Unexpected Magic

The sword in the stone: Here's a 12th century relic from the Abbey of San Galgano. In 1180 Galgano Guidotti decided to renouce violence and warfare and thrust his sword into the rock as sign of his conversion to a life of peace and piety.

"According to legend, while on the road near Siena, Galgano's horse threw him into the dust. An invisible angel, the archangel Saint Michael, lifted him to his feet and led him to Monte Siepi, a rugged hill close to his home town of Chiusdino."

"In a vision, he saw a round temple on the hill, with Jesus and Mary surrounded by the Apostles. The angel urged him to repent his sins, but Galgano protested that he could no more do this than to split a rock with a sword. To prove his point, he drew his blade and thrust at the stony ground, but the sword slid easily into the living rock, where it remains stuck fast to this day."

"Galgano settled on the hill as a poor hermit. He befriended wild animals, and once, when the Devil sent a wicked monk to kill him, the wild wolves brought down the killer and gnawed his bones. Galgano  died in 1181 aged 33 years."

"In 1960, the sword was broken in an attempted theft. It was repaired and fixed in place with cement."

"An analysis of the protruding metal handle done in 2001 by Luigi Garlaschelli confirmed that the "composition of the metal and the style are compatible with the era of the legend". The analysis also confirmed that the upper piece and the invisible lower one are authentic and belong to one and the same artifact."

So this is all almost perfectly normal, though despite that I still like to think there are little bits of unexpected magic and mystery out there in the wider world that nobody can quite explain. Fuck your maths and science ... well sometimes.