Blahoslavený
Sviatok: 30. marec
* ?
† 30. marec 1231 Asch, Frízsko
Blahoslavený Dodo, mnich kláštera norbertanů v Hascha ve Frízsku, zemřel 1231 zavalen zříceninami jedné staré budovy. Když mu svlékli hábit, uviděli otevřené rány na jeho rukách, nohou a boku podobné pěti ranám Kristovým. Pravděpodobně je měl od svého mládí. Neznáme povahu těchto ran ani dobu, kdy se objevily.
March 30th marks the commemoration of the death of Blessed Dodo the Hermit in 
1232. After his father’s death his surviving relatives pressed him to marry. Later, when his wife had entered a convent, he renounced the world and became a Premonstratensian lay-brother at Mariangaarde where St. Siard was then abbot. Because of his great love of solitude he was given permission to live as a hermit. He spent his days in extraordinary acts of penance and mortification; eating only one meal a day and nothing at all on Fridays. For his bed he used a straw mat and a plank of wood. His days were spent on his knees in prayer. He preached particularly against the ‘vendetta’ that was then much a part of the pagan culture of the Frisians. At his death, cause by the collapse of his cell, he was found to have received the stigmata, the five wounds of Christ, upon his body. There is therefore considerable debate as to whether he received this singular privilege of grace before the more famed saint of Assisi.
Other:
Dodo, a devout young dutchman, frequented the churches, fasted, assisted the poor, and obeyed his parents. Following his marriage, he, his wife, and his widowed mother all decided to enter religious life. Dodo received his abbot’s permission to live as a hermit.
He ultimately journeyed to Asch, Netherlands, finding there an abandoned sanctuary with two images, a crucifix and a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. While praying before the crucifix, Dodo heard a voice from the cross telling him that he was to settle in Asch.
There he spent the rest of his life, rising daily at midnight for the office of matins and continuing his prayers until the morning Mass. In adoration he offered to God five hundred genuflections every day. Dodo’s prayers wrought miraculous cures.
On Easter night Dodo customarily carried the crucifix around the outside of the church to perform the medieval ceremony called the ‘Elevatio’, a rite symbolising Christ’s resurrection. On one such occasion, when he came to the eastern end of the church’s cemetery, he and others saw the crucifix ascend toward heaven and vanish. Following Dodo’s death, his body was found to bear the stigmata.
