SOUTH GERMAN, POSSIBLY SWABIAN, EARLY 16TH CENTURY STYLE

Saint Odilia's attribute are two eyes carried either on a platter or a book. She is the patron Saint of the Elsass. According to legend, Odilie was the first born child of Adalrich, who is also known as Etichon, Duke of Alsace under King Dagobert II. Born blind her mother gave Odilie to the midwife, to protect it from the fathers anger. Odilie grew up in the convent of Palma in Baume-les-Dames, close to Besancon. At the age of 12, she was baptized by the bishop of Regensburg. During the act of being baptized, she miraculously gained eyesight. She was given the name Odilia, daughter of light. Through continuous prayers, she is said to have rescued the soul of her cruel father from the purgatory.Historically it is known, that Odilia, when she returned to her parents, was bequeathed with the Hohenburg and founded a convent between 680 and 690. After her death on December 13, 720, Odilias Tomb was put in a stone sarcophagus, where it has remained since. One of her arms went as a relic to Prague.The cult of Odilia was documented already in the 10th century. But her fame grew further than the frontiers of the Holy Roman Empiren Reich. In the 12th century, it reached Northern Italy. Stopped through reformation, the adoration of St. Odile grew again at the late 16th century. Places of pilgrimage in Baden and Bavaria with "Ottilien-" or "Odilien-" are still proofs of this enshrinement.

Cf. A. Utpatel-Hartwig & I. Schrama, Heilige Frauen in den Kirchen Mecklenbug-Vorpommerns, Stralsund/Amsterdam 2004, p. 108.