Oda the Severe

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This article is about the Archbishop of Canterbury. For the Scottish princess, see Saint Oda.
Oda
Archbishop of Canterbury
Enthroned {{{began}}}
Ended 958
Predecessor Wulfhelm
Successor Aelfsige
Consecration 941
Born unknown
Died 2 June 958
Christianity Portal

Sainthood
Bishop; Archbishop
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church
Commemorated 4 July
Attributes Archbishop holding a chalice
Saints Portal

Saint Oda or Odo, called the Good or the Severe (d. 958) was a 10th-century Archbishop of Canterbury in England.

[edit] Biography

Oda's parents were Danish, and he may have been born in East Anglia.[1] His father was said to have been a Dane that came to England in 865, and presumably settled in East Anglia. Oda's nephew Oswald of Worcester later became Archbishop of York. In the Life of Saint Oswald, Oda is said to have joined the household of a pious nobleman, whom he accompanied to Rome on pilgrimage. While on pilgrimage, Oda healed the nobleman's illness. Other stories have Oda fighting under Edward the Elder then becoming a priest.[2] Some sources state that he became a monk at Fleury-sur-Loire in France.[2][3]

Whatever his upbringing, Oda was consecrated Bishop of Ramsbury between 909 and 927.[4] He was said to have fought alongside King Æthelstan to the battle of Brunanburh in 937.[5] He arranged a truce between Olaf III Guthfrithson, king of Dublin and York, and Edmund I, king of England.[2] While he was bishop of Ramsbury, Athelstan sent him to France to arrange the return of King Louis IV of France to the throne of France. Louis had been in exile in England for a number of years.[6]

In 941 he succeeded Wulfhelm as Archbishop of Canterbury[7], and he appears to have been an able and conscientious ruler of the see. He helped King Edmund of England with his legislation, as well as issuing ecclesiastical rules, or constitutions.[2] His Constitutions of Oda are the first surviving constitutions of a tenth century English ecclesiastical reformer.[8] Oda reworked some statutes from 786 to form his updated code, and one item that was dropped were any clauses dealing with paganism.[9]

At the death of King Edred of England in 955, Oda was one of the reciepients of a bequest, in his case it was a large amount of gold.[10] He was probably behind the reestablishment of a bishopric at Elmham, as the line of bishops in that see starts with Eadwulf of Elmham in 956.[11] He had great influence with King Edwy, whom he had crowned in 956, but in late 957 Oda joined Edwy's rival and brother Edgar who had been proclaimed king of the Mercians in 957, while Edwy continued to rule Wessex. In early 958 Oda annulled the marriage of Edwy and his wife Elgiva who were too closely related.[12]

The annulment of Edwy's marriage was evidently political. In the medieval church "incest" was defined as marriage with 9 degrees of consaguinity and Edwy's marriage was at these 9 degrees. However given the population size of England at this time this must have applied to most of the population. Elgiva, however was also Edwy's foster-sister, yet his brother Edgar also married his first wife in exactly the same circumstances. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip are in fact more closely related. Elgiva was later mutlilated, sold into slavery and murdered. Edwy's cause of death shortly afterwards is unknown.

He was a supporter of Dunstan's monastic reforms,[5] and was a reforming agent in the church along with Cenwald bishop of Worcester and Ælfheah bishop of Winchester. He also built extensively, and re-roofed the cathedral after raising the walls higher.[2] In 948, Oda took Saint Wilfrid's relics from Ripon.[13] Frithegod's verse Life of Wilfrid has a preface that was written by Oda, in which the archbishop claimed that he rescued the relics from Ripon, which he described as "decayed" and "thorn-covered".[14]

It was Dunstan who gave him the posthumous nickname "The Good", but he was otherwise known as "The Severe".

He died on 2 June 958[7] and is regarded as a saint, with a feast day of 4 July.[15]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Brooks, Nicholas (1984). The Early History of the Church of Canterbury: Christ Church from 597 to 1066. London: Leicester University Press, p. 222-224. ISBN 0-7185-0041-5. 
  2. ^ a b c d e Cubitt, Catherine and Marios Costambeys, "Oda (d. 958)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford University Press, 2004 Online Edition accessed November 7, 2007
  3. ^ Stenton, F. M. Anglo-Saxon England Third Edition Oxford:Oxford University Press 1971 ISBN 978-0-19-280139-5 p. 448
  4. ^ Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology, Third Edition, revised, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 220. ISBN 0-521-56350-X. 
  5. ^ a b Delaney, John J. Dictionary of Saints Second Edition Doubleday: New York 2003. ISBN 0385135947 p. 464
  6. ^ Stenton, F. M. Anglo-Saxon England Third Edition Oxford:Oxford University Press 1971 ISBN 978-0-19-280139-5 p. 347
  7. ^ a b Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology, Third Edition, revised, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 214. ISBN 0-521-56350-X. 
  8. ^ Stafford, Pauline Unification and Conquest: A Political and Social History of England in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries London: Edward Arnold 1989 ISBN 0-7131-6532-4 p. 9-10
  9. ^ Blair, John P. (2005). The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 481 footnote 252. ISBN 0-19-921117-5. 
  10. ^ Fletcher, Richard Bloodfeud: Murder and Revenge in Anglo-Saxon England Oxford: Oxford University Press 2003 ISBN 0-19-516136-X p. 24
  11. ^ Stenton, F. M. Anglo-Saxon England Third Edition Oxford:Oxford University Press 1971 ISBN 978-0-19-280139-5 p. 437
  12. ^ Stafford, Pauline Unification and Conquest: A Political and Social History of England in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries London: Edward Arnold 1989 ISBN 0-7131-6532-4 p. 48-49
  13. ^ Blair, John P. (2005). The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 314. ISBN 0-19-921117-5. 
  14. ^ Brooks, Nicholas (1984). The Early History of the Church of Canterbury: Christ Church from 597 to 1066. London: Leicester University Press, p. 53. ISBN 0-7185-0041-5. 
  15. ^ Walsh, Michael. A New Dictionary of Saints: East and West. London: Burns & Oates. 2007. ISBN 086012438X p. 454-455

[edit] External links

Roman Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Aethelstan		 Bishop of Ramsbury
c925–941		 Succeeded by
Ælfric
Preceded by
Wulfhelm		 Archbishop of Canterbury
941–958		 Succeeded by
Aelfsige
Persondata
NAME Oda
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Odo
SHORT DESCRIPTION Bishop of Ramsbury; Archbishop of Canterbury
DATE OF BIRTH
PLACE OF BIRTH East Anglia
DATE OF DEATH 28 June 958
PLACE OF DEATH Canterbury, Kent

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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