Born in East Anglia; died 959; feast day in Canterbury formerly on June 2.
Born of Danish parents in England, Odo became bishop of Ramsbury (Wessex).
He was with King Athelstand when the king defeated the Danes, Scots, and
Northumbrians at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937.
In 942, he became archbishop of Canterbury. He tried to escape consecration
by declaring that, unlike previous archbishops, he was not a monk. He only
consented to accept the dignity after he had received the monastic habit
from the hands of the abbot of Fleury-sur-Loire in
France.
Odo played an active role in secular as well as ecclesiastical affairs
during the reigns of Kings Edmund and Edgar and paved the way for
monastic restoration under SS. Dunstan, Oswald (Odo's nephew), and
Ethelwold. He is reputed to have performed several miracles
(
Attwater,
Benedictines,
Delaney,
Encyclopaedia).