Blessed Pope Urban II

Blessed Pope Urban II (born Odo or Eudes of Châtillon; c. 1035 – 29 July 1099) was a French Benedictine monk, Cluniac prior, and Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia who served as Bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church from 12 March 1088 until his death on 29 July 1099. He is chiefly remembered as the pope who launched the First Crusade with his famous sermon at the Council of Clermont on 27 November 1095, and as a leading proponent of the Gregorian Reform of the Church. His pontificate was shaped both by the great spiritual energies he released and by a relentless conflict with the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV and the rival claimant Antipope Clement III.

He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII on 14 July 1881; his feast is observed on 29 July, the anniversary of his death.

Stored in Cargo: Blessed Pope Urban II

Blessed Pope Urban II
Feast Day	July 29
Profession	Pope; Cardinal-Bishop; Cluniac monk; church reformer; preacher
Rel. Affiliation	Catholic Church; Order of Saint Benedict (Cluniac observance)
Attributes	Papal tiara; staff; Cluniac habit
Birthplace	Lagery (near Châtillon-sur-Marne), County of Champagne, Kingdom of France
Death Place	Rome, Papal States
Cause of Death	Natural causes; died in Rome, 29 July 1099, fourteen days after the fall of Jerusalem to the First Crusade
Primary Shrine	Cathedral of Saint Matthew, Salerno, Italy (mosaic veneration); remains at St Peter's, Rome
Liturgical Class	Not included in the General Roman Calendar; observed locally in some dioceses
Historic Class	Not included

Biography

Birth, family, and education

Odo (also written Eudes or Otho) was born around 1035 in Lagery, a village near Châtillon-sur-Marne in the county of Champagne, then part of the Kingdom of France. He came from a knightly family of the Frankish nobility. His early formation took place at the cathedral school of Reims, where he studied under the distinguished master Bruno of Cologne — later the founder of the Carthusians — acquiring the solid grounding in theology and canon law that would define his subsequent career. He was ordained at Reims and served as canon and archdeacon of the cathedral, positions that brought him to the heart of the Champenois church.

Monk and prior at Cluny

Around 1070, at perhaps the height of his ecclesiastical career as archdeacon, Odo made the decisive step of entering Cluny Abbey, the great Benedictine monastery in Burgundy then at the zenith of its influence and prestige under Abbot Saint Hugh of Cluny. Cluny was the engine of reform in the eleventh-century Church — a house of rigorous observance, liturgical excellence, and direct dependence on the papacy, operating outside the normal control of local bishops and feudal lords. Odo advanced within the community to the position of prior, acting as Hugh's principal deputy in the running of the monastery.

It was through Cluny that Odo came to the attention of Pope Gregory VII, the great reforming pope whose conflict with Emperor Henry IV would shape the Church for a generation. Gregory summoned Odo to Rome as a reforming adviser and, around 1078–80, appointed him Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia, the most senior of the cardinal-bishoprics and thus one of the most influential positions in the Roman Church.

Cardinal and legate

As cardinal-bishop, Odo became Gregory VII's most trusted collaborator and principal enforcer of the Gregorian programme. Between 1082 and 1085 he served as papal legate in France and the Holy Roman Empire, presiding over synods, deposing prelates who had purchased or received their positions from lay lords (simony), filling vacant sees with reform candidates, and pressing the case for clerical celibacy. The work was politically dangerous — the Emperor had installed an antipope, Guibert of Ravenna (Clement III), in Rome, and much of the German episcopate supported the imperial side.

When Gregory VII died in exile at Salerno on 25 May 1085, the reforming party's position looked precarious. A brief pontificate followed under Pope Victor III (Desiderius of Monte Cassino), and when Victor died in September 1087, the cardinals — meeting not in Rome but at Terracina, since Clement III still controlled the city — elected Odo of Châtillon as pope on 12 March 1088. He took the name Urban II.

Early pontificate and the antipope conflict

Urban's first years as pope were dominated by the seemingly impossible task of establishing his authority against Guibert/Clement III, who held Rome with imperial support. Urban was unable to enter the city until 1093, when shifting Norman alliances and the death of the Empress Adelaide weakened Henry IV's position. He relied on the support of the Normans of southern Italy, the Countess Matilda of Tuscany, and the reform party within the German church and aristocracy. He travelled widely through France and northern Italy, holding synods, consecrating churches, and restoring papal prestige by personal presence rather than military force.

A decisive moment came in 1093–94 when Henry IV's own son Conrad rebelled against his father, opening negotiations with Urban. By 1094 Urban was able to enter the Lateran and by 1098 had full control of the Castel Sant'Angelo, consolidating his hold on Rome.

Throughout these years, Urban continued Gregory VII's reform agenda with a degree of diplomatic flexibility his predecessor had sometimes lacked. He excommunicated King Philip I of France for setting aside his lawful wife to cohabit with Bertrada de Montfort, wife of another man — a firm assertion of canon law over royal prerogative.

The Council of Clermont and the First Crusade

Urban's most enduring legacy came from the councils he held in France in 1095. At the Council of Piacenza (March 1095) he received envoys from the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, who appealed for western military assistance against the Seljuk Turks who had overrun Asia Minor after the disaster of Manzikert (1071). Urban then crossed the Alps to France, where he presided over the Council of Clermont, convened in November 1095 and attended by thirteen archbishops, more than two hundred bishops, and upwards of ninety abbots.

