Saint Odo (Eudes) of Cluny

After such an astonishing recovery, he retired t o Tou Tours Place of retirement for Clotilde near the tomb of Saint Martin. rs and dedicated himself to the service of God in the church of Saint-Martin. But Fulk, Count of Anjou, having built him a hermitage a league from the city and having founded a canonry in the collegiate church of Saint-Martin to provide for his subsistence, he chose his dwelling in that place and applied himself entirely to prayer and study, to make himself more worthy of fulfilling the priestly ministry; he did not, however, fail to visit the tomb of Saint Martin every night, notwithstanding a thousand snares that the devil set for him to turn him away from this devotion. Many people also visited him in this desert: some out of curiosity, others to benefit from his instructions; but no one left without being touched by his words, and they all confessed that they had an unction that filled the heart with a truly divine sweetness. His austerity was very great: bread and beans or some very coarse vegetables in small quantities made up all his food. He had no other bed than a mat spread on the floor. He did not at first deprive himself of the reading of profane authors, and he even took a singular pleasure in reading Virgil; but Our Lord soon made him quit this vain occupation to devote himself only to the reading of the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers of the Church, by showing him in a dream an antique vase, of admirable beauty, but filled with a multitude of serpents. The Saint understood the heavenly warning and read no more pagan books. He made a journey to Paris (901), where he became a listener and disciple of a learned religious named Remigius, who was publicly explaining some books of Saint Augustine. Upon his return, the canons of Saint-Martin, his confreres, urgently begged him to make them an abridgment of the Morals of Saint Gregory; he refused it for a lon g time with firmness, not believing abrégé des Morales de saint Grégoire An abridgment of the work of Gregory the Great compiled by Odo. himself capable of touching the works of such a great doctor. But he appeared to him himself in the church of Saint-Martin where he was praying, and placed a pen in his hands, to let him know that the will of God and his own were that he should yield to the prayers of these pious ecclesiastics: which he did with great success.

The state he had embraced was extremely praiseworthy; but Our Lord, destining him for an even higher state, inspired him to enter the monastery of Baume, in the diocese of Besançon. Saint Ber no, who was Saint Bernon First abbot of Cluny and mentor to Odo at Baume. its abbot, gave him the habit in 909. He was assigned to the instruction of the novices and the guidance of the boarders, because he was a man of letters and had brought with him one hundred volumes, which the desire for knowledge had made him prefer to all the riches of the earth. This blessed teacher discharged this duty with incomparable zeal and prudence, for, while instructing his disciples and training them in human letters, he instilled in their hearts a contempt for worldly things, a love for regular observance, and an ardent desire to please Jesus Christ alone. He was not content with the unction of his words for this; but he also employed the strength of his examples, making himself, notwithstanding his studies, the most exact observer of all the community's regulations.

It will suffice, to judge of his exactitude, to report the following action, which, although seemingly insignificant, was nonetheless approved by God through a great miracle. It was an ordinance of this monastery that everyone, at the time of the meal, should collect the breadcrumbs they had made and eat them before the end of the reading, as it was not permitted to let them go to waste or to eat them after the reading was finished. It happened one day that Odo, already having these crumbs in his hand and being ready to put them into his mouth, the abbot gave the sign and commanded the reader to stop. The servant of God was very troubled as to what he should do with these crumbs, as it was equally against obedience to leave them on the table or to eat them. He therefore kept them in his hand, and, after his thanksgiving, he prostrated himself before his abbot and humbly acknowledged his fault in this transgression. The abbot, not fully understanding what he meant, made him open his hand; and then these crumbs were found to be changed into a kind of precious pearl, which were thereafter used as ornaments for the church.

Odo, having obtained permission to travel to his homeland to work for the sanctification of his father and mother, moved them so deeply with the desire for greater perfection that, despite their advanced age, they renounced the world and entered a monastery, where they ended their days in holiness. Upon his return, his abbot presented him to Turpin, Bishop of Limoges, to be ordained a priest. He was so far from desiring such a great honor that he was consecrated almost against his will (926).

After the death of Saint Berno (927), who governed six monasteries, three were entrusted to the guidance of Saint Odo; these were the monasteries of Clun y (ne Cluny Benedictine abbey in Burgundy, center of the Cluniac reform. wly founded in the year 910, five leagues from Mâcon, on the Grosne), Massay (near Vierzon, today in the Cher department), and Déols of Bourg-Dieu (near Château-Raoul, today Châteauroux, the chief town of the Indre department); he established himself at Cluny, which many call him the founder of because he organized and expanded this nascent house. His reputation alone attracted a crowd of monks there. There was indeed already an oratory at Cluny dedicated to the Virgin Mary; but it was no longer sufficient. Odo had a new church built, dedicated to Saint Peter, and known thereafter as Saint-Pierre-le-Vieux. This congregation, which had begun with twelve monks, according to the commandment of Saint Benedict, and fifteen farms, no longer had enough buildings to house them: our Saint had new dwellings built. The simplicity of these monastic origins shines through in the very ceremony of the dedication of the new church. Odo had invited all the surrounding bishops and other important figures. But, having no provisions, he was very anxious about how to properly treat his guests, when a wild boar offered itself to the people of the house and served to feast the abbot's company.

