Rasso

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Cover illustration of the book Die Legend St. Graffrat , Munich around 1535
Rasso sculpture on the apse of St. Rasso Church, Grafrath.
Altarpiece by Johann Andreas Wolff on the rasso altar in the pilgrimage church of Andechs
St. Rasso, devotional picture around 1860

Rasso (also Ratho , Ratt , Rath or Gráfrath ) was a count appointed by the Frankish king in Bavaria in the early Middle Ages, responsible for the area between Amper, Ammersee and Starnberger See. About five kilometers north of the Ammersee he founded a Benedictine monastery on the Amperinsel Wörth, built a church for it, collected valuable relics for the church in the Holy Land and in Rome, had a grave built in the church and was buried in this grave after his death . The monastery was later moved to Dießen, the relics were brought to Andechs, but the grave in Wörth remained in place and soon became the destination of many pilgrims, so that the place was already buried there in the Middle Ages and was venerated as holy by the people Count St.Grafrath was called.

In the oldest Dießen necrology, June 19 is given as the day of death and therefore the day of remembrance. A year of death is not mentioned there. It was not until centuries later in the second half of the 14th century that the chronicler Albert von Dießen also gave a year, namely 954 as the year the monastery was founded. This date, which cannot be documented, is generally rejected today as not tenable, as is the consecration of the church by Bishop Ulrich von Augsburg, which cannot be documented. Since Albert names a Count Razzo as the founder of the monastery of Wörth, recent historians assume that he is referring to Count Razo von Dießen, who is attested in a traditional Freising document about a hundred years later. However, this Razo comes de Diezen can not be linked to the founding of a monastery in Wörth.

Therefore, in recent times the view has been taken that it is better to follow the early Andechs tradition, according to which Count Rasso / Rath was not a Count of Dießen of the 10th or 11th century, but lived and worked as a count as early as the Carolingian period , and his founding of the monastery or his death a hundred years earlier, i.e. 854, are to be set. This can be shown to be probable from Albert's dating himself. Namely, he names Count Friedrich as brother Rassos and reports that his wife Kunissa built the church of St. Stephan in Dießen in 1020. If this happened in 1020 (which is attested by an inscription plaque found in her grave), Rasso could not possibly have founded his monastery in 954 or have died, since the historically attested Count Friedrich and his wife were hardly born at that time. Because of this apparent discrepancy, it can be assumed that Albert did not invent the year 954, but rather felt indebted to a source. We know from Albert's Epitaphium praelatorum in Dyezzen that grave inscriptions played a special role as a source for him. He also assumed that Kunissa had a funerary inscription. On the clay tablet mentioned, M ° XX is engraved as the year of death. Albert gives it again in his handwriting with M ° xx (clm 14594, f. 26v). In the same manuscript (f. 28v) he specifies dcccc ° Liiij as the year when the rasso was founded. It is clear that his source here cannot have contained the unmistakable character M for 1000, as with Kunissa, but the unmistakable character L for a fifties, which is why Albert did not want to change it. So there is only the possibility that he read one C too many on his template, possibly the old grave slab, i.e. DCCCCLIV (954) instead of DCCCLIV (854). The assumption that the first monastery was founded in Wörth in 854 resolves the contradictions and fits in with the Andechs tradition.

Graf Rath / Rasso was remembered by the people in his function as count in the heartland of the later county of Andechs, which is why he is also referred to as Count von Andechs in medieval sources, but above all because of his special life achievements as a church donor and monastery founder, as a pilgrim and relic collector, and as one who finally entered the monastery he founded as a lay brother and died a holy death there. His insignia on pictorial representations are on the one hand armor, princely hat, princely coat, command staff and Bavarian flag, on the other hand a church model or church plan, pilgrim dress, scapular, Benedictine rule and vestments.

