Oda the Severe

Bishop of Ramsbury

Oda was consecrated Bishop of Ramsbury sometime between 909 and 927, not to Wilton as stated by both William of Malmesbury and the Life. The appointment was most likely made by King Æthelstan, and the first securely attested mention in documents of the new bishop occurs in 928, when he is a witness to royal charters as bishop. Louis was Æthelstan's nephew However, this story is not related in any contemporary records. It was at this battle that Oda is said to have miraculously provided a sword to the king when the king's own sword slipped out of its scabbard. A Ramsey chronicle records that in the 1170s, the sword was still preserved in the royal treasury, although the chronicler carefully states the story "as is said" rather than as fact. There are no contemporary records of Oda's appearance at the battle.

Archbishop of Canterbury Oda was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury following Wulfhelm's death on 12 February 941. It is not known whether he went to Rome to receive his pallium or when he received it, but it was before he issued his Constitutions. During his time as archbishop, he helped King Edmund with the new royal law-code, at London, over Easter around 945 or 946. Oda also settled a dispute over the Five Boroughs with Wulfstan. Oda reworked some statutes from 786 to form his updated code, and one item dropped was any clauses dealing with paganism. Other items covered were relations between laymen and the clergy, the duties of bishops, the need for the laity to make canonical marriages, how to observe fasts, and the need for tithes to be given by the laity.

At the death of King Eadred of England in 955, Oda was one of the recipients of a bequest from the king, in his case a large amount of gold. He was probably behind the reestablishment of a bishopric at Elmham, as the line of bishops in that see starts with Eadwulf of Elmham in 956. Oda crowned King Eadwig in 956, but in late 957 the archbishop joined Eadwig's rival and brother Edgar who had been proclaimed king of the Mercians in 957, while Eadwig continued to rule Wessex. In early 958 Oda annulled the marriage of Eadwig and his wife Ælfgifu, who were too closely related. This act was likely a political move connected to the division between Eadwig and Edgar, as it is unlikely that the close kinship between Eadwig and Ælfgifu had not been known before their marriage. and was a reforming agent in the church along with Cenwald the Bishop of Worcester and Ælfheah the Bishop of Winchester. He also built extensively, and re-roofed Canterbury Cathedral. after raising the walls higher. Frithegod's verse Life of Wilfrid has a preface that was written by Oda, in which the archbishop claimed that he rescued the relics from Ripon, which he described as "decayed" and "thorn-covered". He also acquired the relics of St Ouen, and Frithegod also wrote, at Oda's behest, a verse life of that saint, which has been lost.

The archbishop died on 2 June 958 Other dates were also commemorated, including 2 June or 29 May. After his death, legendary tales ascribed miracles to him, including one where the Eucharist dripped with blood. Another was the miraculous repair of a sword. There is no contemporary evidence for veneration being made to Oda, with the first indication of cult coming in the hagiography written by Byrhtferth about Oswald, but no hagiography specifically about Oda was written until Eadmer wrote the Vita sancti Odonis sometime between 1093 and 1125. Oda was known by contemporaries as "The Good" and also became known as Severus "The Severe".