Odo of Cluny ( 878 – 18 November 942) was the second abbot of Cluny. He enacted various reforms in the Cluniac system of France and Italy.
Odo was born in about 878, the son of Abbo, feudal lord of Deols, near Le Mans, and his wife Arenberga. According to the Vita later written by Odo’s disciple John, the couple had long been childless, and one Christmas-eve, Abbo prayed to Our Lady to obtain for him the gift of a son. When the child was born, his grateful father entrusted the boy to Saint Martin. Both his parents later joined monasteries. His brother Bernard also became a monk.
Four years completing a course of theological studies, including the study of philosophy under Remigius of Auxerre. Upon his return to Tours, Odo adopted a disciplined and ascetic lifestyle. One day, in reading the rule of Saint Benedict, he was confounded to see how much his life fell short of the maxims there laid down, and he determined to embrace a monastic state. The count of Anjou, his patron, refused to consent, and Odo spent almost three years in a cell, with one companion, in the practice of penance and contemplation. At length, he resolved that no impediments should any longer hinder him from consecrating himself to God in the monastic state. He resigned his canonry and secretly repaired to the monastery of Beaume, in the diocese of Besançon, where the Abbot Berno admitted him to the habit. He brought with him only his books, which consisted of about a hundred volumes.
In 927 Odo became abbot of three monasteries: Deols, Massay, and Cluny. Baume became the possession of Wido, who had been the leader of the monks that persecuted Odo when he was with them at Baume. Immediately following Berno’s death, Wido attempted to gain control of Cluny by force, but Pope John X sent a letter to Rudolf, King of the Franks to intervene. Cluny was still not finished construction when Odo became abbot, and he continued construction efforts but he ran into financial difficulties. Odo had a strong devotion to St Martin of Tours for most of his life. He continued to pray to St Martin for all of his and the monastery’s problems. One story recounts the one year, on the feast day of Martin of Tours, Odo saw an old man looking over the unfinished building. The old man then went to Odo and said that he was St Martin and that if the monks continued to persevere that he would arrange it for the money they needed to come to them. A few days later, 3000 solidi of gold were brought as a gift to Cluny.
He fell ill in 942, and sensing his approaching death, decided to return to Gaul. He stopped at the monastery of St. Julian in Tours for the celebration of the feast day of St. Martin. He developed a fever and after a lingering sickness died on November 18. During his last illness, he composed a hymn in honor of Martin. He was buried in the church of Saint Julian, but the Huguenots burnt the majority of his remains.