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Turning grief into prayer and service.

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October 23 · Widow

St. Oda

St. Oda

Turning grief into prayer and service.

Traditional feast

October 23
1914 / pre-1969 calendar, per Baring-Gould (1897)

Current feast

Not verified yet

Represents

Widow

Their story

Adapted in modern English from Baring-Gould (1897–98) · original text below · little is known

(The surviving account on this page begins partway through the story.)

Oda was the wife of Bozo; her sister Phigberta married Bozo's brother Bertrand, and Oda's son Eudes became Duke of Aquitaine. Widowed in 688, she gave her life and fortune to the poor and built a hospital near her house, where she visited the sick every morning and evening.

Legend says Christ came to it as a youth; she fed him from a store she found overflowing, and he said: "This day thou hast fed Me in person, on other days Me in My poor," and invited her to his heavenly banquet. As she lay dying she saw him beckoning. Her relics are at Amay near Liège.

Early life

Selected sentences from the original account, unaltered.

Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 227 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.

The son of Bozo and Oda was Eudes, Duke of Aquitaine, who married Waltrudis, of Carolingian race, and died 735. One day, says the legend, our Blessed Lord came to the hospital in the form of a youth, and asked to be admitted.

What they represent

How they teach us to live

Drawn from themes in the original account

Look after people who are sick or suffering. The sick come up again and again in this story.

Give to people in need. The account records care for the poor.

Learn from the kind of life it was. Turning grief into prayer and service.

Read more

The full original · 227 words

Read Baring-Gould’s full account

Baring-Gould’s sources: Belgian Martyrologies. Authority: — A Life by an anonymous writer subsequent to her times, apparently in the 10th cent] S. Oda, widow, who is not to be confounded with S. Oda the virgin, venerated also in Belgium, but on a different day (Nov. 27), is said to have been the daughter of Childebert, son of Theodoric, King of Burgundy. When, in 613, the sons of Theodoric were murdered by order of Clothair II., Childebert, according to Fredegar, mounted a horse, rode away, and was never seen again. But in the life of S. Rusticula, abbess of Arles, we are told that she was accused to Clothair of having secretly maintained the unfortunate Childebert. Nothing more is known of him. If S. Oda were his daughter, her early days must have been overshadowed by the danger which menaced her father, and the transitory nature of earthly glory would thus have been most forcibly impressed on her mind.1 She was married to Bozo, Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony, son of Charibert, King of Aquitaine, and his wife Gisela, daughter and heiress of Amandus, Duke of Gascony. Charibert was son of Clothair II., and brother According to another account she was daughter of Gunxo, Duke of Swabia; but the dates will not allow of this relationship S. Oda.

…of Dagobert I. Bertrand, brother of Bozo, married Phigberta, sister of S. Oda. The son of Bozo and Oda was Eudes, Duke of Aquitaine, who married Waltrudis, of Carolingian race, and died 735. Bozo died in 688, and Oda, his widow, devoted the rest of her life and her fortune to the ministry of the poor and suffering.

She built a hospital near her house, in which she received the sick, and visited it morning and evening. One day, says the legend, our Blessed Lord came to the hospital in the form of a youth, and asked to be admitted. She at once led Him within. He seated himself, and she ran to her store to bring Him food. The store she found overflowing. On her placing bread in His hands, He smiled on her, and said, “ This day thou hast fed Me in person, on other days Me in My poor. I invite thee to the banquet I have prepared in My kingdom, where I shall serve and feed thee.” And He vanished away.

Many years afterwards, as she lay dying, heaven was opened to her eyes, and she saw Him whom she had waited on, standing beckoning, and saying, “ Come, for all things are ready. Enter into the joy of thy Lord.” Her relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] are preserved at Amay on the Moselle, near Li^ge.

Feast days

Feast: October 23

Nine days · Free

Pray the novena
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One short email a day for nine days. The day's prayer, a line from St. Oda's story, and a nudge to keep going.

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St. Romanus of Rouen

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St. Elfleda

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St. John Capistran

St. John Capistran

October 23 · Martyr
← All 1726 saints in the library
Sources & notes

Feast-day sources

Story sources

Sources

Credits

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain.

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain in the United States. Reproduced unedited, except for short bracketed notes in grey that we added to explain names and terms (“S.” is the old abbreviation for Saint). Some history and judgments reflect 19th-century scholarship.