Odo's virtues did not falter during the course of his monastic governance. He gave everything to the poor, without worrying about the morrow. Children were especially the object of his particular predilection. At that time, schools had taken refuge in cathedrals and monasteries. The Abbot of Cluny watched over the morals, studies, and sleep of these dear children with paternal care and a mother's gentleness. The sons of kings, in the palace of their fathers, the chronicle says, could not have been raised with more care, tenderness, and modesty. Odo himself directed the studies and instructed the children and the monks. The Rule of Saint Benedict was followed with zeal. Fasting, abstinence, pious chants, multiplied offices, almost absolute silence, and work filled the days of the Brothers. The remains of the bread and wine distributed in the refectory were given to poor pilgrims. Furthermore, eighteen poor people were fed daily, and charity was so abundant, especially during Lent, that at one of these times of the year, food was distributed to more than seven thousand indigent people.

Silence was so religiously observed in the monastery that the Brothers had become accustomed to speaking by signs, and two monks, Archimbald and Adalise, taken prisoner by the Normans who were ravaging Poitiers and Tours, keeping the severity of the Rule amidst blows and wounds, preferred to remain silent and risk further irritating the cruel victor by the stubbornness of their silence. Even the rigors of the eremitic life were not unknown to them; and in separate cells, scattered far and wide in the woods surrounding Cluny, lived a great number of anchorites drawn by the proximity of Odo's holiness. They imitated, in the West, the Stylites and all the austerities of the Eastern solitaries.

Odo's vigilance extended beyond Cluny. Three times he visited Rome, where he was called by Popes Le o VII an Léon VII Pope who summoned Odo to Rome. d St ephen VIII. Etienne VIII Pope who requested the intervention of Odo. In that capital, he reformed the monastery of Saint-Paul-outside-the-Walls, later that of Saint-Augustine of Pavia, and several others. He also submitted to the discipline of Cluny the abbeys of Tulle in Limousin, Aurillac in Auvergne, Bourg-Dieu and Massay in Berry, Fleury (Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire) in the Orléanais, Saint-Pierre-le-Vif in Sens, Saint-Allyre in Clermont, and

Saint-Julien in Tours, Sarlat in Périgord, Romainmôtier in the Vaud region, and others still.

He attached to his abbey, under his abbatial authority and as so many dependencies, the new communities he established and those whose observance he managed to reform. No individual abbots, but only priors for all these monasteries: the Abbot of Cluny alone governed them: unity of regime, of statutes, of regulations, of discipline. It was an aggr unité de régime Network of monasteries centralized under the authority of the Abbot of Cluny. egation of monasteries around a single one, which thus became their metropolis and head. This system was soon understood and adopted by others, and notably by Cîteaux, founded towards the end of the following century.

Everything about this great Saint had astonishing proportions: his influence, his good works, his energy; in Rome, he reconciled Hugh, King of Italy, Hugues, roi d'Italie King of Italy reconciled with Alberic by Odo. with A lberic, Patrician of Rom Albéric, patrice de Rome Ruler of Rome reconciled with King Hugh. e, who were waging a cruel war against each other: Hugh gave his daughter in marriage to Alberic.

Driven by this divine prestige, a young bride, already covered in her wedding garments, threw herself at the feet of the Abbot of Cluny and vowed herself to the cloister on the spot. In his travels, so difficult and perilous at that time, he thought only of helping his neighbor. He would dismount from his horse to let the destitute and the elderly ride in his place. In the Cottian Alps, he was seen carrying the bag of a poor woman himself. And yet, despite so much fatigue, when on his last trip to Rome he walked with his young disciples, Odo outpaced them all with the speed of his stride, they being astonished that after so many austerities and labors, he still possessed, at sixty-seven years of age, so much strength and agility.

While he was at the convent of Saint Paul in Rome, Abbot Baldwin begged him to make corrections and observations to the book of the Dialogues on the Life of Saint Martin, composed by Sulpicius Severus. He acquiesced to his prayer and first gave the volume to another religious to correct. While he was working on it, the evening office was rung, and, at that very instant, to obey the Rule, which orders that one must leave everything, even a letter begun, to go to the choir, our Saint, as well as the one who was correcting under him, left the book open in the workspace to go where the bell called them. It was winter, and it rained all night in such abundance that the place where this book was became completely flooded. However, it was only wet around the margins, and not a single letter was found damaged. They wished to attribute this wonder to him; but he referred all the glory to the glorious Saint Martin, whose life was written in this volume.

