ALSACE-LORRAINE

By George Wharton Edwards

 “Section 10”

 Page 185

Sainte Odile

Page 186

(Intentionally blank)

Page 187

In the crest of the mount of Sainte Odile, near Obernai, is the great and celebrated convent standing like a crown above the dark trees. The "culte" of this illustrious saint, who is the "patron" of Alsace, embraces the memories of Charlemagne, Richard Coeur de Lion, Louis le Debonnaire, and not only Charles IV, but many other Emperors and Kings, not to mention the countless number of other great personages down to the present day, and still attracts multitudes of pilgrims and visitors, who contribute to the renown of the Convent, coming from the most distant towns as well as from Strassburg, Colmar and Schlestadt. Many of the painters of France, as well as those of Alsace, such as Jundt and Lix, have found subjects here for their pictures. Each year the representatives of upwards of twenty-four parishes walk in procession to the tomb of the saint on the mount. The place of pilgrimage is most picturesque, and whoever attends one of these pilgrimages is well repaid by the view of the immense dark forests which surround the mount, through which the winding white roads seen here and there among the great trees are like silvery

Page 187

ribbons. The high towers of the church and the chapel of the saint against the sky, and below, the exquisite flowering gardens, all make a most unusual picture. Above the high wall is the ancient Hohenburg, the chateau of Adalric, who was Duke of Alsace, father of Sainte Odile. From this tower one may view the immense green and golden plains of cultivated fields; the lines of tall poplars; the vineyards, and the small dim villages of clustered peaceful-looking houses, with their rosy tiled roofs; the spires of the quaint whitewashed churches; and the distant silvery ribbon of the Rhine, where rises the mistily-seen towers of Strassburg's Notre Dame, or the snow-capped mountains of Switzerland.

At the side of the terrace, overhanging a precipice, is found the Chapel of the Angels, erected, it is said, in commemoration of a celestial apparition seen by Sainte Odile, in which she had a vision of the sufferings of her father in purgatory, from which her fervent prayers delivered him. On Sainte Valentine's day, each year, hundreds of young girls of the neighborhood make a pilgrimage to the convent, in which is a miraculous fountain, said to be a cure for all diseases of the eye. Others come to make nine turns of the tower, "which," the custode naively informed us, "assures their wedding within the year."

Near the Convent, upon a plateau, is the celebrated "mur paien," the remains of an ancient Celtic fortifica­

Page 189

tion, said to be "more than two thousand years old." This is one of the great monuments of Alsace. Its proportions are gigantic, encircling as it does the whole mountain and enclosing in the neighborhood of "one hundred hectares." (A hectare equals two acres, one rod and thirty-five perches.)' This great wall is believed to have been constructed by the Celts to serve as a refuge for the inhabitants of the region during the Gallo-Roman epoch, and was enlarged by the Romans at various times as defense against the Germanic invasions. Lucian makes reference to it in "Pharsale" (Vol. I, pp. 354­357) . The wall is two or three yards high in some places, and is formed of great cut stones and joined together by oaken pegs, which pegs have, of course, rotted away, but the connecting holes are plainly to be seen. It is said by authorities that this mode of fastening was common to the Roman masons. At any rate, no trace of mortar or cement is to be seen among the stones. Here is shown the great stone called the "Minnelstein," through the "eye" of which, as in the case of the "Sorcerer's Eye," before mentioned, a remarkable panorama of the valley is to be had. A little farther on is found an immense rock, attached to the "enciente," standing more than thirty feet high, called the "Wachtstein," used as a post of observation during various wars, and dominating the environing valley.

In the Colmar region is celebrated yearly the pilgrim

Page 190

age of Notre-Dame des T'rois Epis, which serves for the Upper Rhine as the pilgrimage of Sainte-Odile does for the Lower Rhine, with the difference, however, that Sainte Odile is of the greater importance as the Patron Saint of Alsace. This has certain unique characteristics that distinguish it from all others. For instance the most pious walk barefooted from the remote villages, chaplet in hand, reciting their prayers in a loud voice. The celebration takes place in the Commune of Amerschwirh, canton of Kaysersberg. According to tradition, a sacrilegious peasant at mass threw his portion" of the Holy Sacrament on the ground. Afterwards it was found miraculously suspended upon "Trois Epis," where the honey bees had enveloped it with wax. In celebration of this miracle, a pilgrimage was inaugurated by the priests. The great beauty of the site of the church, set amid a magnificent forest on the mountain draws people from distant parts of the country each year. The Convent itself is not remarkable, although built in 1635. The interior is quite filled with "Ex Votos," and a heavy ornamentation. On the wall is shown a stone bearing a bizarre mark, said to be the imprint of the Evil One, placed there during a terrific storm that occurred while the Chapel was being constructed.

Nearly two hundred years after the Franks drove the Alamans back from Strassburg, that is to say, about the year 660, and in the reign of Adalric (or Ethicon), duke

Page 191

of Alsace, and his spouse Bereswinde, a babe was born to them, a girl, and to their grief she was blind. Adalric from despair turned to desperation, and in his passion and disappointment would have killed the child, had not the mother secretly confided it to the care of the faithful nurse who attended her. The child, secreted, was taken by night to a distant part of the forest, where it grew up in the family of a poor wood-cutter, and eventually was baptised by a holy man, and given the name of Odile. During the ceremony the girl miraculously recovered her sight, and word of this reaching the ears of the Bishop, she was sent for and brought to a distant monastery.

Meanwhile her father, Adalric, ever a man of violence, had killed his well beloved son in a fit of passion. And while doing penance in remorse, his wife, finding him thus softened in spirit, confessed to him that the girl who had recovered her sight so miraculously and whose name was on every lip throughout the dukedom, was none other than the daughter whom he had tried to kill. Adalric, overjoyed, sent for her, and bestowed upon her the Chateau of Hohenbourg, which she afterwards made into a monastery, and this is the convent which bears to-day the name of the blind girl Odile.

At the foot of the mountain she built another monastery, to which the name of Niedermunster was given. Here she planted three of the great trees for which the monastery is renowned. Sainte Odile died "at a great

Page 192

age, on the thirteenth of December, in the year 730."It is remarked that many of the young girls of the region bear the name of Odile, and this is so because Sainte Odile is the patron saint of all Alsace; the thirteenth of December is the day of her fete, and her tomb on the mountain of Sainte Odile, one of the highest peaks of the Vosges, is the most venerated among the Alsatians.

[End of Section 10]

Click here to go back to main page for Alsace-Lorraine by George Wharton Edwards.