Surname

Among the people and in German biographies, the founder of the monastery from Wörth was called "Graf Rath" or "sand Gráfrath" until the middle of the 19th century. That is why the place where the church and his grave stands was named St. Grafrath after him as early as the Middle Ages. When the two neighboring villages of Unteralting and Wildenroth merged in 1972 as part of the territorial reform, they also decided on the name Grafrath , which at that time was already the name of the railway station that had been set up for the pilgrims to St. Grafrath in 1873. The form of the name “Razzo (Rasso)” probably goes back to an early chronicler from Dießen, who similarly changed the name of the founder of St. Stephan to Dießen. According to the above-mentioned inscription, it was actually called Chunigunt. As with the founder of Grafrath, the chronicler replaced the dental at the end of the Germanic name with a spirans and added a Latin nominative ending, so that from Kuni-gunt the name form Kuni-ssa and from Ra-th or Ra-told the name form Ra - that's how it came about. This change is in line with the Old High German sound shift , so that it may then also reflect a change in the pronunciation from t to ss in writing.

swell

Non-written sources

Count Rasso / Rath is first attested by non-written sources, namely by his grave in the center of the pilgrimage church of St. Rasso , for which there is an uninterrupted tradition, and by his bones, which were lifted from the ground grave in 1468 and placed in a high grave at the same place were reburied on earth. The inscription on the grave slab, which was then newly made from red marble, reads: Hie ligt the noble prince and Count sand Rasso who ditz Gotzhaus first struck in the eren our dear lords and here will wait the last day. Ao 954. After the current baroque church was built, the bones were placed on the high altar in 1695. The original burial site was preserved because of the popular veneration of the tomb.

Archaeological and anthropological investigations in 2003 were able to confirm that they belonged to the early Middle Ages both in the stone slab grave hidden in the ground and in the skull of the donor relic. Due to the raised bones, he is described as a man of extraordinary height.

Written sources

Since the monastery went under again in the Middle Ages, no written sources have survived from its time, but extensive written source material from later times can be found in Andechs and Dießen . This can be explained for the following reasons:

On the one hand, the church founder, like other nobles of his time, had collected valuable relics in order to give his foundation special significance and to secure his grave ad sanctos (in the immediate vicinity of these holy objects ). When the monastery fell, these relics came to Andechs with all the jewels of the church (according to the entry in an old missal there ), where they formed the basis of the well-known healing treasure . With this, the founder of Grafrath became part of the history of Andechs and is mentioned and honored there as Count von Andechs in all old sources.

On the other hand, in 1132 Pope Innocent II handed over the remains of the Grafrath monastery foundation to the canon monastery of Dießen, which was newly established as the house monastery of the Counts of Andechs . When the Andechser dynasty perished a hundred years later, the Canons of Dießen took over the preservation of the memory, and the aforementioned chronicler Albert von Dießen set about recording Grafrath's beginnings in a brief founding report.

Andechs tradition

According to the older Andechs tradition, Ratho was a French nobleman who, at the time of Charlemagne († 814) in the area between Lake Ammersee and Lake Starnberg, was called Comes , d. H. was installed as a royal official. At the foot of his Ratenberg Castle, which, according to the later chronicler Keferloher, stood on today's Michelsberg on the southern high bank above the Amper, he founded a Benedictine monastery and built a church with the patronage of the Savior St. Salvator and his apostles Philip and James the Younger . On a pilgrimage to Constantinople, Jerusalem, Rome and Milan, he acquired valuable relics of men and saints for his foundation, entered his monastery as a lay brother on his return, died a saintly death and was buried in the church with the relics he had collected. The end of the monastery is partly associated with the secularization of monastery property by Duke Arnulf († 937) at the beginning of the 10th century. There are also entries in the well-known Andechs Missal, which indicate the dissolution of the monastery at the beginning of the 12th century.

This tradition

The Dießen chroniclers are initially based on the Andechs sources, but follow, as far as the life of the church founder is concerned, the dating of the canon Albert and later add what the Bavarian historian Aventin in his historical work Annales ducum Boiariae , based on the assumed founding year of the monastery in 954 , through clever combinations about the life and deeds of Count Ratho believed to be able to infer. Aventine refers to "Ratho" - the name does not follow Albert, but rather the folk tradition - as the son of Count Rathold, the progenitor of the Counts of Dießen , who was the son of Emperor Arnulf of Carinthia . He gives him the title of Margrave of Austria and ascribes two important victories to him in this function, which he is said to have won over the Hungarians with Duke Heinrich in 948 near Mauerkirchen . He lets him undertake the pilgrimage to Jerusalem with Heinrich's wife Judith . As for the end of the monastery in Wörth, Aventine goes beyond Albert von Dießen. While the latter only generally speaks of destruction by "enemies and intruders in churches", Aventine, without being able to cite sources, is the first to connect the end of the monastery with the invasion of Hungary in 955.

