the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Bible Encyclopedias
Odo
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or ST., second abbot OF CLUGNY, illustrious for his learning and piety, is supposed to have been born about 879. His father, Abbon, one of the most powerful lords at the court of William the Strong, duke of Aquitaine, consecrated him to the Church before his birth by a solemn. vow. Odo was educated in the convent of St. Martini of Tour, under St. Odalric. He afterwards completed his studies at Paris, returned to St. Martin, and not finding the rule sufficiently strict, he entered the Cistercian convent of Baume, in Burgundy, under Bernon, who governed at the same time the other houses of the order, Clugny, Massai, and Bourgdeols. After Bernon's death Odo was elected to succeed him as abbot of.Clugny and of Bourgdeols. He proved a wise and energetic administrator, and under his rule the order made rapid progress, both in wealth and in reputation. The school of Clugny became the most renowned throughout Gaul. Odo himself was entrusted with the reform of a large number of convents. The popes called him to Italy for the purpose of restoring peace between princes, and kings employed him in the most important diplomatic transactions. relying always on his great sagacity and honorable conduct for a successful disposal of their annoyances.
On his return from one of his journeys to Rome, he died in the convent of St. Julian at Tours, Nov. 18, 943. Odo deserves to be remembered especially as a reformer of the monastic institutions. "He was a man deeply penetrated with: the consciousness of the corruption of the Church among the clergy, monks, and laity; a man full of zeal for the renovation of the Christian life, while at the same time he was very far from placing the essence of Christian perfection in a rigid practice of asceticism, though he endeavored to oppose the severity of monasticism to the secularized life of the clergy and monks of his time, and to awaken an enthusiasm in its favor. As contrasted with the prevailing corruption, the example of his pious zeal and of his integrity of life was so much the more powerful, and he acquired great authority." Odo left numerous works, among which we notice Excerptio S. Odonis in Moralibus Job (Paris, 1617; 8vo; reprinted in the Bibl. Patr. [Lyons], vol. 17); twelve anthems on St. Martin, published in the Bibl. Cluniacensis and in the Bibl. Patr.; three hymns in the Bibl. Cluniac., besides a poem on the Lord's Supper, and another hymn in Mabillon's Annales, 3:712. The best-known of Odo's hymns is that for St. Mary Magdalene's day (Hymnus de Sancta cilria Magdalena), "Lauda, mater ecclesia" (Engl. transl. by Neale: "Exalt, O mother Church, to-day; "by Chambers, in the People's Hymnal: "O Church, our mother, speak his praise;" Germ. transl. by Rombach, Konigsfeld, Simrock). A dialogue on music, entitled Enchiridion, of which there are several MSS. extant, and published in Martin Gerbert's Scriptores eccles. de nusica, has been ascribed to this Odo, but is by another, as is acknowledged by Gerbert himself. Still it appears proved that this Odo wrote on music; and Martin Gerbert published under his name, from a MS. in Monte Cassino, a treatise entitled Tonora per ordinem, cumn suis differentiis (in his Script. eccl. de musica, 1:247). The Bibl. Clunziac. gives, under his name, a life of St. Gerauld, count of Aurillac, which was repeatedly translated into French, and is full of interpolations. The authentic life of St. Gerauld, by Odo of Clugny, is found among the MSS. of the Imperial Library, Fonds du Roi, Nos. 5301, 3783, and 3809; but the much more extensive text in the Bibl. Cluniac. is spurious, as is also the De Reversione B. Martini a Buryundia Tractatus.
Among the works attributed to Odo, but whose authorship is doubtful, we find a life of St. Gregory of Tours, often reprinted under his name, as in Thierry Ruinart's edition of the Historia Francorum; the Miracula S. Mnauri, attributed to him by Baronius, but written by Odo, abbot of Glanfeuil; an exposition of the canon of the mass, written by Odo of Cambrai; and a treatise entitled Quod B. Martinus par dicitnur apostolis, attributed to Odo by Marrier, and to Adam of Perscigne by Martene. The most important of Odo's works was published under the title of Collationes in the Bibl. Cluniac. In the catalogues and in MSS. that work is also entitled Occupationes, Tractatus de sacerdotio, De virtutibis vitiisque animce, De perversitate pravorum, De hujus vitae qualitate. De institutione divina, De contenpla. mundi, Liber ad cedifcationem sanctc Dedi Ecclesie, In Hiereniam Prophetam, etc., Among some sermons given under the name of Odo of Clugny in Marrier, Bibl. Cluniac., and in Martene, Thes. Anect. v. 617, the first is by pope St. Leon, and is given in the edition of the latter's works by P. Quesnel, p. 52. See Joannes Trithemius, De viris illustr; lib. ii; Hist. litter. de la France, vol. vi; Veter- zm testimonia de Odone (Bibl. Cluniac. p. 60); Vita S. Odonis a Joanne, monacho (id.); Mabillon, Acta SS. ord. S. Bened. saec. v; B. Haurdau, IHist. litter. du Maine, 1:133; id. Singu.larites hist. et litter. p. 129-179; Vies des SS. de la Franche-Comte; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 38:487; Bahr, Gesch. der romischen Literatur im Karol. Zeitalter, p. 538; Baxmann, Politik der Papste, vol. ii; Gieseler, Eccles. Hist. 2:175; Neander, Ch. Hist. 3:417, 444 sq.; Schrockh, Kirchengesch. 23:25 sq.; Miller, Singers and Songs of the Ch. p. 21; Neale, Mediceval Hymns, p. 46 sq.; Rombach, Anthol. christl. Gesange, 1:217 sq.; KInigsfeld, Lat. Hymnezn u. Gesdnge, i, 39:98 sq.; 2:146,; Simnrock, Lauda Sion (Stuttg. 1868), p. 232 sq.; Edinb, Rev. 30:348; 42:14.
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Odo'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/o/odo.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
