He established All Souls' Day (on 2 November) in Cluny and its monasteries as the annual commemoration to pray for all the faithful departed.

The son of Berald de Mercoeur and Gerberga, his widowed mother became a nun at the convent of St. John in Autun after his father's death.

[10] During a great famine in 1006, his liberality to the poor was by many censured as profuse; for he melted down the sacred vessels and ornaments to raise funds.

However, many times the monks needed this order of excommunication renewed and repeated by the Popes because each new generation would bring a new round of figures who would go after Cluniac property.

[13] In 1025 Gauzlin, bishop of Mâcon, claimed that the archbishop of Vienne needed his approval to give ordination to monks in Cluny.

In answer to this Odilo produced the papal documents granting Cluny freedom from local diocesan control.

The Pope further decreed that any bishop who tried to enter a Cluniac monastery to even celebrate a mass would suffer automatic excommunication, unless he had been invited by the abbot.

Odilo agreed and was able to persuade Henry, who respected his holiness so greatly, to hold back his hand and give mercy to the rebels.

During the famine of 1006, Odilo sold the gold crown the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II had presented to the abbey, in order to relieve the hunger,[7] thereby saving thousands from starvation.

He also attended the coronation of Conrad II who succeeded Henry and had a similarly good relationship with him, and thus got the Emperor to give favour to Cluny.

Odilo threw the full Cluniac influence into the fight against simony, concubinage and the uncanonical marriage of the laity.

The English monastic reform undertaken by Dunstan, Æthelwold of Winchester and Oswald of Worcester under Cluniac influence is a conspicuous instance of Cluny's success by example.

The Truce of God arose in the eleventh century amid the anarchy of feudalism as a remedy for the powerlessness of lay authorities to enforce respect for the public peace.

There was then an epidemic of private wars, which made Europe a battlefield bristling with fortified castles and overrun by armed bands who respected nothing, not even sanctuaries, clergy, or consecrated days.

Massacres and plunders were common in that age, by the right which every petty lord pretended of revenging his own injuries and quarrels by private wars.

Odilo actively promoted the Truce of God whereby military hostilities were suspended at certain times for ostensibly religious reasons.

The Truce had great economic importance as it allowed commerce to continue so that people could survive; it also guaranteed sanctuary to those who sought refuge in a church.

It confirmed permanent peace for all churches and their grounds, the monks, clerks and chattels; all women, pilgrims, merchants and their servants, cattle and horses; and men at work in the fields.

At home he went to Father Odilo of Cluny to ask whether there is not one day in the year in a special way prayer could be for the souls of the deceased.

[12] Odilo instituted the annual commemoration of all the faithful departed, to be observed by the members of his community with alms, prayers, and sacrifices, for the relief of the suffering souls in purgatory.

A message was given to Odilo, who then proceeded to call on all Cluniac houses to offer up prayers, Masses and alms for the soul of the dead Pope.

He had to be taken back to the city where so much grief was poured out for his sake that Masses were offered for his recovery and the Pope visited his bedside.

In the hour of my death He pointed out to me a fierce and terrible figure which, standing in a corner, would have terrified me by its huge monstrosity had not its malignancy been annulled by His presence.’ [15] Only a few minor writings by Odilo survive: He was buried in Souvigny Priory, where he died, and was soon venerated as a saint.

In 1063 Peter Damien undertook the process of his canonization, and wrote a short life, an abstract from the work of Jotsald, one of Odilo's monks who accompanied him on his travels.