Valuation of the traditions

The founding of a monastery by Count Rath / Rasso on the island of Wörth, later Grafrath, the collection of relics for the newly built church on a pilgrimage, entry into the monastery and burial after death in the church he founded, These are the things in which the Andechs tradition, the Dießen chroniclers and the Bavarian historian Aventine agree, and there is no plausible reason to doubt them, especially since all of this is also suggested by the non-written sources (grave and bones). On the other hand, one has to say that the statements about ancestry and family, participation in knight tournaments, appointment as military leader by Duke Heinrich, Otto the Great's brother, outstanding military achievements in the fight against the Hungarians, exact date of death, all things like them Since the 16th century, these canons spread in many biographies, proving to be a mere construct. The Andechs tradition does not provide these biographical details and is therefore more credible. What she reports about the count - if you ignore the many titles piled on him and from the alleged participation in a crusade before his pilgrimage to the Holy Land - seems coherent, fits into the Carolingian times and the knowledge from the non-written sources. In the Andechs writings, in addition to unprovable accusations of blame on Duke Arnulf the “Evil”, there are also credible references to the dissolution of the monastery in Grafrath and relocation of the relics first to Wolfratshausen and then to Andechs by Count Otto III. von Wolfratshausen and Berthold II. von Andechs at the beginning of the 12th century.

Aftermath

Grave of St. Rasso in the Church of St. Rasso in Grafrath

The count was venerated as a saint by the people very early on and placed a sand or holy in front of his name (for example in a ducal deed from 1390). The sources also confirm that his grave was visited by many pilgrims from all over southern and eastern Bavaria, Swabia and Tyrol in the Middle Ages because of the miracles that happened here day and night without ceasing . The saint was invoked above all for secret and shameful ailments, i.e. H. for abdominal, stone and fracture ailments. Where this responsibility comes from remains in the dark. There is no reference to this either in the early sources or in the later biographies.

In 1444 the miracles reported by the healed began to be written down. Up to the secularization of 1803 at least six books of miracles are attested, but only three survive, namely one for the years 1444–1501 and 1558–1595, the second 1639–1691, the third 1692–1728. They contain almost 13,000 entries. In the monastery archive, however, there are also reports about wonderful help up to the present day.

The feast of St. Rasso is still celebrated in Grafrath, Untergammenried , a district of Bad Wörishofen , and Untermühlhausen on June 19 and the following Sunday. There are testimonies to the earlier widespread worship in many other places:

There are four rasso representations in Munich Cathedral , including the larger than life statue that the master von Rabenden made around 1520. He is present seven times in the Andechs church and four times in Dießen. The small rococo church consecrated to him in Untergammenried is a special gem . Further traces can be found in Munich (Church of Mariä Schutz in Pasing , St. Maximilian, Albertinum), further in Dettenschwang and Wolfgrub near Dießen, in Utting, Landsberg am Lech, Untermühlhausen (Penzing), Kaufering, Schmiechen, Epfach near Schongau, on the Auerberg, in Schweingg (Eisenberg near Füssen), Bad Oberdorf (Hindelang), Schwaig (Oberding near Erding), Isen near Erding, Hofolding (Brunnthal), Vagen (Feldkirchen-Westerham), Reichertshausen (Egling near Wolfratshausen), Partenkirchen, Egern, Emmering, Dachau, Riedenzhofen (Röhrmoos), Jarzt (Fahrenzhausen), Machtenstein , Landshut, Unterköllnbach and Altfraunhofen near Landshut, Donauwörth, Bergen near Neuburg, Ingolstadt.

