The two chapels already built by the duke were too small for celebrating
the divine service with suitable pomp. There was hardly room enough in
them for the sisterhood. The crowds from the neighboring villages were
often obliged to kneel outside. A larger church was indispensable. Adalric
provided the materials, and it was completed by the year 690. Two square
towers of pyramidal form rose beside the grand entrance. The abbess had it
consecrated to the Blessed Virgin, her chosen patroness and her model. One
of the side chapels she styled the Oratory of the Mother of God. There she
loved to take refuge in her mental troubles, in tribulation, and in
seasons of spiritual dryness. A second chapel she called Holy Rood Chapel.
In commemoration of her baptism she wished also to erect a small church in
honor of S. John the Baptist. Undecided about the location, she went out
of the monastery one night about midnight, and, kneeling on a great rock,
she remained a long time buried in profound meditation. Suddenly, says the
old legend, she was surrounded by a dazzling light, and before her stood
the radiant form of the precursor of our Lord in a garment of camel’s
hair, such as he wore in the desert. He seemed to indicate the spot where
the chapel should be erected. The next day it was commenced, and was
finished in the autumn of 696. The night before it was to be consecrated
S. Odile spent in prayer therein. The prince of the apostles himself, with
a choir of angels, descended and performed the ceremony.
“The air of paradise did fan the house,
And angels officed all.”
This miraculous chapel was sometimes called the _Sacrarium_, because the
abbess deposited in it the _cassette_ of relics Bishop Erhard gave her on
her baptismal day. It was afterwards more commonly called the Chapel of S.
Odile, because she was buried there herself. Besides these, she built the
Chapel of Tears and the Hanging Chapel, so called because it stood on a
steep precipice looking down into a deep chasm. All these chapels were so
many stations where the abbess and her companions betook themselves to
meditate in silence and solitude.
Adalric and Berswinde, weary of power and grandeur, retired to the Convent
of Hohenbourg with their daughter. Advanced in age, they now thought only
of preparing themselves for death by prayer and good works. The duke,
naturally violent and hard, had sometimes in his moments of passion
forgotten his duty. There were many faults for him to expiate before God,
and many scandals to repair before men. While he was practising all the
virtues of a holy penitent, he was attacked with a serious malady. Odile
felt that his last hour was at hand, and hardly left his bedside, wishing,
not only to give him the care his illness required, but to console,
encourage, and prepare him for a holy death. Contemporary testimony
expressly declares: “_Consolante eum et roborante beata Odilia_.” She
received his last breath and closed his eyes on the 20th of February. The
year is variously stated. It was between 690 and 700.
A witness of her father’s sorrow for his sins, and of his resignation in
his last moments, Odile hoped the mercy of God would be extended to him.
She imposed on herself the severest mortifications, and shed floods of
tears for the solace of his soul in the chapel, called from this
circumstance the Chapel of Tears. On the fifth day she had an inward
assurance of his salvation.
There are numberless traditions in Alsace respecting S. Odile. They have
been handed down from one generation to another in the villages grouped
around the foot of Mount Hohenbourg. One of these legends changes the
tears of the saint into a limpid stream, where the blind, or those who
have any disease of the eyes, go for a remedy. Another says her tears
perforated a rock. A third makes her and all her community behold her
father convoyed heavenward by a choir of angels led by S. Peter in
sacerdotal robes. The more we examine S. Odile’s life, the more numerous
become these brilliant legends, and the more fully do we find her life
marked by acts of beneficence and by miracles.
Berswinde survived her husband only nine days. She died suddenly while
praying in the Chapel of S. John.
The descendants of the duke and duchess assembled at Hohenbourg to deplore
their double loss. A magnificent funeral service was performed. All the
people of Alsace flocked to the convent to weep over their death. One
would have thought they had lost dear parents, say the chronicles. The
duke’s sons gave abundant alms on this occasion. The remains of the
deceased were placed in the Chapel of the Virgin, according to their
request, and thither came pilgrims to pray by their tomb till they were
removed.
Adalric, notwithstanding his generosity to the church, left immense
domains to his children. His oldest son, Etton, or Etichon, became Duke of
Brisgau and Count of Argovie. He was the progenitor of the houses of
Egisheim and Lorraine. The second son, Adelbert, had the duchies of
Alsace, Swabia, and Sundgau. From him sprang the houses of Habsburg and
Zähringen. Hugo, the third son, died before his father, but left three
sons. The oldest, Remigius, was Abbot of S. Gregory in the Val de Münster,
and finally Bishop of Strasbourg. He was a great friend of Charlemagne’s,
and built the celebrated nunnery of Eschau,(67) where two of his nieces
were successively abbesses.
After the death of her parents, Odile kept up most intimate relations with
the rest of her family. She saw them frequently, and labored for their
sanctification. Following her counsels, they founded a great number of
convents and churches, which, in that barbarous age, became the refuge of
science, literature, and the arts, and for centuries contributed
powerfully to the prosperity of Alsace.