Bl. Urban II
Odo of Chatillon · 1088 – 1099
Called the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont in 1095, launching one of the most consequential events in Christian history.
Odo was a French nobleman and Cluniac monk who became pope in 1088. He continued Gregory VII's reform program and worked to end the Investiture Controversy. But he is remembered above all for his speech at the Council of Clermont in 1095, calling Christians to reclaim the Holy Land from Muslim control. The First Crusade that followed captured Jerusalem in 1099. Urban died two weeks after the city fell, before the news reached Rome. The Crusades he launched would reverberate through history for centuries.
Why He Matters
Urban II launched the Crusades, an event that still shapes Christian-Muslim relations nearly a thousand years later. Whether one views the Crusades as necessary defense or tragic overreach, Urban's call at Clermont changed the world.