𝑫𝒊𝒆 𝑯𝒆𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒆 𝑶𝒅𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒆
A legend tells that blind Odilie, when she washed her eyes with the water of the Heiligenborn in the Großer Lückner, regained her sight. According to another legend, the daughter of a Duke of Lorraine, who was born blind, was given sight at baptism. Her statue is in the chapel. She wears religious habit and abbess staff. Her closed eyes indicate that she was born blind. In her left hand she holds an open book of the Gospels with an eye on each page, a symbol of the miracle working. VITA: Odilie (around 660 to 720) was the blind-born daughter of Duke Adalrich from Alsace. The father wanted to kill his daughter, the mother saved the child and had it raised in the nunnery. When she was baptized by the itinerant bishop Erhard von Regensburg, she received her sight. In 690 she founded her monastery on her father's former high castle to the west of Strasbourg - today's Mount Odile in Alsace. In the year 700, the monastery of Neumünster was founded at a healing spring. Odilie is the patroness of Alsace and the blind. She is invoked for eye diseases as well as ear and head ailments. Source: text information board
𝑫𝒊𝒆 𝑺𝒂𝒈𝒆
It was in the Thirty Years' War, in 1634. The Swedish and French troops were retreating to Metz, pursued by the German Imperial Army. Full of anger at their defeat, but also out of hunger, they robbed and plundered all the villages, harassed the people and set their houses on fire. That's how they came to Saarland. The people fled to Heiligenborn with their pastor and prayed for heavenly protection in the chapel. They also took a vow to make a procession here every year if they were saved. They were not discovered by the Swedes, but their hamlet was robbed and burned. Nevertheless, you kept your promise. Source: text information board