Saint Odilo of Cluny

Odilo of Cluny (c. 962 – 1 January 1049) was the 5th Benedictine Abbot of Cluny, succeeding Mayeul and holding the post for around 54 years. During his tenure Cluny became the most important monastery in western Europe. Odilo actively worked to reform the monastic practices not only at Cluny, but at other Benedictine houses. He also promoted the Truce of God whereby military hostilities were temporarily suspended at certain times for ostensibly religious reasons. Odilo encouraged the formal practice of personal consecration to Mary. He established All Souls' Day (on 2 November) in Cluny and its monasteries as the annual commemoration to pray for all the faithful departed. The practice was soon adopted throughout the whole Western church. He was lifelong friends with William of Dijon, another Cluniac abbot and reformer. Odilo was descended from an illustrious noble family of Auvergne (central France). The son of Berald de Mercoeur and Gerberga, his widowed mother became a nun at the convent of St. John in Autun after his father's death. Odilo had eight brothers and two sisters. One of his sisters married and the other became an abbess. When he was a child, he was partially paralyzed and had to be carried by the family servants on a stretcher. One day while the family was travelling, they came to a church and Odilo was left with the luggage at the church door. The door was open, and little Odilo felt God was calling him to crawl to the altar. He got to the altar and tried to stand up, but failed. He tried again and finally succeeded: he was able to walk around the altar. It was believed that he had been cured of the unnamed malady by the intervention of Our Lady. As a child, he developed a great devotion to the Virgin Mary. While still quite young, he entered the seminary of St. Julien in Brioude, where he became a specialist in canon law. William of Dijon persuaded him to enter the monastery of Cluny.