Odo's providential task was completed; he had earned the name of restorer of monastic discipline; "from Benevento to the Atlantic Ocean, the most important monasteries of Italy and Gaul rejoiced to be subject to his command." A serious illness warned him that the hour of reward was approaching; he prayed to Saint Martin to obtain from God the power to visit his sepulcher once more. His prayer was answered: he recovered, set out on his way, and after fatigues almost unbearable for an infirm old man, he arrived in Tours for the feast of that glorious Prelate. He celebrated it with a wonderful fervor and tenderness. He said Mass there in the state of a victim ready to be immolated by divine justice. He spoke there of the merits and virtues of that heavenly man, who made himself the admiration of the whole Church. After three days, he fell ill again according to his expectation and desire. It was then nothing but a continuous prayer, accompanied by a torrent of tears, a pure and fervent offering of his life to the divine Majesty, and an inexplicable ardor to leave the earth to go and enjoy the presence of his God. He received the Holy Eucharist in this excellent disposition and after having exhorted the religious who had flocked from all parts to see him to observance, and having given them his blessing, he rendered his soul to God in the hands of Theotolon, Archbishop of Tours, his disciple and friend.

He has been represented: 1st, assailed by a troop of wolves, at the instigation of the demon: the Saint puts them to flight by a sign of the cross; 2nd, holding an open book on which is written: *Statuta Cluniacensis*; a crozier is in his hand. He looks at Saint Martin of Tours and Saint Benedict who appear to him in the sky; 3rd, standing, without any particular attribute; 4th, also standing, holding two fish.

## CULT AND RELICS. — WRITINGS.

Saint Odo was buried in Tours, in the church of Saint-Julien. In the 15th century, Jean, Archbishop of Tours, translated his relics, which were placed in a new reliquary. His head was transported to L'Isle-Jourdain, a town in the diocese of Auch, where it is still kept today. As for the rest of his relics, they were largely burned by the Huguenots. His cult was established shortly after his death, and his feast day held the same rank as those of the Apostles and Saint Martin.

We still preserve today a part of the miraculous crucifix of Sai nt Odo, of which we shall provide crucifix miraculeux de saint Odon Image of Christ that bowed before the saint in Autun. the history: one day, while prostrated before the crucifix placed in the middle of the church, the man of God, in a holy rapture, held his hands extended and his eyes raised toward heaven; several monks who had remained there to witness his prayer saw him rise above the ground to a height of about three cubits, and remain thus for an hour, motionless, suspended in space by an invisible force, his face radiating a superhuman joy, which seemed produced by an enchanted and divine object placed outside the earthly sphere. At the same moment, the image of Christ bowed deeply toward Odo. "This miraculous crucifix," say the manuscripts of Saint-Martin of Autun, "is of a stone as hard as marble. The cross is of wood, and above the head of Christ, a hand emerging from the cloud holds a suspended crown of precious stones. It has been noted that since the moment the miraculous crucifix bowed toward Saint Odo, the posture of Christ is that of an animated body, although the divine Savior is represented with his side open." This august image never ceased to attract a great concourse of the faithful to Saint-Martin of Autun until the destruction of the abbey; numerous miracles granted to their prayers justified their faith and rewarded their trust. During the 17th century, several Popes consecutively granted a plenary indulgence, for seven years, to all priests of the monastery who would say Mass at the altar of the Crucifix of Saint Odo, on the eve and during the week of the Dead. Mutilated by the Calvinists, this crucifix was repaired in 1640. In 1664, it was reproduced on canvas, and the painting was placed in the cathedral of Autun, in the chapel known as the Grand-Crucifix. The collegiate church of Beaune wished to have a copy, and soon after, thousands of engravings were made of it. The crucifix remained in the church of Saint-Martin until about the year 1795, at which time it was transformed into a gun-carriage factory; the church was then devastated, and at the moment when they wanted to remove the crucifix from its altar, the stone Christ detached itself from the cross, the wood of which was worm-eaten, and broke upon falling to the ground. It is today exposed for public veneration in the church of Saint-Pantaléon, recently built under the name of Saint-Symphorien; one also sees, in the chapel dedicated to the holy crucifix, the old painting from the cathedral chapel, which represents the crucifix and has been replaced by another painted on a gold background strewn with crosses and also representing the miraculous crucifix.

Saint Odo composed *Hymns* and *Antiphons* in honor of Saint Martin, and they were adopted throughout Gaul in a short time; an abridgment of the *Morals* of Saint Gregory on Job, *Collations* or Conferences on the dignity of the priesthood, in which one notes a profound knowledge of Scripture and moral theology; the *Life of Saint Gerald*, Count of Aurillac; *Sermons* or homilies which earned him the reputation of the foremost preacher of his time; *Hymns* in honor of Saint Mary Magdalene; a poem in four cantos entitled *Occupations*; a *Commentary* on the books of Kings, and a *Treatise* in the form of a dialogue on music; for to all his other titles to fame, Saint Odo added that of being the most learned musician of the 10th century. He also composed a great number of other works long since lost.

To supplement Father Oiry, we have made use of the *History of the Abbey of Cluny*, by M. Lorain; the History of the Church of Le Mans, by the Rev. Fr. Dom Paul Piolin, Benedictine of the Congregation of France; the Lives of the Saints of Franche-Comté, by the professors of the Saint-François-Xavier College of Bourges; the History of Saint Symphorian, by the Abbé Dinot.