Odilo of Cluny

ON SAINT ODILO, ABBOT OF CLUNY.

Year of Christ 1049.

[1] The celebrated memory of Saint Odilo. This is that most celebrated Odilo, whom all who write the Ecclesiastical Annals mention with the greatest honor. Concerning him, the Roman Martyrology on the Kalends of January states: "At Souvigny, Saint Odilo, Abbot of Cluny, who first ordered the commemoration of all the faithful departed to be observed on the first day after the feast of All Saints in his monasteries; which rite the universal Church subsequently approved and adopted." He is celebrated at Cluny on January 2. The Cluniac monks celebrate him on January 2. Molanus also on January 2 has this: "At Souvigny, Saint Odilo the Abbot, whose feast, though held on the Kalends, is here more fully observed."

[2] [Two Lives of him: the first written by Lotsald, the second by Saint Peter Damian.] Of the two Lives which we shall give here, the first was written by the monk Lotsald; the second, by Blessed Peter Damian, not long after Saint Odilo's death, at the request of Saint Hugh, his successor.

[3] The translation of Saint Odilo on June 21. We shall subjoin an account of his translation or elevation. Souvigny, where Saint Odilo died, is a notable Priory of the Cluniac order in the province of Bourbonnais, commonly called Souvigny en Bourbonnais.

LIFE OF SAINT ODILO

BY LOTSALD THE MONK.

PROLOGUE OF THE AUTHOR.

[1-4] [Lotsald, disciple of Saint Odilo, dedicates the work to the Bishop Stephanus, nephew of Saint Odilo. He explains his purpose: to write a kind of epitaph of his master's death and virtues, as Jerome did for Blaesilla and Nepotianus, scattering flowers at his tomb.]

CHAPTER I.

The homeland, parents, and sister of Saint Odilo.

[5] Beraldus, father of Saint Odilo. His father was among the nobles of the Auvergne the most distinguished, a man vigorous in arms, very rich in possessions and wealth, prudent in counsel, and second to none of his time in all integrity of character. He was even called "Beraldus the Greater" by all, by the privilege of authority and grace, so eminent in the virtue of faith that what was difficult for others even with oaths, he kept inviolable with simple words.

[6] He had a wife named Girberga, not degenerate in birth or character, Girberga his mother, afterward a religious. whose continence, chastity, and disposition under her husband was clear to all after his death. For leaving her homeland, her relatives, her children, and her great estates and riches, like another Paula she followed Christ, and at the monastery of Saint John at Autun, a convent for holy women, she took up a place and the habit of religious life.

[7] They also had other sons, powerful and noble. A certain sister also, not to be passed over, named Blismodis, an Abbess, Blismodis his sister, Abbess. who in holy virginity, serving night and day, completed nearly a hundred years.

CHAPTER II.

He becomes a Cleric, then a Monk.

8-10 [Odilo was consecrated to Christ like another Isaac or Samuel, and enrolled in the clerical lot at Brioude, near Saint Julian the glorious Martyr. In his very boyhood he delighted in humility, chastity, innocence, and purity. He surpassed his contemporaries in wisdom and character. As a young man he silently deliberated about leaving the world. The great Maiolus, already famous throughout nearly the whole world, entered the territory of the Auvergne, and by divine arrangement Odilo was brought before him. Perceiving something great and divine in him, Maiolus encouraged the young man to fulfill his plan.]

[11] He becomes a monk at Cluny. After a few intervals of time, the new soldier, like a Benedict leaving the towers of Rome, abandoned the towers of Brioude and Le Puy, despised his ancestral wealth, relatives, and brothers, and like the ancient Abraham going out from Ur of the Chaldeans, sought Cluny as a kind of entrance to the promised land, and put off the old burden and assumed the monastic garment.

[12] He cheerfully undertakes humble duties. Having taken the habit, you would see our sheep, shorn of worldly fleece, ascending again from the bath of baptism, proceeding with the twin offspring of twofold love, carrying nothing barren with her, and meditating upon nothing vain. You would see her, first in work yet last in rank, seeking the pastures of eternal verdure among the others: tending the lights, keeping watch over the care of infants, sweeping the floors, and humbly performing every lowly office.

CHAPTER III.

He is made Abbot.

