Saint of the Day

Jan 1 – St Odilo (962-1049) 5th abbot of Cluny

Summary: St Odilo , (Odo) abbot is famous for his reform of the Benedictine monastic tradition beginning in the monastery of Cluny. He is also the originator of the celebration of ‘All Souls’ Day.

Patrick Duffy reviews the life of St Odilo.

The Benedictine Abbey of Cluny
Cluny was founded in 909 as a community of Benedictine monks subject to the Pope by William I of Aquitaine, who made over his hunting reserve to the monastery. Its first abbots were Berno and Odo.

Odilo, the Fifth Abbot

Odilo was the fifth abbot of Cluny. He came from an aristocratic family, joined the monastery as a young man and became abbot in 994. It was during his abbacy of fifty-five years that Cluny Monastery, France, became the most important monastery in western Europe. Under him the abbey became independent and its monks were able to devote their time to the celebration of the liturgy and the divine office as their main work.

Odilo was a first-class organiser, but he was also gentle and kind, especially to the needy. During his time many new houses were founded from Cluny, not only in France, but also in Italy and Spain. All were priories under the control of the abbot of Cluny and through his own strength of character Odilo was able to promote the true spirit of monasticism.

Peace-maker
Due the political influence Odilo acquired he was able to promote the Peace and Truce of God (Treuga Dei) by which military opponents ceased hostilities from Fridays to Mondays as well as during Lent and Advent. Although there was much opposition, this did hold in many French provinces.

Lover of the Poor
During the famine of 1028-33, Odilo sold or melted down much of the precious church plate so the poor could have food to eat.

Odilo and All Souls’ Day

One liturgical initiative Odilo made still remains in the Church. He set aside 2nd November to be observed in his monasteries as a day of prayer for all deceased monks. In 1915, Pope Benedict XV allowed the practice of celebrating three Masses on this day. Pope Benedict was concerned about two things: first, that people had requested Masses for the dead which had not been celebrated because of neglect or circumstances; and, second, the great slaughter of the young men of Europe which was then taking place in World War I.

Influence
Cluny became one of the biggest churches in Christendom, had a huge library and played an important in developing Gregorian chant. Odilo travelled widely, spreading the Cluniac reform. He made several visits to Rome and visited Monte Cassino. He made considerable extensions to the buildings at Cluny and although Cluny is no longer a monastery, the nearby Taizé community plays a similar cultural role with young people through its prayer life, music and liturgy.

Death of Odo

Odilo died on 1 January 1049 at Souvigny
while on visitation of the
monasteries under his control.

He was aged eighty-seven and had been abbot for fifty-five years.

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Memorable Saying for Today

Nothing is so strong as gentleness,
nothing so gentle as real strength.

~ Saint Francis de Sales ~

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Jan 1 – SOLEMNITY OF MARY, The Holy Mother of God (Theotokos)

Summary: The Blessed Virgin Mary, The Mother of God and the Redeemer.
At the Council of Ephesus (451), Mary, the mother of Jesus was proclaimed as Mother of God acknowledging the very Godhead of her Son, Jesus Christ. Today’s feast invites us to lay our hopes and plans for the new year under her motherly care and patronage

In 431 the Council of Ephesus decreed that Mary is ‘Theotokos‘ (literally “God-bearer“) because her son Jesus is one person, who is both God and man, divine and human. At the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) the bishops decided not to add any new title to or make any new definition about Mary – for example, as “Mediatrix of all graces“, as some of the more extreme Mariologists wanted at the time. Instead they went back to the tradition which saw Mary’s greatness in her act of faith, by which she became “Mother of God”,

Patrick Duffy explains.

The New Eve
At the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) the bishops decided that, rather than defining any special doctrine about Mary, it would be more ecumenical to locate any statement about Mary within the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium “On the Church” as a special chapter. In this way Mary is presented as the first and foremost of all believers, a New Eve, to reverse the trend to original sin begun by the first Eve.

Lumen Gentium
“The Virgin Mary, who at the

message of the angel received the word of God in her heart and in her body… is acknowledged and honoured as being truly the Mother of God and of the Redeemer…. Rightly, therefore, the Fathers see Mary not merely as passively engaged by God, but as freely cooperating in the work of man’s salvation through faith and obedience…. St Irenaeus says of her in his preaching: ‘the knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience: what the virgin Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by her faith’” (Lumen Gentium 53 and 56). and c/f Pope Francis devotion to ‘Our Lady, looser of knots’.

Mother of the Church

The Roman Catholic church gets this Mary-exalting title of ‘Mother of the church’ primarily from the words of Jesus to John, as He hung from the cross: ‘Behold your mother.’
Pope Paul VI showed his solidarity with this position when he declared Mary Mother of the Church (21-11-1964). And in his encyclical Marialis Cultus (1974) he stated: This celebration, assigned to 1st January in conformity with the ancient liturgy of Rome, is meant to commemorate the central part Mary played in the mystery of salvation.

Old year/New year

However, one has to acknowledge that today most people are thinking at this time about the end of the old year and the hopes they have for the new. And since the introduction of a Day of Prayer for World Peace, the liturgy of this day can seem a bit overloaded. So culturally this feast of the ‘Theotokos’ may not quite hit the mark or be given the prominence it deserves.

A Central Theme of our Faith
Catholics are proud to hold Mary’s Motherhood of God as a central theme of their faith.

****************World Day of Peace

Today we also celebrate our World Day of Peace when we pray for justice and peace for each other and the whole world in the name of our God our loving and common Father.

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Memorable Quotes about Mary and Ourselves

“Never be afraid of loving the Blessed Virgin too much.
You can never love her more than Jesus did.”

~ St Maximilian Kolbe ~

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