Peace, reform were Odo's life

By Tony Staley
Compass Editor

	St. Odo When: c. 879-942 Where: France What: Abbot Feast: Nov. 18

Many people have a conversion experience - a defining, life-changing event that leads to a radical change. The best known example is Saul, the first century persecutor of Christians who was knocked down by a bright light and then heard the voice of Jesus. Saul became Paul, apostle extraordinaire.

St. Odo of Cluny also had a conversion experience. But his was more modest, though it certainly had major consequences for many.

This 9th-10th century saint was born near Le Mans, France, and was raised in the household of Count Fulk II of Anjour and Duke William of Aquitaine. He later began seminary studies and was a priest in the canonry at St. Martin Church in Tours, France. He spent several years studying - primarily music - in Paris.

One day, while reading the Rule of St. Benedict, Odo realized that his life was nowhere near the holiness called for in the rule. He decided to become a monk and entered the Baume-Messieurs monastery near Besançon under St. Berno, the abbot.

Eventually, Odo was appointed director of the Baume Monastery school and Berno became the first abbot of the new monastery at Cluny. Odo later became abbot at Baume. In 927, he succeeded Berno as the second abbot of Cluny. As abbot, he followed Berno's lead in reforming abbeys so they more closely followed the Rule, and he was known for keeping a tight control over the monks at Cluny.

In 931, Pope John XI put Odo in charge of reforming all the abbeys in northern France and Italy.

The next pope, Leo VII, also asked Odo for help, but this time it was to seek peace between Alberic of Rome and Hugh of Provence, who was attacking the city.

Odo succeeded by arranging a marriage between Alberic and Hugh's daughter. But the treaty proved unstable and, twice more in the next six years, Odo had to return to Rome to settle differences between the two men.

When he wasn't working for peace, Odo was reforming abbeys - sometimes at the invitation of an abbot - and other times by persuading various secular rulers to give up control they illegally held over monasteries. The reforms included following a life of prayer, manual work and community life under the direction of a spiritual leader, the abbot.

Odo's influence spread to several Italian monasteries, including Monte Cassino, Naples, Pavia and Salerno, and sparked a renewal that within two centuries spread to more than 1,000 abbeys.

Odo made his final trip to Rome in 942. On his way back to Cluny, he stopped at St. Julian Monastery in Tours. After assisting in Mass for the feast of St. Martin of Tours (Nov. 8), Odo fell ill and died 10 days later.

In addition to being a reformer and peacemaker, Odo wrote hymns, an epic poem on the redemption, treatises on morality and a biography of St. Gerald of Aurillac (855-909).