Feastday: January 25
Death: 660
First Bishop of Autun, France, under the Franks. He is also listed as Ragnobert. It is believed that St. Leodegarius was his successor
Saint Racho (or Ragnobert) of Autun (died c. 660) is venerated as a Roman Catholic saint. He was a bishop of Autun, with a feast day on 25 January. A Cluniac priory, Saint-Racho-lès-Autun, 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). 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.
Notes
- ^ Racho is offered as a variant of Horace (Horatius) in Thomas W. Sheehan, Dictionary of Patron Saints' Names 2001, s.v. "Horace".
- ^ 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)
- ^ Encyclopédie de la langue franċaise: Archived 22 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine L' abbatiat d'Odilon