Trivia

Notes and evidence

  1. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz:  Albert von Diessen. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 81-82.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  2. ↑ Messmer: Grafrath and the beginnings , pp. 196–200 and 215 f.
  3. ↑ The original name of the location was "Wörth", as it was an island between Amper and Ampermoos at that time; see Messmer: Graf Rath and his court in Wörth , pp. 6–34.
  4. ↑ B. Steidl, P. Schröter, B. Ziegaus: On the historicity of the holy Count Rasso von Grafrath. In: Bavarian History Leaflets 69 (2004), pp. 113-133.
  5. ↑ Messmer: Grafrath and the beginnings , pp. 200f.
  6. ^ Feast of the two apostles previously on May 1st, since 1956 (introduction of the Feast of Joseph the Worker) on May 3rd.
  7. ↑ Cf. R. Bauerreiß: The historical entries in the Andechser Missale (clm 3005) , No. 2, 4, 11, 15, 21; also introduction to Grafrath's first book of miracles (unpublished manuscript, approx. 1495).
  8. ↑ Messmer: Graf Rath and the beginnings , pp. 196–206; ders .: Graf Rath and his court in Wörth , pp. 50–55.
  9. ↑ Earliest biography in the oldest chronicle of Andechs (B. Kraft (Ed.): Andechser Studies , pp. 587-589) and in the Chronicle of Dießen by Canon Sebastian Meckenloher (unedited manuscript, Bay.HStA Munich KL Dießen 5, p 7-14); first printed biography published by Casper Datz Augsburg in 1534 with the title Die legendt S. Graffrath .

literature

  • Matthäus Rader : Rasso . In: Bavaria Sancta, Volume 1.
  • Daniel Papebroch : S. Rasso . In: Acta Sanctorum , June Volume 3.
  • Romuald Bauerreiß (Ed.): The historical entries of the Andechser Missal . In: Studies and communications on the history of the Benedictine order 47 NF 16 (1929), pp. 52–90, 433–447 online .
  • Augsburger Pilgrimage Association (Hrsg.): History of the Augsburger foot pilgrimage to Hl. Berg Andechs and to Hl. Rasso in Grafrath. Published on the occasion of the 400th anniversary in the Week of Prayer by the Augsburg pilgrims' association. Haas & Grabherr, Augsburg 1927.
  • Benedikt Kraft (ed.): Oldest chronicle of Andechs . In: Andechser Studies II = OA 74 (1941), pp. 587-589.
  • Pankraz Fried: Rasso, Gf. In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages . Volume VII, Sp. 449. Artemis, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-7608-8907-7 .
  • Lothar Altmann: Gammenried. Catholic pilgrimage church of St. Rasso (Small Art Guide No. 1245, 5th edition, 16 pages). Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg, ISBN 978-3-7954-4964-3 .
  • Ekkart Sauser :  Rasso. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 21, Bautz, Nordhausen 2003, ISBN 3-88309-110-3 , Sp. 1233-1234.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Ernst Messmer: Count Rasso. Army leader of Bavaria, church donor and monastery founder of Grafrath, popular saint . EOS-Verlag, St. Ottilien 2003, ISBN 3-8306-7166-0 .
  • Ernst Messmer: The miraculous grave of Count Rasso. History of the unusual pilgrimage and pilgrimage church to St. Grafrath . EOS-Verlag, St. Ottilien 2004, ISBN 3-8306-7185-7 .
  • Ernst Messmer: New questions about Grafrath . In: Amperland 42 (2006) issue 4, pp. 357–371.
  • Ernst Messmer: Grafrath and the beginnings of Dießen and Andechs. New evaluation and evaluation of the sources about early connections . In: Oberbayerisches Archiv, Volume 133 (2009), pp. 161–246.
  • Ernst Messmer: Count Rath and his court in Wörth . Thalhofen 2011, ISBN 978-3-941013-58-2 .

Web links

Commons : Rasso  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Rasso  sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Rasso
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Count Rasso; Rath; Rat; Gráfrath; Rasso by Andechs; Rasso von Grafrath; Raso; Ratho
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bavarian nobleman, pilgrim and founder of a monastery
DATE OF BIRTH at 910
DATE OF DEATH around 954
Place of death Grafrath