nearby for some sixty women. ⁴ Herman, the third son, was educated by
Odo himself. ⁵ Although younger than Amand du Chastel, Herman was in a
good position to witness events that affected Odo, the monastery, and the
entire region surrounding Tournai. ⁶

Odo's parents were Gerard and Cecelia of Orléans. ⁷ Since as a young
man Odo acquired a reputation as a teacher and scholar learned in gram-
mar, rhetoric, and dialectic (the trivium), ⁸ one may assume that he received
a good education. He first taught at Toul, and then was called to Tournai by
the canons of the cathedral of Notre-Dame. ⁹ Odo taught for five years at the
cathedral school, where his reputation attracted students from France,
Flanders, Normandy, Italy, Saxony, and Burgundy. ¹⁰

Artifacts found in Tournai from the first through fourth centuries
attest that it was settled during Roman times, making Tournai one of the
most ancient settlements in the region. ¹¹ It was evangelized in the third
century by St. Piat, and served as a capital city for the Salian Franks from
431 to 440. Under the Merovingians, it lost its royal status. But the Mero-
vingian King, Clovis, compensated Tournai for its loss of rank by endowing
it as an episcopal see which the metropolitan of Reims, St. Remi, conferred
upon St. Eleutherius (ca. 497-500). From the sixth century, the bishops
there fulfilled de facto if not de jure the functions of counts palatine,
representing the king of the Franks. In the second half of the ninth century
Tournai was attached to the county of Flanders, and the episcopal see at
Tournai was joined to Noyon to create a single diocese. This union con-
tinued until 1146, when Tournai was established as an independent see. ¹²
Yet prior to this, despite the Norman invasions and a deterioration in the
quality of religious life among the canons and clerks in Tournai, the power
of the bishop of Noyon-Tournai and the cathedral chapter at Notre Dame
had grown during the ninth and tenth centuries.

It was at Tournai -- an ancient Roman settlement and powerful episco-
pal see -- that Odo arrived in the 1080s. His arrival coincided with tremen-
dous economic growth and prosperity for Tournai. In 1052 the city had
received a communal charter from Baudouin V of Lille. In 1092 it created
its great market fair and attracted thousands annually to its popular re-
ligious procession honoring the Virgin Mary (Notre-Dame flamande), a
procession originated by Bishop Rabod II of Tournai in order to bring to
an end an epidemic that had decimated the region. In order to avert God's
wrath, the bishop gathered the people at the cathedral of Notre Dame and
imposed a penitential discipline, cut off the hair of the young people, and
insisted on fasts, vigils, and a barefoot procession circling the city to deliver

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