Odo of Glanfeuil

Who is Odo of Glanfeuil?

Odo of Glanfeuil was a ninth-century Benedictine abbot of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, a historian, and hagiographer.

He entered the Abbey of Saint Maur de Glanfeuil not later than 856 and became its abbot in 861. In 868 Odo became also Abbot of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés.

In 864 he issued a "Life of St. Maurus", a revision, he claimed, of a "Life" originally written by Faustus of Montecassino, which makes St. Maurus the founder and first abbot of Glanfeuil, and is the chief source for the legendary sojourn of that saint in France. It is so anachronistic that it is generally believed to have been composed by Odo himself, though Mabillon and a few modern writers still ascribe it to Faustus [Mabillon in "Annales O.S.B.", I, 629-54, and in "Acta SS. Ord. S. Ben.", I, 259 sq.; Adlhoch in "Studien und Mitteilungen aus dem Benediktiner und Cistercienser Orden", XXVI and XXVII; Plaine, ibid., XVI; Huillier, "Etude critique des actes de S. Maur de Glanfeuil"; Halphen in "Revue historique" LXXXVIII, 287-95]. The "Life" is printed in "Acta SS." January, II, 321-332.

Another work of Odo, "Miracula S. Mauri, sive restauratio monasterii Glannafoliensis", has some historical value. The author narrates how he fled with the relics of St. Maurus from the Normans in 862 and how the relics were finally transferred to the monastery of St-Maur-des-Fossés near Paris in 868. It is printed in "Acta Sanctorum,", January, II, 334-42.