[13] But the pearl could not long lie hidden; the strong athlete could not long be concealed in a private place. After about four years, Saint Maiolus, having sweated through many labors for Christ, went out from the darkness of Egypt, and having passed through the peril of the sea, entered Jerusalem, and was placed in eternal peace by Christ. He is made Abbot against his will. At the point of death he chose Lord Odilo as his successor and left his own sheep to the Lord and to him. Reluctant and beyond what can be believed unwilling, he was ordained to the office enjoined by the common vote and common judgment of all, and like another Moses he was placed over the people of God.

[14] Having therefore taken up the office of governance, he was strengthened more and more by the example of the Saints, He shines with authority. and was adorned in all things by the heavenly magisterium. There shone forth in him a certain notable model which was both to be imitated and feared by those subject to him; and what he was inwardly, the grace shining forth in him declared outwardly. Description of his stature and outward bearing. The disposition of the mind, as has been said before us, is perceived in the posture of the body. And since this is so, let us now say a few things about the position of his body itself. His stature was moderate; his countenance itself, full of authority and grace, was cheerful and gentle to the meek, but to the proud and * offended, so terrible that he could scarcely be endured. Strong in leanness, adorned with pallor, graced with white hair. His eyes, gleaming with a certain splendor, were both a terror and a wonder to those who beheld them, constantly flowing with tears because the power of compunction was often present. There shone also in his movement, gesture, and gait the appearance of authority, the weight of gravity, and the mark of tranquility. His encounter was like a certain most pleasant ray of delight and an event of unusual pleasure. His voice was manly and so full of grace that it soothed the minds of hearers with no small sweetness of modulation. His speech was full of pleasantness and grace, moderately tempered according to the nature of the cases, neither exceeding the measure of speaking nor speaking less prudently than was fitting for the time. Nothing in him was feigned, nothing affected; but nature wonderfully rendered him proportionate with the position of his body and the order of his life.

\* variant: offended ones.

CHAPTER V.

His various virtues.

15-17 [The four principal virtues -- prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance -- shone forth in him not moderately but profusely. In prudence, he never ceased day or night from the investigation of truth, always with a book of divine contemplation in his hands. In prayer, even when sleep overtook him chanting on his bed, the psalm would not depart from the mouth of the sleeping man. In Scripture he was so learned and in speech so eloquent that his sermons and many letters bore witness.]

CHAPTER VI.

He is dear to Princes.

18-20 [In justice, he gave due honor to all ages, persons, and conditions. He was dear to King Robert of France, to the Empress Adelaide, to Emperor Henry, to Conrad and Henry father and son, to King Stephen of Hungary, and to King Sancho of the Western peoples. Bishop Sancho of Pamplona adhered so closely to him in friendship that he came from distant regions, wished to become a monk under him, and was so loved by Odilo that even at death he spoke of him. Roman Pontiffs Sylvester, Benedict, John, and finally Clement of pious memory treated him as one of their own brothers. Italy rejoiced in Odilo's presence; Rome, the Lady of the world, was frequently honored by his company.]

\* variant: of justice.

CHAPTER VII.

His courtesy toward all, his generosity toward the poor.

21-25 [He was courteous to all: honoring the elderly as fathers, the young as brothers, old women as mothers, virgins as sisters. He was generous beyond measure to the poor; some considered him excessive, to which he elegantly replied: "I prefer to be mercifully judged for mercy than cruelly condemned for cruelty." He once encountered two boys who had died of cold and hunger lying naked and unburied in the middle of the road near Paris. He dismounted, sought undertakers, covered their nakedness with his own woolen garment stripped from his back, buried them, and continued his journey. He frequently supplemented inadequate alms from unexpected windfalls.]

[26] Much more of the same kind could be brought forward, were not the talents of our insignificance to fail. But nevertheless, lest all be suppressed in silence: In time of famine he breaks sacred vessels and gifts to help the poor. at that time, and thenceforward for many years, when such misery pressed upon them, he broke for the use of the poor many ecclesiastical vessels and notable ornaments, among which was even the Imperial crown of Emperor Henry, judging it unworthy to deny such things to the poor of Christ, for whom the blood of Christ was shed. In distributing the treasures of the Church to the poor, Lawrence is proclaimed admirable by divine and human oracles. Though we dare not equate this man with him, yet to all whom we have seen among the men of our time, we shall prefer him in this virtue in his own order -- which I say without prejudice to anyone.

[27] He urges others to almsgiving. He counseled whom he could; and for those he could not help personally, he asked others to show mercy. For when he could not suffice for the miseries of all during those times of such bitter famine, we saw him going around the villages and churches that he could, urging Princes, the wealthy, and men of moderate means to give alms, provoking them to mercy with sweet words, and promising them from heaven with a free voice the fullest remission of sins. Thus the holy man, whom he could not feed with his own resources, he aided through merciful words among those he could reach. By such counsel we know that many thousands of the poor escaped the peril of famine and death.

