From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   November 18th - St. Odo of Cluny   
      
   Odo (879-942) was son of noble parents who lived in the Alsace, France. They   
   attributed his birth to the miraculous intercession of St. Martin of Tours.   
   As a   
   child he was sent to the court of Fulk the Good, Count of Anjou; later he   
   went   
   to the court of William, Duke of Aquitaine.   
      
   At age 16 he became a canon of the Church of St. Martin in Tours. He   
   dedicated   
   some years of his life to the study of classic authors and Fathers of the   
   Church. In 901 he traveled to Paris to follow a course of philosophy by Remy   
   of   
   Auxerre. He also studied poetry and music, both of which he wrote and   
   practiced   
   throughout his life.   
      
   After writing several works, Odo entered the Benedictine Monastery of   
   Baume-les-Messieurs in Burgundy, where he was headmaster of the monastery   
   school. When the Monastery of Cluny was founded, he moved to it with its   
   first   
   abbot, St. Berno. In 927 he succeeded Berno as the second Abbot of Cluny.   
      
   The monastery schools he founded in Cluny shortly attracted the noblest and   
   the   
   brightest youth in the West. It became a custom to say that a prince at his   
   parent's court would not receive a better formation than the pupils of   
   Cluny.   
      
   Thanks to this holy Abbot the influence of Cluny spread out all over   
   Christendom. Popes would ask St. Odo's advice in their difficulties, and   
   Princes   
   invited him to their kingdoms to reform their monasteries. He was so   
   successful   
   that he was called the "restorer of monasteries." He died on November 18,   
   942.   
      
      
   Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)   
      
   Everything in this biography is interesting. It is curious to observe the   
   names   
   of the persons and the places where St. Odo received his formation.   
      
   He was sent to the court of Count of Anjou, Fulk the Good. At that time   
   'good'   
   did not signify a charitable man, but rather a man who achieved the   
   honorable   
   things that he set out to do. It signified, therefore, the man who fulfilled   
   his   
   duties. This was Count Fulk: amiable and gentile with his friends and   
   inferiors,   
   but terrible against his enemies.   
      
   Then St. Odo went to the court of William of Aquitaine. Aquitaine was one of   
   the   
   greatest French feudal estates in the most poetic part of medieval France.   
   We   
   can imagine Duke William on his carved oak throne discussing with some of   
   his   
   subjects the affairs of his fief one late afternoon. Below the room, a   
   stairwell   
   opens to an large patio where knights and pages are training for battle.   
      
   The Angelus bell rings, and all stop what they are doing, stand, and pray in   
   homage of Our Lady. Then, life continues. In an atmosphere like this St. Odo   
   was   
   raised. You see that it is quite different from that of the skyscrapers and   
   busy   
   streets to which many of us are accustomed.   
      
   St. Odo, who knew such interesting persons, then went to Paris to learn   
   philosophy, poetry and music. You can imagine a student of that time,   
   wearing   
   his colorful habit and a hat with a long feather, meandering through the   
   streets   
   of Paris with his lute. He stops at the borders of the Seine, plays and   
   sings a   
   little, then continues on in the very poetic atmosphere of life at that   
   time.   
      
   Even if St. Odo were not one of those students, the description reflects   
   well   
   the university atmosphere he entered. We have the impression we are seeing   
   figures in stain glass windows or illuminated manuscripts.   
      
   The fact that he simultaneously studied philosophy, music, and poetry   
   reveals an   
   expansive spirit, again very different than those of our days who study   
   philosophy. Not rarely they are stern, square-minded persons with a poor   
   sense   
   of reality. St. Odo cultivated both poetry and music his entire life. So,   
   you   
   can imagine how he would periodically set aside his hard work as Abbot of   
   Cluny,   
   and go to the chapel to play his musical instrument. He plays alone, his   
   notes   
   echoing through the arches of the chapel. He is a saint piously playing his   
   musical instrument in that sacral place. We should not be surprised if at   
   times   
   an Angel would appear to accompany his music with celestial song.   
      
   Then he entered the Benedictine Order and went to the monastery of   
   Beaume-les-Messieurs, a beautiful name; afterward he accompanied St. Berno   
   to   
   Cluny when this monastery was founded. After the death of St. Berno, he was   
   chosen Abbot of Cluny.   
      
   We should consider that in many different ways the soul of the Middle Ages   
   was   
   Cluny. It was a great Benedictine Abbey that later had more than 1,000   
   abbeys   
   spread over Europe dependant on it. It exerted an enormous influence and did   
   an   
   immense good. For example, Pope St. Gregory VII was a monk of Cluny, and   
   this   
   Pontiff in many senses was a living symbol of the Middle Ages.   
      
   So, after studying philosophy, poetry and music, after serving and governing   
   in   
   Beaume-les-Messieurs, St. Odo became one of the founders of Cluny. That is,   
   we   
   find him at the very root of the best that the Catholic Church gave in that   
   era.   
      
   The schools he founded at Cluny attracted persons of the best families in   
   Europe. Some progressivists hate this apostolate with children of good   
   families.   
   They argue that one must make apostolate with the poor, not with the elites   
   of   
   society. I have never seen a greater blindness. If you want to do good for   
   everyone, you should take special care to do so with those who, in their   
   turn,   
   can pass on that goodness to others.   
      
   Someone might object to a person who founded a school of medicine: "You   
   should   
   be taking care of the sick." It is nonsense. If someone founds a school of   
   medicine, he is taking the greatest care of the sick, because he is forming   
   the   
   physicians who will cure everyone. Analogously, when someone makes an   
   apostolate   
   with persons of good families, he is potentially doing a good for all   
   society,   
   over which they will naturally exert a great influence.   
      
   We have the example of St. Odo. In an epoch when many people were   
   illiterate,   
   instead of opening schools for the simple people, the first thing St. Odo   
   did   
   was to open schools for the elites. Doing this he attracted noble youth from   
   all   
   over Europe and gave them the best formation possible. Hence he produced a   
   movement with enormous dynamism that changed the face of Europe.   
      
   As almost always happened in the Middle Ages with saints like this, St. Odo   
   was   
   invited to be a counselor of Popes and Princes.   
      
   His life is worthy of being illustrated in stain glass windows. It gives us   
   nostalgia for an era that we did not know, but that raises in our souls a   
   longing for the Reign of Mary that, we are sure of that, will be many times   
   more   
   splendid than the Middle Ages.   
      
   Let us ask St. Odo to intercede with Our Lady to bring the Reign of Mary   
   soon   
   for the greatest glory of God.   
      
   See Images at:   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)