Odile of Alsace
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St Odile of Alsace (Obernai, Dept. Bas-Rhin, c. 662 - c. 720 at Mount Ste. Odile) is a saint venerated in the Roman Catholic Church, although according to the current liturgical calendar her feastday (13 December) is not officially commemorated. She is a patroness of good eyesight.
She was the daughter of Etichon (Athich), Duke of Alsace. She was born blind. Her father did not want her because she was a girl and blind, so her mother Bethswinda had her brought to Palma (perhaps present day Baume-les-Dames in Burgundy), where she was raised.
When she was twelve, the itinerant bishop Saint Erhard of Regensburg was led, by an angel it was said, to Palma where he baptised her Odile (Sol Dei), whereupon she miraculously recovered her sight.
Her younger brother Hughes had her brought home again, which enraged Etichon so much that he killed his son. Odile miraculously revived him, and left home again.
She fled across the Rhine to a cave or cavern in one of two places (depending on the source: the Musbach valley near Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, or Arlesheim near Basel, Switzerland. In the cave, she hid from her father. When he tried to follow her, he was hurt by falling rocks and gave up.
When Etichon fell ill, Odile returned to nurse him. He finally gave up resisting his headstrong daughter and founded the Augustine monastic community of Mont Ste. Odile in the Hochwald (Hohwald), Bas-Rhin, where Odile became abbess and where Etichon was later buried. Some years later Odile was shown the site of Niedermünster at the foot of the mountain by St. John the Baptist in a vision and founded a second monastery there, including a hospital. Here, the head and an arm of St. Lazarus of Marseille were displayed but later transferred to Andlau. The buildings of the Niedermünster burned down in 1542, but the local well is still said to cure eye diseases.
St. Odile died about 720 at the convent of Niedermünster. At the insistent prayers of her sisters she was returned to life, but after describing the beauties of the afterlife to them, she took communion all by herself and died again. She was buried at Ste. Odile.
St. Odile was made the Patron saint of Alsace in 1807 by pope Pius VII. Her feast day is 13 December. She is the patroness of ocular afflictions and ear diseases; her attribute is a pair of eyes on a book. The larkspur is connected to St. Odile as well and is believed to cure eye diseases in popular medicine and superstition.
St. Odile pilgrim's chapel, near Freiburg
In the valley of the Musbach, a small river that runs near Freiburg im Breisgau, pilgrims have venerated St. Odile for centuries. In ca. 1300 a chapel was built; the present church was started in 1503 and finished in the 18th century. The church is built adjacent to a spring whose water contains radon, which is supposedly beneficial to eyesight. In the 18th century the spring became part of the church building: in 1714 the source was included by enlarging the building, in 1780 the cave with the source in it was renovated and decorated in the fanciful style of the time.[1]
References
External links
- Short biography of St Odilia pf Alsace on the Catholic Forum website
- Short biography of St Odilia pf Alsace on the New Advent website
- Short biography of St Odilia of Alsace with many images of statues and old prayer cards
- Mont Sainte-Odile
- "The Pagan Wall of the Mount Sainte Odile", Text in basic English French original
Prayers to the patroness of good eyesight