Odo of Novara

ON BLESSED ODO THE CARTHUSIAN, AT TAGLIACOZZO IN ITALY.

Around the year of Christ 1230.

Odo the Carthusian, at Tagliacozzo in Italy (B.)

[1] We have not found the name of Odo the Carthusian in any Martyrology; yet it is well established that through his miracles and the devout concourse of people to his sepulchre, he has been so celebrated for four centuries and more that Pope Gregory IX, who held office from the year 1227 to August 22, 1241, The sanctity of Blessed Odo, took up the matter of enrolling him among the Saints. Abraham Bzovius published his life from the records of the Roman Curia in volume 13 of his Annals, at the year 1240, no. 15; His life, and from him more briefly George Garnefelt in his catalogue of certain Carthusian Saints, appended to the life of Nicholas Albergati.

[2] Tagliacozzo, where he lived, The place of his dwelling. (called Taliacorum by Bzovius, Taliequitium by Sabellicus, as Leander testifies) is a highly respectable town, and not unequal to many cities of the region in the size of its population, as the same Leander attests; it is situated between Tivoli and Lake Fucino, closer to the latter.

LIFE FROM ABRAHAM BZOVIUS.

Odo the Carthusian, at Tagliacozzo in Italy (B.)

From Bzovius.

CHAPTER I.

The various virtues, miracles in life, and death of Blessed Odo.

[1] Around this time there lived Odo, born at Novara. Having professed the Carthusian order, he advanced so far in the religious life that, when his reputation for holiness had spread, he was elected Abbot of the monastery of the city of Zadar in the province of Slavonia. Blessed Odo, elected Abbot, suffers many things: When he arrived there, he suffered so many insults from the Bishop and diocesan of that place that, consulting for peace and tranquillity, he chose to yield both the honor and the burden. Wherefore, going to Pope Clement III, he resigned the aforesaid office into his hands, He resigns his office. since he could not duly fulfill it because of the Bishop's persecutions.

[2] Departing from the Roman Curia, he came to Tagliacozzo, and there, somewhat exhausted by the journey and wishing to rest, he was received as a guest by Aduhisa, a most religious woman who was serving as Abbess of the monastery of SS. Cosmas and Damian. When after a few days he was preparing to leave, Aduhisa, having observed the old man's integrity, tranquillity, humility, and piety, and considering the benefit that the presence of a holy man could confer upon the monastery, approached him with humble entreaties not to depart but to spend his life in that monastery. He dwells at Tagliacozzo. When Odo said that his own institute did not permit this, Aduhisa summoned her nephew, Lord Berand of Tagliacozzo, and sent him to Pope Clement III (to whom she was related by blood) to obtain from him a license for Odo, whom she wished as a present example of holy life, to remain in her monastery. Setting out for Rome, he obtained from the Pontiff letters sealed with the leaden seal granting this, and brought them to her.

[3] Aduhisa, therefore having her desire, built a small cell according to Odo's wishes beside the monastery, His austerity in clothing and food: in which the man of God made a wooden bed resembling a gridiron, with a mattress of cheap sacking stuffed with rough twigs; and there he led a most holy life. He wore rough woolen garments with straw outer coverings; he continually used a hairshirt next to his bare skin. He never tasted meat. His solitude: At all times except Sundays he fasted on Lenten fare, and often ate only a little bread. During Lent he afflicted his body daily with disciplines, except on Sundays. He left his cell only to go to the church, where, having most devoutly and with tears celebrated the solemn rites of the Mass, he preached. He admonished and encouraged in good those who came to him. His manual labor: Whatever time remained, as his advanced age permitted, he spent in manual exercises, whence calluses also appeared on the joints of his hands.

[4] He was distinguished by many miracles. For John Bartholomew of Tagliacozzo, suffering from scrofula on both sides of his throat, He heals scrofula: was freed by the holy man with the sign of the cross.

[5] Water is turned into wine for him. When the Presbyter Nicolaus de Monacho once offered Odo water to drink, as soon as he received it he tasted that it had been changed into wine.

[6] A certain Silvaticus, afflicted with continual migraine, having found no medicine to benefit him, He cures migraine. came to Odo and humbly asked for a remedy. The holy man answered: "Why do you test me, brother, a sinful man bearing putrid flesh? Depart from me. May the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, heal you." With these words, when he had begun to weep, Silvaticus obtained his health and blessed God in His Saint.

[7] Nearly a hundred years old, when he was compelled to pay nature's debt, on January 13, having convened the Clergy, He predicts his own death. he admonished them to the love of God and added: "Tomorrow at this hour I shall depart from the world. I beg you in the name of God, confer no worldly honor upon me, but place my body only in the poor sacking which you now see me wearing, and set this wooden cross (which he had made with his own hands) at my head in the tomb." On the following day, therefore, when the hour at which he had predicted he would die arrived, he was praying with the greatest devotion, saying: "Wait for me, Lord; He sees Christ. behold, I come to you." When the surrounding Clergy asked him to whom he was saying this, he answered: "Already I see my King; He dies. already I stand in His presence"—and stretching his hands upward, rising erect from his bed, he departed this life, never polluted by any stain of the flesh.

[8] He heals scrofula. At the time of his death, a certain Nicholas, whose throat was covered with scrofula, running to the dying Odo, drew his hand over the scrofula and put them to flight.