[28] He embraces and kisses a leper. He passed by no one's misery, despised no one's need, shrank from no one's infirmity. A certain Cleric of the Church of the holy Mother of God at Le Puy, most noble according to the flesh, stained by the contagion of leprosy, had chosen for himself a private place near the * Loire River, near the monastery called Volta. When the servant of God came there and learned of this, he had compassion on the sick man and ordered the brothers to comfort him in his needs. The miserable man asked for a private conversation with the holy man and humbly begged him through an intermediary to come to him. The Saint did not refuse to do this, recalling the example of the Lord's humility, who came even unsolicited to the servant of the Centurion. When he reached him, not shrinking from his misery -- to our great amazement as we watched -- he fell into embraces, hugged him, and long shared with him a familiar conversation. O man in all things worthy of praise, who in a man loved the prerogative of nature more than he dreaded the approach of any disease.

\* variant: medicine.

\* variant: of hunger.

\* variant: a linen undergarment.

\* Bibl. Clu. Alexis.

CHAPTER VIII.

Hospitality, humility, and other virtues.

29-32 [He was festive and joyful in receiving guests. He kept the purity of integrity inviolable. His humility was so perfect that not even the slightest trace of pride was noted in him. He was innocent, honest, truthful, and did not seek human praise. When received with ceremonial honors by brothers or Bishops, he interiorly did not depart from his proposal of humble rigor. He firmly maintained the assemblies of the brothers until the very extremes of death. He was easy in admitting men to the religious life, saying: "Do not, brothers, be saddened at the increase of the flock; for by whose will and calling they are gathered, by His providence and mercy they will be governed." He was the Father of very many monks. Wherever he went, so great a crowd of brothers followed him that you would think him truly the Archangel of monks -- a name by which Fulbert, Bishop of Chartres, his most dear friend, used to address him in his sermons and letters.]

\* variant: from various occupations.

\* variant: he lived.

CHAPTER IX.

Fortitude and patience.

33-35 [In the virtue of fortitude, he was strong in repelling the snares of enemies, patient in enduring adversity. He repaid those who had harmed him with greater favor, like another David. He subjected himself to harsh bodily penances: fasts, vigils, prayers, and -- as must be freely stated -- after the happiness of the sailor, he had condemned his members with certain iron chains and bonds, with God alone as witness, so that human flesh could scarcely bear it. The harshest hairshirt always adhered to him beneath; outwardly he appeared dressed in moderate and common clothing. He endured many and various labors for the peace of Churches and the welfare of neighbors. He bore most severe pains and cruel torments for a long time in secret, yet maintained an unconquered spirit.]

CHAPTER X.

Temperance and moderation.

36-37 [In temperance, he kept measure and order in all his actions and commands. He moderated his fasts like a charioteer, according to the weariness and strength of his body. He tempered the gravity of his character with the cheerfulness of his countenance. He was severe in correcting vices and gracious in forgiving, balanced equally in both. He showed himself so affable and benevolent to his subjects that he preferred to be loved rather than feared, to benefit rather than to preside.]

CHAPTER XI.

Magnificence in building and adorning churches.

[38] Besides these interior qualities, there were in him also outwardly glorious endeavors in building, renewing, He was magnificent in the adornment of churches and monasteries. and acquiring ornaments for holy places from everywhere. Cluny, his principal seat, demonstrates this, in all its buildings internally and externally -- apart from the walls of the church -- studiously renovated by him and adorned with multiple ornaments. Where also in the last years of his life he built a cloister wonderfully adorned with marble columns, brought from the farthest parts of that province and along the most rapid currents of the Durance and the Rhone, not without great labor. Of which he was accustomed to boast, as was his cheerful habit, that he had found it wooden and left it marble, after the example of Caesar Octavian, whom the historians describe as having found Rome of brick and left it of marble. He also began a ciborium over the altar of Saint Peter, whose columns he covered with silver, decorated with a transom of beautiful workmanship.

