Mont St Odile.
Wow, what a remarkable place. The peace, serenity, calmness, awesomeness, stillness, humility... for lack of words cannot describe this wonderful place that I visited with my son last year.
The pictures and videos in the web cannot depict the character and the ambiance enough, except by your personal encounter.
Founded in the 8th Century, during the vibrancy of Christianity in Europe, it has become an icon for pilgrims, historians and theologians worldwide.
Here are some links that may interest you.:
A story
Etichon (or Adalric), duke of Alsace under Dagobert II, is expecting his first child. He is hoping for a son. Great disappointment: a puny and blind girl is born. Etichon orders that we kill her. Béreswinde succeeds in dissuading his wife. She then entrusts the child to a nanny before she joins the Sisters of Palm, in Burgundy.
At the age of 12, the child was baptized by Bishop Ehrhard of Ratisbon. It is then that she covers her sight; we give her the name Odile "daughter of light".
Some time later, Odile wanted to go back to her parents. Hugues, his younger brother, decides to look for her, despite the father's formal defense. On the return of Odile to Hohenbourg, Etichon fatally strikes Hugues in a fit of fury.
Seized by repentance, the father tolerates Odile in Hohenbourg. He plans to marry her to a young prince of his choice. Out of love for God, Odile refused this marriage.
Faced with the obstinacy of the father who wants to force her into marriage, she runs away. He pursues it to the Black Forest, near Freiburg. This is where, according to tradition, a rock would have opened. Odile took refuge there.
Etichon then understood the fate of Odile; he welcomes her again to Hohenbourg. Pressed by Saint Léger, bishop of Autun, a close relative, he then donated the castle of Hohenbourg to his daughter.
Very quickly many girls joined Odile, to lead with her a life of prayer and charity. Odile founded a second monastery in Niedermunster, at the foot of Mont Sainte-Odile. She welcomes the poor and infirm there. On the way there from Hohenbourg, meeting a blind and thirsty beggar, she hits a rock. It produced a beneficial water which, since then, has not stopped flowing.
On the death of his father, Odile obtains his deliverance from the torments of hell. She continues her work of mercy until her death. She falls asleep in the peace of Christ; her body is placed in a sarcophagus still visible today in the Chapel of the Tomb.
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