ODET DI CHÂTILLON - Enciclopedia Cattolica, Vol. IX, p. 73

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

ODET of CHÂTILLON. - Apostate, son of the marshal of Châtillon and Luisa of Montmorency,

Article illustration — (from Museum Odescalchum, II, Rome 1921, frontispiece) Odescalchi, family — Portrait of Livio O., founder of the family, Engraving of 1702.

in 1832 he became archpriest of Santa Maria Maggiore and in 1834 vicar general, until in the Consistory of 20 Nov. he resigned the purple to enter the Jesuits. He

ODILIA — ODIO

spent only one year. The incessant wars found in O. an assiduous mediator. He intervened with Robert the Pious in war with the Duchy of Burgundy (1009) and the County of Sens (1016); with Conrad II, who threatened Pavia with reprisals (1027). He also championed the “Truce of God.” The letter of the bishops of the Gauls, gathered in council in Provence, addressed to the clergy of Italy in favor of a suspension of arms from Wednesday evening to Monday morning, seems to have been an initiative of O. (Mansi, XIX, 593; Hefele-Leclercq, IV, 971-72).

He was a friend and advisor to popes and princes, such as Hugh and Robert, kings of France, Empress Adelaide, Emperors Henry II and Conrad II, Sancho of Navarre and Stephen of Hungary. A great traveler, he came to Italy nine times. He is credited with instituting the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed on 2 November (Statutum de Defunctis: PL 142, 1032). During the disputes over the succession of Barcard (d. between 1031-33) to the archbishopric of Lyon, the suffragans intervened with O. and even obtained the pallium for him; despite the entreaties of John XIX, he firmly refused the episcopate (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 1095; Gallia Christiana, IV, 82). Afflicted by age and infirmities, O. undertook in the autumn of 1048 a final visitation of monasteries. Death overtook him at the priory of Souvigny in Bourbonnais, on the night between 31 Dec. and 1 Jan. 1049, and there he was buried. Canonized by Clement VI in 1345 (Bibliotheca Cluniacensis, 345-46: PL 142, 1047-48), he is celebrated in France on 2 Jan.

Of his literary work, only a few pages of his vast correspondence, about fifteen sermons for the principal feasts of the year, hymns in honor of the Virgin, of St. Adelaide and of St. Maiolus survive. — See pl. IV.

BIBL.: The literary works of O. are collected in the Bibliotheca Cluniacensis of M. Marrier, Mâcon 1915, pp. 270-91, 338-40, 350-408 (reprint): PL 142, 939-1044. Some pages published in Neues Archiv, 24 (1899), pp. 728-35, in the Revue bénédictine, 16 (1899), p. 477 ff. and in Millénaire de Cluny, II, Mâcon 1910, pp. 103-13. The Vita, written by the disciple Jotsald, in Bibliotheca Cluniacensis, 1813-24; PL 142, 897-940; Acta SS. Ianuarii, I, Paris 1863, pp. 65-71; MGH, Scriptores, XV, pp. 812-20. Another, written by St. Peter Damian, Bibliotheca Cluniacensis, 315-28; Acta SS. Ianuarii, I, Paris 1863, pp. 71-77. Studies: of the three monographs that have appeared, none is scholarly or definitive: O. Ringholz, Der hl. Abt. O. von Cluny, Brünn 1885, Vienna 1887; P. Jardet, St Odilon: sa vie, son temps, ses oeuvres, Lyon 1898 (cf. Anal. Bolland., 18 [1896], pp. 287-88); L. Cote, Un moine de l'an mille: st Odilon, abbé, Moulins 1949 (cf. Rev. d'hist. eccl. de Louvain, 44 [1949], pp. 748-49). One should also consult the collections and Cluny (v.).