SAINT ODILO OF CLUNY
Born: 962 at Auvergne, France
Died: 1 January 1049 at Souvigny, France
Canonized: 1063
by Pope Alexander II
Memorial: 1 January; 19 January in Cluny (formerly 2 January); 6 February in Switzerland
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The
Church has always encouraged prayers that the
deceased may be received into Heaven, but only
in the second millennium of Western Christianity
was a special liturgical day set up in the interest
of the Poor Souls.
Around
1030, Abbot Odilo set aside November 2 as a day
for the special commemoration in his own monastic
community for the souls in Purgatory. He started
this as an observance for the monks of Cluny
and all the other communities in the Cluniac
family, requiring them, on the day following
All Saints, to pray for deceased monks. He
strongly exhorted all the monasteries under his
jurisdiction to devote this date each year to Masses,
acts of self-denial, and almsgiving on behalf of
the souls in Purgatory.
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The practice soon grew
into the custom of saying three Masses for the souls
in Purgatory. Eventually Rome officially extended to
the whole Western Church in 1748. After the First World
War it developed into a universal observance, with
one Mass being said for a particular person or group,
on for all the dead, and one for the pope's intentions.
In
art Saint Odilo is portrayed as a Benedictine abbot
with a skull and crossbones at his feet. Because
he instituted the Feast of All Souls, at times
he may be shown:
- saying Mass with Purgatory
open at his side; or
- with angels releasing
souls from purgatorial fire. He is invoked on behalf
of souls in Purgatory.
St. Odilo's life provides a good illustration of the vast contributions that religious
orders have made and can make to the Church and to the whole world.
