(A.D. 1049.)
[Roman and Benedictine Martyrologies. Two lives of S. Odilo are
extant, one written by Jotsald, a monk, who had lived under his
rule, and who wrote it for Stephen, the nephew of the Saint. The
other, a very inferior life, by S. Peter Damian. Both are printed
in the Bollandists, but the first is from an imperfect MS. It was
printed entire by Mabillon, Acta SS. O. S. B.]
Odilo belonged to the family of Mercoeur, one of the most illustrious of
Auvergne. Jotsald says:--"In the beginning of the account of his virtues
I must relate what happened to him as a boy. And lest it be thought
incredible, I mention that I heard it from those to whom he was wont to
narrate the circumstance. When he was quite a little boy in his
father's house, before he was sent to school, he was destitute of almost
all power in his limbs, so that he could not walk or move himself
without help. It happened that one day his father's family were moving
to another place, and a nurse was given charge of him to carry him. On
her way, she put the little boy down with her bundles before the door of
a church, dedicated to the Mother of God, as she and the rest were
obliged to go into some adjacent houses to procure food. As they were
some while absent, the boy finding himself left alone, impelled by
divine inspirations, began to try to get to the door and enter the
Church of the Mother of God. By some means, crawling on hands and knees,
he reached it, and entered the church, and went to the altar, and caught
the altar vestment with his hands; then, with all his power, stretching
his hands on high, he tried to rise, but was unable to do so, his joints
having been so long ill-united. Nevertheless, divine power conquered,
strengthening and repairing the feeble limbs of the boy. Thus, by the
intervention of the Mother of God, he rose, and stood upon his feet
whole, and ran here and there about the altar. The servants returning to
fetch their bundles, and not finding the child, were much surprised, and
looked in all directions, and not seeing him, became greatly alarmed.
However, by chance, entering the church, they saw him rambling and
running about it; then they recognised the power of God, and joyously
took the boy in their arms, and went to their destination, and gave him,
completely whole, to his parents, with great gladness."
As a child, he showed singular simplicity, modesty, and piety. "Thus
passed his childish years, and as the strength of youth began to succeed
to boyhood, he silently meditated how to desert the flesh-pots of Egypt,
and to strive to enter the Land of Promise, through the trials of the
world. O good Jesu! how sweet is Thy call! how sweet the inspiration of
Thy Spirit, which as soon as Thou strikest on the heart, turns the fire
of the Babylonish furnace into love of the celestial country. So! as
soon as thou strikest the heart of the youth, thou changest it." Whilst
he was thus meditating, S. Majolus passed through Auvergne, and Odilo
came to him; then the old man, looking on the graceful form and comely
face of the youth, and by the instinct of the Saints seeing into his
soul, he loved him greatly; also the youthful Odilo felt a great
affection for the aged monk. And when they spoke to one another, Odilo
opened his heart to Majolus, and the venerable man encouraged the youth
to persevere in his good intentions.
Shortly after, Odilo left his home, "as Abraham of old went forth out of
Ur of the Chaldees, and sought admittance into the abbey of Cluny, as
into the Promised Land. O good Jesu! how pleasant it was to see this
sheep shorn of its worldly fleece, again ascend as from the baptismal
font! Then, wearing our habit, you might have seen our sheep amongst the
others of His flock, first in work, last in place, seeking the pastures
of eternal verdure; attending to the lamps, sweeping the floors, and
doing other common offices. But the pearl could not remain long
concealed. After four years, S. Majolus, after many hard labours borne
for Christ, went out of the darkness of Egypt, entered Jerusalem, and
was placed in eternal peace by Christ. As death approached, he chose
Odilo to be his successor, and to him and to the Lord, he committed his
flock." But S. Odilo shrank from the position for which his youth, as he
considered, disqualified him; however, he was elected by the whole
community, and was therefore unable to refuse the office wherewith he
was invested by the vote of the brethren, and the desire of the late
abbot.
