SAINT OTHO, HERMIT - 23 MARCH

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH

Saints celebrated on the 23rd of March

WELCOME!

SAINT OTHO, HERMIT

A Roman by birth and a soldier for many years, he finally fell into enemy captivity, from which he was freed by Saint Leonard, who appeared to him in a dream. After his miraculous release, he began to serve God in all earnest. 

He moved to Ariano, sheltering the strangers, and worked about three years as a cobbler, giving his earnings in alms to the poor. 

Finally he built himself a cell and lived in it all by himself. Once when the servant of a noble gentleman climbed his roof to fetch his master's falcon, he could move the bird until he had asked the saint's permission. Otho died around A.D. 1120. Church art shows him as a hermit; a falcon sitting on his hermitage. Around 1230 his relics were brought to Benevento. In Rome, at the church of Saint Martin and Sylvester, there has been an altar erected in his honour (III. 468).

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, Volume 4, Augsburg, 1875, p. 638)

Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - Sources and Abbreviations

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Otho may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Sources of these articles (in the original German): books.google.co.uk, de-academic.com, zeno.org, openlibrary.org