ODILO, Saint. - Fifth abbot of Cluny. Born in Auvergne around 962, from the noble family of the Mercoeur, died in 1049. Having entered Cluny in 991, he succeeded St. Maiolus in the office of abbot, which he held for over 50 years. A man of great resourcefulness, he expanded and consolidated the Cluniac reform, reaching the number of 65 daughter houses whereas until then it had counted only 37. He encountered various difficulties in the episcopate to his activity, which, through papal exemption, made itself independent.
The conflict over the exemption was particularly violent when Burchard, archbishop of Vienne, conferred orders at Cluny. Summoned to the Council of Anse (1025) by Bishop Gauzelin of Mâcon, O. showed the bulls of Gregory V (998-99), but in vain. He then appealed to Rome. The incident earned the Order, on the part of John XIX, the confirmation of its privileges and earned the bishops a severe reprimand (28 March 1027; Jaffé-Wattenbach, 4079, 4081-83; Hefele-Leclercq, IV, 1911, 938-39). The struggle resumed under Gauzelin's successor.
Solid friendships at the papal court allowed O. also to defend the domains of Cluny against invading feudal lords. A man of great charity, during a famine he sold off the gifts received from Henry II to relieve the needy, whom the chronicler Udairic counted at up to 17,000 in a single year. The incessant wars found in O. an assiduous mediator. He intervened with Robert the Pious, at war with the Duchy of Burgundy (1009) and the County of Sens (1016); with Conrad II, who was threatening Pavia with reprisals (1027). He again made himself a champion of the "Truce of God." The letter of the bishops of Gaul, assembled 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 counselor of popes and princes, such as Hugh and Robert, kings of France, the empress Adelaide, the emperors Henry II and Conrad II, Sancho of Navarre and Stephen of Hungary. A great traveler, he came to Italy nine times. To him is due the institution of the Commemoration of the faithful departed on 2 November (Statutum de Defunctis: PL 142, 1032). During the contests for the succession of Burchard (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 energetically refused the episcopate (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 1095; Gallia Christiana, IV, 82). Worn out by age and infirmities, O. undertook in the autumn of 1048 a final visitation of the monasteries. Death surprised him at the priory of Souvigny in the Bourbonnais, in the night between 31 December and 1 January 1049, and there he was buried. Canonized by Clement VI in 1345 (Biblioth. Cluniac., 345-46: PL 142, 1047-48), he is celebrated in France on 2 January.
Of his literary work there survive only a few pages of his vast correspondence, some fifteen sermons for the principal feasts of the year, hymns in honor of the Virgin, of St. Adelaide and of St. Maiolus. - See plate IV.