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Born in East Anglia; died 959. Born of Danish parents in England, Oda became bishop of Ramsbury (Wessex). He was with King Athelstand when the king defeated the Danes, Scots, and Northumbrians at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937. In 942, he became archbishop of Canterbury. He tried to escape consecration by declaring that, unlike previous archbishops, he was not a monk. He only consented to accept the dignity after he had received the Benedictine habit from the hands of the abbot of Fleury-sur-Loire in France (reformed by another Saint Odo--of Cluny, who had died in 942).

Oda played an active role in secular as well as ecclesiastical affairs during the reigns of Kings Edmund and Edgar and paved the way for monastic restoration under SS. Dunstan, Oswald (Oda's nephew), and Ethelwold. He is reputed to have performed several miracles (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopaedia).


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