[39] Now concerning all his monasteries: what of Payerne, a place dear to him out of love for the Mother of God? The Roman monastery built from the ground? Various monasteries either built or restored by him. The place of Saint Victor of Geneva, besides its own ancient and noble church? The place of Charlieu, also entirely built in his time? Ambierle, a very celebrated church; Ris entirely; Celsinias; Souvigny; the transferred Ferté; the Monastery of Saint Saturninus; at Pavia, the most noble place of Saint Maiolus. And besides these, a manifold number of various churches. All these things, by his industry in his time, grew and expanded most amply in buildings, possessions, and ornaments. He also built in the last years of his life, on the small estate of his parents, a certain monastery called Volta from the turning of the surrounding water, adorned with careful workmanship, which he endowed from the revenues of his friends and relatives, as best he could, for the service of God, and fittingly adorned it with suitable books and ornaments.

[40] If enemies scoff or friends criticize me for having included these superfluous things, let them know assuredly that all these things pertain to the virtues of his soul, and that for such things he happily earned the patronage of the Saints and has already received from the Lord the crown of blessed retribution.

\* variant: of the Durance, rather Druentia.

\* variant: dark.

\* Celsinias.

\* variant: of ancient forebears.

CHAPTER XII.

Miracles.

41-50 Miracles are not always signs of sanctity. To those who seek signs and judge the merit of each person from the magnitude of miracles, the author responds that signs and wonders do not always accompany the saints; many saints performed no miracles, while wicked men sometimes did. Yet he relates several miracles: Odilo healed a cripple at the altar on Good Friday; he cured a brother's violent headache by anointing with oil; water was miraculously changed to wine for him when he secretly wished to drink water during a fast at his monastery of Vallis Aurea; a monk of his, tempted by the devil, was freed by his prayer; and at Souvigny a paralyzed woman was healed at the altar through his intercession.

[51] He most devoutly venerated the sacred Cross. O Lord Jesus, in that hour what sighs, what groans there were! What confession and recollection of sins! What glorification of Your Majesty! What invocation of Your name! And what remembrance of Your Passion and our redemption! For with uplifted eyes, full of showers of tears, he so contemplated and suffered with the image of Your face, as if he were seeing You crucified and dying again. For he stood there wholly suspended with Mary the Mother, and the sword of the sharpest compunction passed through his soul. The feast of the holy Pontiff Sylvester had arrived, and the vigil of the expected Circumcision, when suddenly before dawn he began to be more and more urgently pressed to the extremes of death. He seeks in haste the mystery of the Lord's body and blood, faithfully recognizes it, devoutly receives it. And thus, without any agitation of the body and without any disposition of a disordered emotion, with his eyes closed, he rested in peace. The holy man departed on the night of the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ, He dies. in the first watch of the night, which was also observed as a Sunday, in the eighty-seventh year of his age, the fifty-sixth year of his ordination, and also in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1049.

ANOTHER LIFE OF SAINT ODILO

BY BLESSED PETER DAMIAN, CARDINAL OF THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH.

PROLOGUE OF THE AUTHOR.

[1] This Life was written at the request of Saint Hugh, Abbot of Cluny. Peter Damian, to the holy Churches established in the western parts of Gaul, sends greetings in Christ Jesus.

Hugo, rector of the monastery of Cluny and leader and principal instructor of the spiritual militia, imposed this labor upon me...

[Peter Damian's Life of Odilo narrates: his noble birth in Auvergne, his paralysis in infancy healed miraculously when his nurse placed him on the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary; his education and decision to enter Cluny under Maiolus; his reluctant acceptance of the abbatial office; his virtues of humility, charity, and devotion to prayer; his institution of the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed on November 2; and his remarkable ability to discern the spiritual state of others.]

[12] At another time, when the man of God was at a certain monastery of his called Vallis Aurea, on the Wednesday of the first week of Lent, which is called the beginning of the fast, when the brothers rose from the table, he secretly filled his fist with ashes and, placing bread before him, sat down to eat. And while he ate the ashes as if they were bread, so that he might also, in the Prophet's words, mingle his drink with tears, he beckoned to a brother to bring him water secretly with no one watching. The brother fulfilled the command and brought water. Water is twice changed into wine for him. But when it was brought to his lips, it was perceived to have the taste of wine. He therefore held back his hand, pushed away the cup, and by clear signs commanded the servant to bring him water. At this the servant was astonished; he was amazed and alarmed that he who had offered water was bringing back wine from the table. Yet he doubled his service: he threw out the wine, poured water, and again offered it to the one reclining. But behold, as water was again sought for drinking, wine was again found in the cup. Now therefore the holy man, recognizing the benefit of divine mercy toward him, considering that God was mercifully granting this to him, he did not refuse to receive it with thanksgiving.

CHAPTER VI.

Those who steal his goods are divinely punished.