[9] Another dead man yields his place to him. After death God testified to the man's sanctity with innumerable miracles. For when the Clergy were consigning his body to burial before the doors of the church of SS. Cosmas and Damian, in the tomb in which he was to be placed the scattered bones of another dead person were lying; and as soon as the body of Blessed Odo was brought there, those bones of their own accord, yielding place, collected themselves together and piled up in a corner of the monument.

[10] When he had rested there for nearly forty years, he appeared to the Archpriest Oderisius, He commands a more honorable burial for himself. warning him to order the Abbess to transfer his body to a more honorable place as soon as possible. Oderisius, attributing this to phantasmic delusions, neglected to carry out the command. But the Saint, appearing to him a second and third time, admonished him more severely not to disregard his wish. Wherefore Oderisius related the repeated vision to the Abbess, who, with the Clergy of the town assembled, arranged for his body to be transferred to the church of SS. Cosmas and Damian. Miracles at the opening of the tomb. While the Clergy were preparing to perform the proper ceremonies, the people, impatient of delay, attempted with various wooden and iron instruments to open the tomb from which the body was to be transferred. This they could not do without a miracle, until the Clergy approached and the tomb, sprinkled with holy water and fumigated with incense, was uncovered without any difficulty. Immediately the sweetest fragrance, stirring the minds of men to devotion, began to breathe from the blessed body, The body found incorrupt after forty years. and that body was found whole and—as some who had known him in life asserted—with its color not even diminished.

[11] To this body came Palumba, wife of John of Montesciano, Blindness removed by his aid, and tumors: who had been deprived of the sight of her right eye for six years, and was healed; and the same happened to her daughter. Nicholas of Blasius was also then freed from scrofula. He was therefore honorably buried near the altar of SS. Cosmas and Damian.

[12] When the things that had happened at his translation were made known, Other diseases: those oppressed by illnesses and lacking help in every necessity flocked from all sides to the tomb of the Saint and obtained grace through his intercession. Maria of Tivoli, a demoniac for eighteen years, Demons expelled: who bit people harmfully and spat in everyone's faces, was brought to the tomb of the Blessed One, and crying out, "Old man, why do you torment me?" she vomited forth many evil spirits (as she herself testified).

[13] Another woman also, of the territory of Celano, thirty years old, a demoniac from birth, was freed.

[14] A noble maiden, daughter of Berin. of Pilio, afflicted with epilepsy An epileptic healed: to such an extent that she remained as if lifeless without speech for three days, was visited by the Blessed One in her sleep, who signed her with the sign of the cross and admonished her to come to his sepulchre; which having done, she recovered.

[15] A cripple, a one-eyed woman, an asthmatic: The daughter of Nicholas Ray of Sorbo, crippled for seven years, was also healed when he appeared to her. Maria of Cellae, deprived of the sight of her left eye for twenty years, having suffered asthma for seven years and tortured by a fistula in the groin for three years, was freed at the tomb of the blessed man. A cripple and mute man: Martin of the same place, crippled in hands and feet, deaf and mute, after visiting the sepulchre of the divine man, returned home healthy.

[16] Two deaf men: Theodore, son of John Porreus, and Roger, a soldier of Luculo, both deaf; also John Girandus of Tagliacozzo, deprived of the sight of his right eye for two years, A one-eyed man: were freed by the touch of the wooden cross that had been found at the Saint's head in his sepulchre.

[17] A man with gout: A certain monk of Crypta Ferrata, afflicted with gout and arthritis, hearing of the power of Odo, after he had obtained some scraps of his clothing and invoked the Saint, recovered his former health.

[18] Moved by these and very many other miracles, the Supreme Pontiff Gregory IX, in this year 1240, An inquiry into his virtues and miracles is conducted for canonization. the thirteenth of his pontificate, on the fourth day before the Ides of December, commissioned the Abbot of the diocese of Rieti and Brother Peter, Custos of the Friars Minor of Marsica, in the diocese of Marsica, to conduct an inquiry into the life and miracles of this holy man. From their public instrument, communicated to us by the illustrious and reverend Lord Paolo de Angelis, Abbot, and familiar and table companion of our most holy Lord Paul V on account of his virtues and learning, we have transcribed this account.

a The year 1240.

b Garnefelt has "of Novara."

c Zadar, commonly Zara, is a city of the Liburnians in Illyricum, an archiepiscopal see. Ptolemy in table 5 of Europe calls it Ἰάδερα κολωνία. So also Pliny, book 3, chapter 21: "Again on the mainland, the colony of Zadar."

d He held office from January 6, 1188, to April 10, 1191.

e Near the Fucino (a celebrated lake in the Marsi, about sixty-seven miles from Rome) there are towns, says Leander: Sanctapetitum, San Donato, Paterno, etc. All of these, however, are far surpassed by Celano in both the size of its population and its wealth, situated on a modest hill facing south at the foot of very high mountains. The most noble Cibo family of Genoa possesses it, and Lake Fucino has in our time commonly received the name of Celano.

f Pilium is a village or small town, also mentioned by Leander among the Aequicoli.

g Leander: "Then at the very summit of the mountain is Cellae, with so difficult and rugged an approach that the place can scarcely be said to exist at all." They are close to Tagliacozzo.

h In Cicero's Tusculan villa, which according to Pliny's testimony, book 22, chapter 6, had formerly belonged to the Dictator Sulla, there is the monastery of St. Mary of Crypta Ferrata, of the Greek rite of St. Basil.