Blessed Odo of Novara

Odo of Novara (c. 1105 – 14 January 1200) was an Italian Catholic priest and a professed member from the Carthusians. Pope Pius IX confirmed his beatification in mid-1859. He was born in Novara around 1105 and was appointed as the prior of Geirach Charterhouse in Slovenia in 1189. But he experienced difficulties with Dietrich - the local bishop - who persecuted him. Odo went to Rome in 1190 to request Pope Clement III to relieve him of his office. He became a chaplain after his resignation at a convent in Tagliacozzo. Odo died there in 1200, aged 95. A process of investigation into his manner of life was initiated at the request of Pope Gregory IX. The Bishop of Trivento Riccardo described Odo as a "God-fearing man, modest and chaste, given up day and night to watching and prayer, clad only in rough garments of wool, living in a tiny cell ... obeying always the sound of the bell when it called him to office".