[13] Moreover, when the man of God was staying in the city of Pavia together with King Henry, who was afterward made Emperor, and was celebrating the glory of the Lord's Nativity, it happened that a tablecloth of his, notable for the artistic workmanship of textile labor, was stolen by a sacrilegious fraud. After the man of God departed with the King, the thief who had stolen it, now feeling secure, displayed the cloth in the market of wares for sale. But while the heavenly disposition opposed him, the holy spoil could not be sold. The one who stole his tablecloth is punished by God. Three times therefore he exposed what he had stolen among the market wares, three times he subtly tried; but he could not agree at all with the buyers on the price, nor could the vendor and purchaser reach a bargain on the sale: because the divine disposition denied effect to the efforts of men. Meanwhile the punishment for this crime follows...

[The thief eventually confessed and returned the cloth. At another time, some thieves stole the pack-mule of one of Odilo's monks; the mule miraculously returned on its own. Further miracles are related, including the healing of a woman suffering from a blood disorder and the conversion of many through his preaching.]

14-16 [Odilo's remarkable power of discernment allowed him to perceive the spiritual state of those who came before him. He could distinguish by the fragrance or foulness of a person's spiritual aura what virtues or vices they were subject to. He was particularly devoted to the memory of the Blessed Virgin Mary and frequently interceded for souls in purgatory.]

17-18 [Peter Damian narrates several instances of Odilo's prophetic gifts: he foresaw the death of various brothers and prepared them for their passage. His devotion to the commemoration of the dead was legendary, and it was through a vision received by a monk traveling near a volcano in Sicily that the efficacy of his prayers for the departed was confirmed.]

[19] The institution of the commemoration of all the faithful departed on the day after All Saints' Day was Odilo's most lasting legacy. He decreed that in all the monasteries subject to Cluny, on the day after the solemnity of All Saints, a solemn commemoration should be made for all the faithful departed, with the celebration of Masses, the distribution of alms, and the singing of psalms.

[20] Among other memorable deeds, Peter Damian records that when Odilo was once making a journey through the steep paths of the Jura Alps, his pack-mule, laden with various burdens, slipped and fell headlong through the precipitous cliffs to the depths of the valley below. The servants immediately descended into the ravine and found some of the baggage scattered about but unharmed. However, they noticed that the Sacramentary, written in golden letters, together with certain glass vessels, was missing. Leaving these aside, they entered their lodging, refreshed their weary bodies, and rested in the nocturnal silence. Glass vessels and a book miraculously unharmed in the precipice and rain. But in the morning, rising early and returning quickly to the place, searching more carefully through every byway, they found everything they had suspected was lost: the glass vessels were found unharmed, and the gilded book, although the weather had been rainy, was not touched at all by any flooding of the rains. Thus by the merits of the blessed man, the headlong fall could not break the glass, and the flood of rains could not drench the codex.

[21] On one occasion Emperor Henry, while reclining at the table set before him, He restores a broken glass vessel by his prayers. had a very precious vessel made entirely of glass and composed with the art of Alexandrian workmanship brought to him, filled with ground spices. He immediately called two chaplains of the royal court, namely Albericus and Landulphus, one of whom afterward became Bishop of Como, and the other of Turin. He handed the vessel to them and sent through them a gift of fragrant nectar to the blessed man Odilo. The chaplains offered the vessel to the holy man humbly, as was fitting, and returned meanwhile to the King's banquet, intending to come back for it later. But shortly afterward, as is the custom of human curiosity -- that it gazes eagerly at anything new and unusual -- the monks began to handle the aforesaid vessel with an inspecting gaze of admiration, and to pass it from hand to hand, carefully examining it. But behold, it slipped from the hands of those who held it carelessly, and since it was of a fragile nature, it immediately shattered. As soon as the holy man learned what had happened, he took it gravely, and especially out of paternal affection he grieved for the clerics who had left it: lest the innocent ones offend the Emperor and sustain not only the loss of favor but also the danger of royal displeasure. Soon therefore the pious Father entered the church with the brothers, and lest those who were free from blame should incur the displeasure of royal indignation, he implored the clemency of the divinity, applying himself to prayers and psalms. Now therefore, with the prayer completed, the man of God ordered the broken vessel to be brought to him. He handled it with his hands, inspected it carefully on all sides with his eyes. And behold, he found absolutely no trace of breakage in it. Then, displeased with the brothers, he rebuked them sternly: why did they complain that a vessel was broken which had remained entirely intact? They indeed, greatly astonished by the demonstration of so evident a miracle, both accepted willingly the severity of the one rebuking them and were more fervently kindled to give thanks to almighty God.