His disciple, Jotsald, gives a very beautiful picture of his master. He
describes him as being of middle stature, with a face beaming with
grace, and full of authority; very emaciated and pale; his eyes bright
and piercing, and often shedding tears of compunction. Every motion of
his body was grave and dignified; his voice was manly, and modulated to
the greatest sweetness, his speech straightforward and without
affectation or artificiality.
His disciple says that he would recite psalms as he lay on his bed, and
falling asleep, his lips would still continue the familiar words, so
that the brethren applied to him the words of the bride, "I sleep but my
heart waketh," _Ego dormio et cor meum vigilat_. He read diligently, and
nothing gave him greater delight than study. His consideration for
others was very marked. "He was burdensome to none, to none importunate,
desirous of no honour, he sought not to get what belonged to others, nor
to keep what was his own." His charity was most abundant; often the
brethren feared that it exceeded what was reasonable, but they found
that though he gave largely, he did not waste the revenues of the
monastery. Once, in time of famine, he was riding along a road, when he
lit on the naked bodies of two poor boys who had died of hunger. Odilo
burst into tears, and descending from his horse, drew off his woollen
under garment and wrapping the bodies in it, carefully buried them. In
this famine he sold the costly vessels of the Sanctuary, and despoiled
the Church of its gold and silver ornaments, that he might feed the
starving people. Amongst the objects thus parted with was the crown of
gold presented to the abbey by Henry, King of the Romans. He accompanied
this Prince in his journey to Rome, when he was crowned emperor, in
1014. This was his second journey thither; he made a third in 1017, and
a fourth in 1022. Out of devotion to S. Benedict, he paid a visit to
Monte Cassino, where he kissed the feet of all the monks, at his own
request, which was granted him with great reluctance.
"The convocation of the brethren was regularly held by him till he was
at the point of death. O how joyous he was in the midst of them, as
standing in the midst of the choir, and looking to right and left he saw
the ring of young plantings, and remembered the verse of David's song,
'Thy children shall be as the olive branches round about thy table.'
_Filii tui sicut novellae olivarum, in circuitu mensae tuae._ And the more
the number of brothers increased, the more he exhibited his joy of heart
by signs. And when some seemed distressed thereat, he was wont to say,
'Grieve not that the flock has become great, my brothers, He who has
called us in, He governs, and will provide.'"
Fulbert, Bishop of Chartres, called him the archangel of monks; and the
name, says his disciple, became him well. S. Odilo, out of his great
compassion for the souls of the dead expiating the penalty of their sins
in purgatory, instituted the commemoration of All Souls for the morrow
of All Saints, in the Cluniac order, which was afterwards adopted by the
whole Catholic Church in the West. Many incidents of his travels, and
miracles that he wrought, are related by his pupil. As he was riding
over the Jura mountains, in snowy weather, the horse carrying his
luggage fell, and was precipitated into the valley, and all the baggage
was scattered in the snow-drifts. With much trouble, the horse and much
of the baggage were recovered, but a valuable Sacramentary, inscribed
with gilt letters, and some glass vessels, with embossed work, were
lost. That evening, Odilo and his monks arrived at a cell, under the
jurisdiction of S. Eugendus, and being much troubled at his loss, as
much rain fell in the night, S. Odilo sent some of the brethren early
next morning to search for the lost treasures. But the snow-drifts were
so deep that they could not find them, and he was obliged to leave
without them. However, as the spring came round, a certain priest, named
Ermendran, was walking in the glen, and he found the book uninjured,
and the glass goblets unbroken. He brought them to the cell, and on the
return of Odilo to the Jura, he received his lost treasures intact.
Another story of a glass vessel comes on good authority. The
circumstances were related by Albert, Bishop of Como, in these words,
"Once our Abbot and Superior came to the court of the Emperor Henry, and
whilst there, it happened one day that at table a goblet of glass, of
Alexandrine workmanship, very precious, with coloured enamel on it, was
placed before him. He called me and Landulf, afterwards Bishop of Turin,
to him, and bade us take this glass to Odilo. We accordingly, as the
Emperor had bidden, took it, and going to the abbot, offered it to him,
on the part of the Emperor, humbly bowing. He received it with great
humility, and told us to return after a while for the goblet again.
