Blessed Odo of Cambrai

Bl. Odo of Cambrai

Bishop and confessor, also called ODOARDUS; born at Orleans, 1050; died at Anchin, 19 June, 1113. In 1087 he was invited by the canons of Tournai to teach in that city, and there soon won a great reputation. He became a Benedictine monk (1095) in St. Martin's, Tournai, of which be became abbot later. In 1005 he was chosen Bishop of Cambrai, and was consecrated during a synod at Reims. For some time after he was unable to obtain possession of his see owing to his refusal to receive investiture at the hands of Emperor Henry IV, but the latter's son Henry restored the See of Cambrai to Odo in 1106. He laboured diligently for his diocese, but in 1110 he was exiled on the ground that he had never received the cross and ring from the emperor. Odo retired to the monastery of Anchin, where he died without regaining possession of his diocese. Many of his works are lost; those extant will be found in Migne, CLX (P.L.).

G. ROGER HUDLESTON