CHAPTER X.

The Commemoration of Souls Instituted by Him.

22-25 [Peter Damian describes at length the institution of the commemoration of all the faithful departed. A pilgrim from Auvergne, returning from the Holy Land, was shipwrecked on an island near Sicily where he encountered a hermit. The hermit told him that nearby there were openings in the earth from which flames emerged, and the voices of demons could be heard complaining that the souls of the dead were being snatched from their power by the alms, prayers, and Masses of Odilo and his monks. The pilgrim reported this to Odilo, who thereupon decreed that in all the monasteries subject to him, on November 2, a solemn commemoration of all the faithful departed should be celebrated -- a practice which the universal Church later adopted.]

[26] In the same Jura monastery, the man of God Odilo, once staying there, found a boy named Gerard, held by the terrible languor of the falling sickness. He fell very often as if a lunatic, and the assault of the deadly languor was so accustomed to overwhelm him that neither voice, nor memory, nor indeed any function of his members remained in him, and he differed almost nothing from a dead man. The man of God, mercifully stooping down to him, enjoined the brothers to beseech God's mercy for him. He cures the falling sickness by the Holy Eucharist and holy water. He himself approached the most holy altar to celebrate Mass and admonished the sick man also to be present. Soon he gave him the gift of the saving Eucharist. Then, as was his custom, he gave him to drink sanctified water from the chalice of Blessed Maiolus. Without delay all sickness immediately departed from the boy, the desired health followed; and thus through the merits of the blessed man, the soundness of his restored vigor remained.

27-28 [Further miraculous incidents are described, including a pack-mule that fell from a precipice yet was found unharmed, along with precious glass vessels and a gilded book that survived intact despite rain and the fall. Also narrated is the story of a brother who was cured of blindness.]

29-34 [Peter Damian continues narrating the virtues and last days of Odilo. He describes his constant devotion to prayer and the divine office, his love of sacred reading, and his remarkable generosity to the poor. He relates how Odilo, when traveling, would strip off his own garments to clothe the dead or the destitute. His governance of the rapidly growing number of Cluniac monasteries is praised. Even in extreme old age and illness, he maintained his presence at the canonical hours and his austere mode of life. His final illness at Souvigny is described, along with his preparation for death, his reception of the last sacraments, and his peaceful passing. After his death, many miracles occurred at his tomb, confirming the sanctity of his life.]

[Additional sections describe Odilo's appearance after death to various people: to a monk at the monastery of Limoges, to a religious woman at Pavia, and to others, assuring them of his blessed state and interceding for the souls of the faithful departed. These post-mortem apparitions confirmed both the reality of purgatorial suffering and the efficacy of prayers and Masses for the dead -- the very practice Odilo had so strenuously promoted during his lifetime.]

[35] In the following Lent, Lawrence of holy and venerable memory, Archbishop of the See of Amalfi, who was powerful in letters and bilingual -- knowing both Greek and Latin -- and what is far more excellent, was distinguished by the splendor of a praiseworthy life, being then at Rome, fell asleep in the Lord. When his body had been brought into the church, a certain honorable Cleric named Albero, in a corner of that same church, gave his weary limbs to slumber. Likewise to another at Rome. When suddenly, while he was still almost awake, the blessed man appeared to him, and the Cleric immediately said to him: "My Lord, when and why have you come here?" "I have come," he said, "to the funeral rites of my once dearest friend, the Lord Archbishop Lawrence; and when they were completed, I was unwilling to depart before seeing you." And with these words, the likeness of the speaker vanished. The man of the Lord, therefore, because he lived rightly, died happily; and because he led a wonderful life, he rightly shone with miracles. For the life of this blessed man is like a golden tablet, into which we set, as it were, certain pearls and gems when we intermix the miracles of virtues shining among his deeds. At his venerable tomb there still shine new signs of virtues as well, He is illustrious for miracles. which we consider it superfluous to insert here, since we see them already committed to writing by others. Consulting therefore the weariness of the reader, we are content with these things that we have briefly touched upon, to the honor and glory of our Redeemer Jesus Christ, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and * is glorified forever and ever. Amen.

\* variant: Ninivite.

\* glorified.

ELEVATION OF SAINT ODILO.

[The text continues with a brief account of the elevation or translation of the relics of Saint Odilo, celebrated on June 21, describing how his body was found incorrupt and was transferred with great solemnity.]