On 27 November 1095, at the close of the council, Urban delivered what became the most consequential sermon in medieval history. Speaking to an immense crowd assembled in a field outside the city gates, he called on the knights and people of Christendom to take up arms for the liberation of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem from Muslim rule. He offered a plenary indulgence — remission of the temporal penalties of all confessed sins — to all who took the cross. According to several contemporary accounts, the crowd interrupted his speech repeatedly with the cry Deus vult ("God wills it"), which became the rallying call of the crusade.

Urban then spent months travelling through France, preaching the crusade, recruiting princes and knights, and assigning the Bishop of Le Puy, Adhemar of Monteil, as his personal legate to lead the expedition. The crusading army set out in 1096.

Later councils and ecclesiastical organisation

In 1098 Urban held the Council of Bari, where he attempted to resolve the theological dispute between the Latin and Greek churches over the filioque clause in the Nicene Creed — whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, or from the Father alone. Anselm of Canterbury attended and made a notable defence of the Latin position. Though reunion was not achieved, the council was a serious attempt at dialogue.

Urban also reorganised the Roman Curia on the model of a royal ecclesiastical court, creating a more formal bureaucratic structure for the government of the Church — a development that would be elaborated by his successors. He promulgated numerous decrees against simony and lay investiture at his various councils, and encouraged the spread of the Cluniac reform to Spain and the British Isles.

Death

Urban II died in Rome on 29 July 1099 — fourteen days after the First Crusade achieved its goal with the fall of Jerusalem on 15 July 1099. Contemporary sources state that he died without receiving the news of Jerusalem's liberation, though this claim has been contested by some historians given the speed of the messengers. He was seventy-four years old. Miracles were reported at his tomb, and a popular cult formed around his memory.

Significant events

• Born c. 1035 at Lagery, near Châtillon-sur-Marne, Champagne.
• Studied at Reims cathedral school under Saint Bruno of Cologne.
• Ordained priest; served as canon and archdeacon of Reims Cathedral.
• Entered Cluny Abbey c. 1070 under Abbot Saint Hugh; rose to Prior.
• Appointed Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia by Pope Gregory VII, c. 1078–80.
• Papal legate to France and Germany, 1082–85.
• Elected pope at Terracina, 12 March 1088; took name Urban II.
• Unable to enter Rome due to Antipope Clement III, 1088–1094.
• Council of Piacenza, March 1095; received Byzantine appeal for crusade.
• Council of Clermont, November 1095; preached the First Crusade on 27 November.
• Excommunicated King Philip I of France for adultery/concubinage.
• Council of Bari, 1098; theological dialogue with Eastern Church on filioque.
• Reorganised the Roman Curia on the model of a royal court.
• Died 29 July 1099, Rome; reportedly before news of Jerusalem's fall reached him.
• Beatified by Pope Leo XIII, 14 July 1881.

Significant locations

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Legend

• Birth location: Lagery (near Châtillon-sur-Marne), County of Champagne, Kingdom of France
• Death location: Rome, Papal States
• Notable location: Benedictine monastery where he was monk and Prior under Abbot St Hugh before his elevation to Rome (Cluny Abbey, Cluny, Burgundy, France)
• Notable location: Where he studied under Saint Bruno and served as canon and archdeacon (Cathedral of Reims, Reims, Champagne, France)
• Notable location: Site of the Council of Clermont, November 1095, where he preached the First Crusade (Clermont (modern Clermont-Ferrand), Auvergne, France)
• Notable location: Papal centre of his pontificate; he reorganised the Roman Curia on the model of a royal court (Saint Peter's Basilica, Vatican City)
• Notable location:

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Canonization

Beatification

Urban II's reputation for holiness was sustained by a popular cult from the time of his death. The formal cause was introduced in the nineteenth century; Pope Leo XIII approved the beatification and issued the decree on 14 July 1881, recognising the venerable traditions of his cult and his personal sanctity as witnessed by his reform of the Church and his pastoral leadership of Christendom. The feast of 29 July has not been extended to the Universal Church but is observed locally, particularly in the Diocese of Reims, which claims him as one of its most distinguished sons, and in the Cluniac tradition.

He has not been formally canonized. His cause remains theoretically open, but no modern formal procedures have been advanced.

Feast day

July 29

Veneration

Blessed Pope Urban II is venerated principally by communities rooted in the Cluniac and broader Benedictine tradition, by the Diocese of Reims and the local churches of Champagne, and in Salerno, where the Cathedral of Saint Matthew venerates him in a monumental mosaic in the transept. He is also remembered in the history of the crusading movement and in ecumenical and historical discussions of the relationship between the medieval papacy and the Eastern Church. The Council of Bari, which he convened, is cited in the long history of Latin–Greek dialogue.

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External links

• Wikipedia – Pope Urban II
• New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia – Pope Blessed Urban II
• CatholicSaints.Info – Pope Blessed Urban II
• Tradition in Action – Blessed Pope Urban II
• Catholic Online – Blessed Urban II