Mount Sainte Odile

Near Obernai, Alsace, France

Ste. Odile, born 660 A. D. daughter of Duke Attich (Eticho) of Merovingian nobility. The child was born blind and her disappointed father ordered her exposed. Her mother, Berewinde, had the child secretly transported to the Cloister Baume-les-Dames and raised there. She miraculously regained her sight, either by baptism or another miracle. She was later given the old fortress, Hohenburg, to establish a cloister.

The Ste. Odile Well is below the rocky crest of the mountain where the cloister was located. According to legend, Ste. Odile established it so that pilgrims and those seeking cures would not have to climb all the way to the top of the mountain. Another story says she established it to aid an old man who came seeking a cure for a blind child, as she had once been.

Mont Ste. Odile is regarded as the holy mountain of Alsace, if not all France. It’s history goes back thousands of years as a fortress and cult site.

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