Then, when we had gone away, the monks, filled with natural curiosity to
see and handle a new sort of thing, passed the vessel from hand to hand,
and as they were examining it, it slipped through their fingers to the
ground, and was broken. When the gentle man of God was told this, he was
not a little grieved, and said, 'My brothers, you have not done well,
for by your negligence, the young clerks who have the custody of these
things will, maybe, lose the favour of the Emperor, through your fault.
Now, that those who are innocent may not suffer for your carelessness,
let us all go to church and ask God's mercy about this matter.'
Therefore, they all ran together into the church, and sang psalms and
prayed, lest some harm should befall us--Albert and Landulf, each of
them earnestly supplicating God for us. When the prayer was over, the
holy man ordered the broken goblet to be brought to him. He looked at
it, and felt it, and could find no crack or breakage in it. Wherefore,
he exclaimed indignantly, 'What are you about, brothers? You must be
blind to say that the glass is broken, when there is not a sign of
injury done to it.' The brethren, considering it, were amazed at the
miracle, and did not dare to speak. Then, after a while, I and my
companion came back for the vessel, and we asked it of him who was
carrying it. He called me apart, and returned it to me, bidding me tell
the Emperor to regard it as a great treasure. And when I asked his
meaning, he told me all that had happened."
S. Odilo seems to have been fond of art, for he rebuilt the monasteries
of his order, and made them very beautiful, and the churches he adorned
with all the costly things he could procure. The marble pillars for
Cluny were brought, by his orders, in rafts down the Durance, into the
Rhone, and he was wont to say of Cluny, that he found it of wood and
left it of marble. He erected over the altar of S. Peter, in the church,
a ciborium, whose columns were covered with silver, inlaid with nigello
work.
When he felt that his death approached, he made a circuit of all the
monasteries under his sway, that he might leave them in thorough
discipline, and give them his last admonitions. On this journey he
reached Souvigny, a priory in Bourbonnais, where he celebrated the Vigil
of the Nativity, and preached to the people, although at the time
suffering great pain. After that, he announced to the brethren in
chapter, that he was drawing nigh to his end, and he besought their
prayers. As he was too weak to go to the great Church of S. Peter, which
was attended by the monks, he kept the festival of the Nativity with a
few brethren, whom he detained, to be with him in the Chapel of S. Mary;
joyously he praecented the psalms and antiphons, and gave the
benedictions, and performed all the ceremonies of that glad festival,
forgetful of his bodily infirmities, knowing that soon he was to see God
face to face, in the land of the living, and no more in a glass darkly.
Most earnest was he, lest death should come and find him unprepared.
Throughout the Octave, he was carried in the arms of the monks to
church, where he assisted at the choir offices, night and day, and at
the celebration of the mass, refreshing himself at the sacred mysteries,
and looking forward to the feast of the Circumcision, when his friend
William, abbot of Dijon, had fallen asleep, on which day, he foretold,
he also should enter into his rest.
On that day, carried by his brethren, he was laid before the altar of
the Virgin Mother, and the monks sang vespers. Now and then their voices
failed, through over much sorrow, and then he recited the words of the
psalms they in their trouble had omitted. As night crept in at the
windows, he grew weaker and fainter. Then the brothers laid sack-cloth
and ashes under him, and as he was lifted in the arms of one, brother
Bernard, he asked, reviving a little, where he was. The brother
answered, "On sack-cloth and ashes." Then he sighed forth, "God be
thanked!" and he asked that the little children, and the whole body of
the brethren, might be assembled. And when all were gathered around him,
he directed his eyes to the Cross, and his lips moved in prayer, and he
died thus in prayer, gazing on the sign of his salvation.
His body was laid in the nave of the Church of Souvigny, near that of S.
Majolus.
He is often represented saying mass, with purgatory open beside the
altar, and those suffering extending their hands to him, in allusion to
his having instituted the commemoration of All Souls.