He was, in varying capacities, an artist, architect, goldsmith, musical theorist, biographer, exegete and chronicler.
He was given an extensive education, apparently under the auspices of the abbot Rainard of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif (979-1015), who revitalized the monastery with learning.
[1] When Odorannus was about thirty years old, the Capetian King Robert the Pious of France (r. 996-1031) commissioned him to create a great reliquary to house the remains of Saint Savinianus, the first bishop of Sens.
[2] Under the year 1023 in his Chronicle, Odorannus refers to his being sent away from Saint-Pierre-le-Vif for a time, staying instead at the well-known abbey of Saint Denis.
These include an exhortation for fraternal concord, written by Odorannus on behalf of the abbot Ingo to monks previously under his care (Chapter 11), and a liturgical treatise, proposing prayers for the dead and visitation of the sick (Chapter 12).