Odo of Cambrai, Blessed
Theologian and Benedictine bishop, born at Orléans about the middle of the 11th century, died in the monastery of Anchin near Douai on 19 June 1113. A scholastic at Toul and later at Tournai (1087), he attracted a multitude of disciples to whom he taught an exaggerated *realism*, combating as heretical the *nominalism*. Retiring with some disciples to the vicinity of Tournai (1092), he restored from its ruins the ancient monastery of St Martin, where he lived as a regular canon; in 1095 he accepted the Rule of St Benedict with Cluniac observances and became abbot. Elected bishop of Cambrai in 1105 to replace Gaucher, deposed at the Council of Clermont (1095), he could not oust the intruder until 1106. Having fallen out with Henry V, he settled at Anchin, from where he governed the diocese.
His philosophical writings—*Sophistes*, *Liber complexionum*, *De re et ente*—are lost. Theological works include the *Expositio in canonem Missae*, important for eucharistic theology (real presence, etc.); in the *De peccato originali* he first affirmed that original sin is more a *privatio iustitiae debitae* than a reality, then illustrated its transmission by recourse to his exaggerated realism (which he termed the *doctrina orthodoxorum*): the universal is a reality that exists whole in each individual; in Adam it was all of humanity.
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**OCTAVARIUM ROMANUM** – Frontispiece of the Plantinian edition with symbolic representations of the number 8. Antwerp, ex officina Plantiniana Balthasaris Moreti, 1661 – Rome, copy in the Library of the College of St Alphonsus.
Since the *Breviary* lacks these readings for the octaves, the noted liturgist Gavanto, consultor of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, undertook to remedy the defect by compiling a collection of patristic readings specially arranged for the days of these particular octaves. A doubt then arose whether this collection should be inserted directly into the *Breviary* or form a separate liturgical book. The Sacred Congregation decided to publish a book distinct from the *Breviary* and confirmed this resolution by decree of 19 February 1622, prefixed to the book that took the name *O. R.*, issued in Rome in 1623 and almost immediately in various editions abroad. Gavanto prefixed an erudite introduction, which treats at length of the history and meaning of the octaves; this introduction has remained in modern editions. The last two editions of the *O. R.* are those of Pustet, prepared by the Sacred Congregation of Rites themselves, in 1882 and 1902, with an ample appendix.
The *O. R.* is not strictly obligatory, but in reply to a doubt the Sacred Congregation of Rites declared that the missing readings for the particular octaves «demum» are to be taken from the *O. R.* (Authentic Decree no. 2735; 8 August 1835).
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