Rasso

Infobox Saint
name= Saint Rasso of Andechs
birth_date=~900
death_date=953
feast_day= May 17; May 19 (Grafrath, Andechs)
venerated_in=


imagesize= 250px
caption=
birth_place=
death_place=953 AD
titles=
beatified_date=
beatified_place=
beatified_by=
canonized_date=
canonized_place=
canonized_by=
attributes= military attire
patronage=invoked against stomach pains, especially in children [ [http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/BiographienR/Rasso_von_Andechs.html Rasso (Ratho) von Andechs - Ökumenisches Heiligenlexikon ] ]
major_shrine=
suppressed_date=
issues=

Saint Rasso of Andechs (also "Rasso of Grafrath, Graf Ratt, Ratho, Grafrath, Rasso von Andechs") (ca. 900-953) was a Bavarian count and military leader, pilgrim, and saint. He was the count ("Graf") of Dießen-Andechs, leading the Bavarians against invading Magyars in the tenth century. No contemporary "Vita" of Rasso has survived and various legends arose around his cult in the late Middle Ages. [Charles R. Bowlus, "The Battle of Lechfeld And Its Aftermath, August 955: The End" (Ashgate Publishing, 206), 143n.] However, there is no reason to doubt that there existed a count named Rasso who fought against the Magyars in the 950s. [Charles R. Bowlus, "The Battle of Lechfeld And Its Aftermath, August 955: The End" (Ashgate Publishing, 2006), 143n.]

As a middle-aged man, he went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Rome, where he collected relics, returning to found a Benedictine abbey at Wörth, later named Grafrath after him. He was a large man. When his relics were exhumed in 1468, it was determined that he was some 2 meters (6 ft 6 in) tall, although it was previously thought that he was even taller, since the size of his actual grave was 2 and a half meters. [ [http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/BiographienR/Rasso_von_Andechs.html Rasso (Ratho) von Andechs - Ökumenisches Heiligenlexikon ] ]

Veneration

The healing shrine and pilgrimage church ("Wallfahrtskirche") of St. Rasso at Grafrath received many visitors during the Middle Ages and afterwards; records of the miracles attributed to him between the years 1444 and 1728 consist of 12,131 entries. [ [http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/BiographienR/Rasso_von_Andechs.html Rasso (Ratho) von Andechs - Ökumenisches Heiligenlexikon ] ]

In 955, the relics that Rasso had brought from Rome and the Holy Land to his monastery at Wörth had been transferred to Andechs Abbey to preserve them from the ravages of the Magyars.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0517.htm Saints of May 17]
*de icon [http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/BiographienR/Rasso_von_Andechs.html Rasso von Andechs]
*de icon [http://www.grafrath.de/beitraege/beitrag.php?id=1019 „Rasso wahrscheinlich älter“] – aktuelle Wertung von Ungereimtheiten der Quellen (Dr. Ernst Meßmer ist auch Autor der beiden Rasso-Monografien, die bei der Deutschen Nationalbibiothek unter dem Stichwort "Rasso" verzeichnet sind)
* [http://www.deutschefotothek.de/obj70700051.html „Der heilige Rasso kämpft gegen die Ungarn“] , Fresken in der Stiftskirche Andechs von Johann Baptist Zimmermann, 1751-1754