Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – Once again speaking on the great Writers of the Church from the East and West, who lived in Medieval era, “because, as though in a mirror, in their lives and writings we see what it means to be Christians,” the Holy Father Benedict XVI dedicated the General Audience on September 2 to the “luminous figure of Saint Odo, abbot of Cluny.” The audience was held in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican, where the Pope arrived from his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, where he returned following the encounter with faithful and pilgrims.
Saint Odo is situated in the monastic Middle Ages that saw in Europe the amazing spread of life and spirituality inspired in St. Benedict's Rule, with the start of numerous monasteries on the continent, which contributed “largely to the spread of the Christian spirit and sensibility.” Saint Odo was the second abbot of the Monastery of Cluny, “which was one of the most illustrious and celebrated.” Born around 880, on the border between Maine and Touraine, in France. Odo was still an adolescent, when one Christmas Eve he sensed how a prayer to the Virgin, “Mother of Mercy,” came spontaneously to his lips. He would later continue using this invocation to address Her. Around that time he began to reflect more profoundly on the Rule of St. Benedict and to observe some of its mandates. He then entered the Benedictine Abbey of Baume, later passing on to that of Cluny, of which he became the Abbot in 927.
“From that center of spiritual life, he was able to exert great influence on other monasteries of the continent. Benefiting from his guidance and reform were also several monasteries in Italy.” Being in Rome in the summer of 942, Odo fell ill and, sensing that his end was near, wished to return to San Martino, to whom his father had consecrated him as a child, in Tours, where he later died on November 18, 942.
Benedict XVI recalled that: “Underlining Odo's 'virtue of patience,' his biographer gives a long list of his other virtues, such as contempt for the world, zeal for souls, commitment to peace for the Churches. Abbot Odo greatly aspired to concord between the king and princes, the observance of the Commandments, care of the poor, correction of youth, and respect for the elderly...he did not fail to exercise as 'superabundant source' the ministry of the word and of example.”
Odo's idea of the monastic life was inspired by the disposition of Mary Magdalen who, “seated at the Lord's feet, with an attentive spirit listened to his word.” In his writings there appears “love for the interior life, his idea that the world is a fragile and precarious reality from which one must be uprooted, a constant inclination to detachment from things regarded as sources of unrest, an acute sensitivity to the presence of evil in the different classes of people, a profound eschatological aspiration.” In addition, the Holy Father highlighted the saint's particular “devotion” to the Body and Blood of Christ “that Odo, always cultivated with conviction, in face of widespread neglect which he sharply deplored.”
The Pontiff recalled that “Saint Odo was a real spiritual guide both for monks and for the faithful of his time. In face of the 'vastness of vices' in society, the remedy he proposed with determination was a radical change of life, based on humility, austerity, detachment from ephemeral things and adherence to the eternal. Despite the realism of his time, Odo did not yield to pessimism...the abbot of Cluny loved to reflect on the contemplation of the mercy of Christ, the Savior who...has taken upon himself the scourges that correspond to us -- he observes -- thus to save the creature who is his work and whom he loves.”
The final characteristic the Pope reflected on, in Saint Odo, was his profound goodness: “He was austere, but above all he was good, a man of great goodness, a goodness that comes from contact with divine goodness. Odo, his contemporaries say, spread all around the joy with which he was filled...the vigorous and, at the same time, amiable Medieval abbot, passionate about reform, nourished with incisive action in the monks, as well as in the faithful of his time, the intention to advance with diligent step on the way of Christian perfection.” Benedict XVI concluded his catechesis, saying: “May his goodness, the joy that comes from faith, united to austerity and opposition to the vices of the world, also touch our heart, so that we too will be able to find the source of joy that springs from the goodness of God.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 3/9/2009)
