Saint Oda
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- For Saint Oda of Canterbury, see Oda the Severe
Saint Oda of Scotland (c.680 – c.726) was a Scottish princess who became a holy woman in the Netherlands.
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[edit] Life
Oda was born blind and her father sent her to pilgrimage to Liège to visit the relics of Saint Lambert. While praying at Saint Lambert's grave she was miraculously cured from her blindness. The miraculous cure of Oda is recorded in Saint Lambert's 8th century vitae. Vowing to dedicate her life to God, she returned to Scotland.
According to records written in the 13th century, her father wanted her to marry in Scotland. Because of her vow she fled across the North Sea. After a pilgrimage to Rome and Monte Sant'Angelo sul Gargano, she moved to live in an open space in the woods in a place now known as Sint Oedenrode in the Netherlands (a small manmade open space in the woods is called a 'rode' in Dutch - the village is named after the Scottish princess).
16th century records describe how Oda prayed in various villages in the Netherlands and Belgium only to be disturbed by magpies. She fled from the magpies and the birds led her to the open space in the forest.
[edit] Iconography
Saint Oda is usually depicted wearing a long blue gown with one shoulder bare. She usually carries a staff or a book (symbolic for her cure of blindness). She is always shown with a magpie on her hand and a crown under her feet (symbolic of her rejection of the crown of Scotland).
[edit] Veneration
Pieces of Saint Oda's skull and teeth are kept in the Saint Martin Church of Sint-Oedenrode. Various statues and paintings are kept in a chapel dedicated to Oda in the church's garden. Pilgrims visited Saint Oda for relief of sore eyes and illnesses related to the head
