Odilia of Cologne

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St. Odilia of Cologne

Odilia von Köln (also Ottilie ; † around 451 possibly in Cologne ) was a Christian martyr and is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church . In the Evangelical Church in Germany she is considered a memorable witness of faith.

Lore

Little is known about Odilia's life. She is said to have been the daughter of a British king and is considered a consort of St. Ursula von Köln , with whom she, together with a group of young women (the legendary eleven thousand virgins ), is said to have come from there to Cologne on a pilgrimage to Rome . She was one of the eleven main virgins, i.e. the royal daughters, who, according to legend, were each accompanied by a thousand virgins. Barbarians (according to the Ursula legend, the Huns ) intercepted the ships traveling along the Rhine at the gates of Cologne and killed the virgins when they resisted attempts by the Huns to dissuade them from Christianity or to rape them.

Relics

Odile shrine in Mariënlof Abbey at Borgloon-Kerniel
Beyenburger monastery church

In the spring of 1287, St. Odilia Johannes von Eppa , a lay brother of the Order of the Holy Cross , who appeared in the monastery in Paris and told him that God had commissioned her to be Patroness of the Lords of the Cross in the future. She is also said to have told him that her relics could be found in Arnulf's orchard near St. Gereon in Cologne, near a pear tree, and asked him to ask permission to retrieve them. At first the superior refused. As a result, Odilia is said to have appeared twice more, so that the prior finally gave permission and John put a priest, Father Louis, at his side. Three urns with the relics of Odilias and her companions Ida and Emma were found at the predicted location. After the archbishop confirmed the find, the remains were taken to the Mother House of the Lords of the Cross in Huy . Odilia is said to have ordered this transfer as well. Some of the relics remained in Cologne, namely a phalanx, a rib and her head. In Cologne and on the way to Huy, some miraculous healings , including paralysis and blindness , are said to have occurred near the relics . That is why Odilia is called upon in the Roman Catholic Church for good eyesight and physical suffering. Through the events described, the Knights of the Cross became known in Germany.

In Huy the relics of St. Odilia placed in a wooden shrine painted with scenes from the life of Odilia in 1292. The saint was venerated in eight Cologne churches, in the Kreuzherrenkloster in Aachen ( Brandenburg (Sief) ) and Schwarzenbroich and in the Benedictine abbey of Brauweiler . 1645 is reported of the veneration of her relics there and in the Cistercian convent of St. Apern. In 1797 the Huy monastery was destroyed in the French Revolution . The relics were saved by a priest, but the order lost them.

After the dissolution of the Knights of the Cross, the bones and the shrine were taken to their former Mariënlof Abbey in Kerniel, now Borgloon in Flanders , in 1930 . In 1949 the relics were returned to the order. They were first transferred in a solemn procession to the Kreuzherrenkloster in Diest in Belgium. In 1952, a large portion of one of her relics was brought to Onamia , Minnesota , where it is kept in a shrine in the seminary chapel. In the course of the return of the Knights of the Cross to Wuppertal - Beyenburg in 1964 , parts of Odilias relics from Belgium were also transferred to the Kreuzkapelle of the Beyenburg monastery church of St. Maria Magdalena . The associated Steinhaus monastery was abandoned at the beginning of the 19th century as part of secularization .

For centuries it was the custom of the Knights of the Cross to bless water in Odilia's name by immersing their relics in it, with the request to God to give the water strength against all diseases and ailments. There are said to have been numerous healings, especially with eye problems. Even today, the shrine in Onamia claims to receive thousands of requests to be included in the novenas , which are held there on every 5th and 17th of the month and, as a national novena, from July 10th to 18th numerous letters of thanks.

Remembrance day

Attributes

As the patron saint of the Lords of the Cross, Odilia is represented with the standard of the order and the motto of the order “I have chosen the cross”. Because of the healings of blind and eye sufferers attributed to her, one of her iconographic attributes , based on the model of the Alsatian Odilia , probably due to a confusion with the same, also includes a book with two eyes. As a martyr, she is also represented with a martyr's palm .

swell

Web links

See also

  • Odilia , patron saint of Alsace

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Odilia of Cologne on the website of the shrine in Onamia ( Memento from August 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ Odilia von Cologne on Catholic Online
  3. ↑ Medard Barth: The holy Odilia. Patroness of Alsace. Your Cult in People and Church , Volume 2, Society for Alsatian Church History, Strasbourg, 1938, pp. 270-271.
  4. ↑ Wolfgang Schmid: Karl IV. And the holy Odilia in Klaus Herbers, Peter Rückert (editor): Pilgrim saints and their memoria , p. 42.


personal data
SURNAME Odilia of Cologne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Martyr and saint
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century or 5th century
PLACE OF BIRTH uncertain: Britain
DATE OF DEATH at 451
Place of death uncertain: Cologne