THE COAT OF ARMS OF ST. MIHIEL
Three rocks argent on an azure field, two in chief, and one in pile.
In the first, surmounted by a stone cross, a grotto has been hollowed out containing a tomb in which lies a great stone Christ. A staircase in the rock gives easy access to it.
This calvary is a place of pilgrimage on Good Friday. The sixth rock, worn away by water, resembles a gigantic mushroom and is called the “Devil’s Table.”
These rocks are represented in the St. Mihiel coat of arms, which is: “Three rocks argent on an azure field, two in chief and one in pile.”
Across the intervening wooded slopes are seen the large buildings of the old Benedictine Abbey of St. Michel, of which the name St. Mihiel is a corruption.
Founded in 709 on a site known to-day as St. Christopher’s Farm, in Vieux-Moutier Wood, it was transferred in 819 to the village of Godinécourt, which then took the name of St. Michel or St. Mihiel. It was closed in 1791.
A romanesque tower, dating from about 1060, dominates the abbey.
