Above the portal of the great courtyard of Mont Sainte-Odile stands the statue of the saint. Her carved headband reads in Latin: Here once bloomed the holy Abbess Odile, she reigns as mother of Alsace . The believers appeal to her for the healing of eyes diseases and the deliverance of their souls from Purgatory. She indeed cried for her father's soul in the chapel. Saint Odile is most often represented in the dress of an abbess, holding a stick. She also has a book of the Rule of the nuns, on which are arranged two open eyes, a symbol of the blindness from which she was cured.