Church of Saint Odulphus

The legend of Saint Odilia is linked to that of Saint Ursula. She travelled, together with eleven thousand virgins, to Rome in a boat in preparation for her marriage to the King of Brittany. During their journey, they docked in Cologne where Ursula received a marriage proposal from the King of the Huns. She refused, resulting in the virgins being ruthlessly tortured and murdered. One of them was Odilia. This led to a devotion, which became even more widespread in 1106 following the discovery of a mass grave in Cologne. It involved Roman remains, but those who discovered it were only too happy to believe that it was Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins. Odilia took a while longer to find. In 1287 visions led the Crosier Johannes de Eppa to where she was buried. He dug up her bones under a pear tree in the garden of a certain Arnalphus, and Odilia immediately performed her first miracle: she healed the neighbour. The remains were subsequently entrusted to the Crosier Monastery of Huy.
Nowadays her alleged remains are kept in an extraordinary reliquary in Borgloon. On one of the shelves you can see a Crosier in his black habit with a red and white cross. Johannes de Eppa is also depicted at Odilia's tomb. The paintings date from the 13th century, making them the oldest preserved panel paintings in the Low Countries. Upon examination the bones in the shrine were found to belong to several individuals, both men and women. One clavicle even dates back to between 40 BC and 130 AD, whereas Odilia lived from 350 to 450 AD. Who is kept in the shrine will always remain a mystery, but the tales depicted by the shrine continue to capture the imagination.