Odo Ydonc

Who is Odo Ydonc?

Odo Ydonc was a 13th century Premonstratensian prelate. The first recorded appearance of Odo was when he witnessed a charter by Donnchadh, Earl of Carrick, on 21 July 1225. In this document he is already Abbot of Dercongal, incidentally the first Abbot of Dercongal to appear on record.

Dercongal Abbey, which is Gaelic or Irish Doire Conghaill, "oak-wood of St Congall", was a recently established house of Premonstratensian canons, perhaps founded by Alan, Lord of Galloway, but Odo's appearance is indeed the first time we know about the abbey's existence. An abbot of Dercongal, unnamed but surely Odo, was recorded as a papal mandatory in a document of Paisley Abbey on 18 December the same year.

It is unknown from what point or until what point Odo held the abbacy of Dercongal, but by 11 March 1235, when he next appeared on the record, he was merely a former abbot, and thus had been demoted in the intervening period. This appearance in the sources occurs because the Prior of Whithorn and the canons of Whithorn Priory chose to elect Odo as their own candidate to succeed Bishop Walter as Bishop of Galloway; as Odo was a fellow Premonstratensian and indeed a canon of Whithorn, he was thus "one of them" and a natural choice.