Racho of Autun

Saint Racho or Ragnobert of Autun (died c. 660) ["Racho" is offered as a variant of "Horace" (Horatius) in Thomas W. Sheehan, "Dictionary of Patron Saints' Names" 2001, "s.v." "Horace".] is venerated as a Roman Catholic saint, the first bishop of Autun, with a feast on 25 January. According to Pierre Bolle, the anhistorical Saint Roch is a hagiographic doublet of Saint Racho of Autun. A Cluniac priory, Saint-Racho-lès-Autun [A history was published by Anatole de Charmasse, "Le Prieuré de Saint-Racho-Lez-Autun de l'ordre de Cluny" (Autun: Dejussieu), n.d. (ca. 1850)] , under the protection of his name was established in southern Burgundy during the first flush of the Cluniac reform movement during the tenure of Odilon of Cluny (994-1049). [ [http://www.encyclopedie-universelle.com/abbaye%20-%20cluny4.html Encyclopédie de la langue franċaise":] L' abbatiat d'Odilon] The commune of Saint-Racho, Saône-et-Loire owes its historical origins to the monastery.

Racho holds a tenuous place in authentic history as the predecessor in the diocese of Autun of Leodegar, a fully historical figure who was the great opponent of Ebroin— the mayor of the Palace of Neustria— and the leader of the faction of Austrasian great nobles in the struggles for hegemony over the waning Merovingian dynasty. His torture and death made him a martyr and saint of the Roman Catholic Church, which embraced the cause of the Austrasian mayors of the palace, the Arnulfings, in the following century, anointed as the Carolingian dynasty.

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External links

* [http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintr0e.htm Patron Saints Index: Racho of Autun]