CASEL, Odo. – Outstanding liturgist and Benedictine theologian, b. 27 Sept. 1886 at Coblenz-Lützel, d. in the abbey of St. Croce, Herstelle, on 28 March 1948. After completing his secondary studies at Andernach, he entered the abbey of Maria-Laach in 1905, made his profession in 1907 and was ordained priest on 17 Sept. 1911.
He took his doctorate in theology at Sant’Anselmo, Rome, with a thesis on the Eucharist in St Justin, and in philosophy at Bonn with the dissertation *De philosophorum graecorum silentio mystico* (Bonn 1919). These early works already pointed to his intellectual orientation. Returning to Maria-Laach, he published two fundamental monographs: *Das Gedächtnis des Herrn in der altchristlichen Liturgie* (Ecclesia Orans, no. III, Freiburg im Br. 1918) and *Die Liturgie als Mysterienfeier* (no. IX of the same series, ibid. 1922), in which he revealed the originality of his thought and the novelty of his philological methods. From 1921 to 1941, through the pages of the *Jahrbuch für Liturgiewissenschaft*, which he founded and edited with singular constancy, he developed his ideas, defended them against many and harsh attacks from opponents, and clarified them in the light of new studies (which he reviewed extensively) and of unceasing criticism. The principal works of this fertile two-decade span are: *Mysterium und Martyrium* (in *Jahrb. f. Lit. Wiss.*, 2 [1922], pp. 18-38); *Das Mysteriengedächtnis der Mahlfeier* (ibid., 6 [1926], pp. 113-204); *Mysteriengegenwart* (ibid., 8 [1928], pp. 145-224); *Das christliche Kultmysterium* (Regensburg 1932); *Neue Zeugnisse für das Kultmysterium* (in *Jahrb. f. Lit. Wiss.*, 13 [1935], pp. 99-171); *Glaube, Gnosis und Mysterium* (ibid., 15 [1941], pp. 155-306).
In these works, drawing on the concept of the mysterion in religion, which Jesus Christ is held to have supernaturalised, he maintained that the essence of Christianity consists in the physical union of Christ with the Church, realised through the liturgy, in whose unfolding (in sacrifice as in the sacraments, in sacramentalia as in the divine Office) the presence of Jesus Christ and of all His saving action (Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, parousia) is implicated, so that the entire drama of salvation is refounded, repeating itself, in His mystical members. This mysterious “re-presentation” of the whole economy of salvation remains this side of divine omnipresence, yet surpasses the limited natural presence of bodies, souls and angels, following rather the law of a supernatural, pneumatic, sacramental presence. In this conception, the Mass must be regarded as a sacrifice because in its unfolding it re-presents (makes present again) the very (numerically) same immolation of Calvary, which, by virtue of transubstantiation, acquires a new *when* and a new *where*. These singular ideas made C.’s name widely known throughout Germany, Belgium and England; today his renown crosses the borders of the Latin world with the warm welcome accorded him in France, while Italy has not yet stirred.
It was natural that around so outstanding a personality and such novel ideas two camps should form: that of ardent disciples (Warnach, Dekkers, Winzen) and sincere admirers (Vonier, De Séguier, Rahner, Scheller, Goossens, Masure, Héris), and that of critics, sometimes benign (Coppens, Stohr, Poschmann, Prümm, Hoffmann), sometimes severe (Soehngein, Hanssens, above all Umberg). We are far from that *consensus* which should commend Caselian ideology, yet although the work is still *sub iudice*, the figure of the pious and learned Rhenish monk stands out clearly in the firmament of Christian learning and piety.