should.
Documented RecordIt comes in each morning and goes out each evening, and it renews the work of creation every day.
Engineering InferenceThe western edge of the line, the last rock before the open ocean, where the sun goes down.
Documented RecordThe sun, the moon, the stars and the constellations are set here.
Engineering InferenceA tidal island. Twice a day the moon opens the road to it and closes it again.
Documented RecordHere stand the mills that grind manna for the righteous.
Engineering InferenceThe great pilgrim rock of the West, where the hungry walked across the sand to be fed.
Documented RecordThe heavenly Jerusalem and its temple, with an altar built in it, and Michael the great prince stands and makes the offering on it.
Engineering InferenceThe fourth sanctuary, the middle step of his own line, is the heaven where Michael stands.
Documented RecordCompanies of ministering angels who sing by night and are silent by day.
Engineering InferenceThe cave of the angel, the oldest of the seven, where the liturgy has been sung in the dark for 1,500 years.
Documented RecordThe storehouses of snow and hail, the chamber of the whirlwind and the storm. In 2 Enoch the sixth heaven holds the angels who rule the seasons and the years.
Engineering InferenceThe step where the line meets the solstice, the day the seasons turn.
Documented RecordRighteousness, the treasures of life and peace, the souls of the righteous, the dew that raises the dead, and the Throne of Glory.
Engineering InferenceThe one step the sun cannot reach, on the mountain where fire comes down from heaven.
The fourth heaven is where Michael stands. The fourth step is the middle of his line.
From Mont Saint-Michel to the Sacra is 779 kilometers. From the Sacra to Monte Sant'Angelo is 791. From Symi to Carmel is 771. Each one is 7 degrees of the Earth.
Documented RecordThe long gap, from Monte Sant'Angelo to Symi, is one and a half steps. One full step from Monte Sant'Angelo lands on Athens, 782 kilometers away. The story that the sanctuaries stand 1,000 kilometers apart is wrong. The number is 780.
The summer solstice sun sets at a different point on the horizon at every latitude. It sets along the bearing of this line at exactly one, 36.34 degrees north.
Documented RecordAncient Kamiros on Rhodes sits at 36.34 degrees north, half a kilometer from the line. Rhodes was the island of Helios, the sun god, the island of the Colossus. Symi is the next island over.
Engineering InferenceApollo, the Greek god of light, kills a dragon named Python at Delphi. Delphi, Athens and Delos, his birthplace, all sit within 28 kilometers of the same line. Michael's dragon-slayer shrines stand on it in the West and Apollo's stand on it in the East.
The line is only straight on a flat map. On the globe, a path that holds one compass bearing curls. Carry it past Ireland and it crosses the Atlantic, Greenland and Arctic Canada, then winds around the North Pole, closing in on it without ever arriving.
In Perugia there is a round church of San Michele Arcangelo from the 5th or 6th century. It sits one kilometer from the line, and it is on none of the lists of seven.
His name is a question. Seven rocks are asking it.
Distances and bearings are computed from the coordinates of each sanctuary, good to about a kilometer. The line is a constant compass bearing fitted through all seven. Sunset dates assume a flat sea horizon and can move a day or two with the local skyline. The heavens laid over the steps are a reading of the pattern, marked Engineering Inference.
Documented Record Stated in the source text, or measured from the coordinates. Tradition Handed down in the sanctuary's own founding story. Engineering Inference A connection drawn across sources.