Utto

The blessed Utto ( attested by 770/784 ) was the first abbot of the Bavarian Benedictine Metten. His feast day is October 3.

Life and work

Utto was probably at first a monk at the monastery of Reichenau; His place of birth is unknown. According to tradition he was a relative, and the godson of the priest and lord Gamelbert in the Bavarian Michael book on the right side of the Danube is a few kilometers from the mouth of the Isar ( the modern city of Plattling ). As Gamelbert 766 on his estate donated the monastery of Metten, he is said to have entrusted his relatives Utto with the settlement. Utto, who came to Metten with twelve other monks from Reichenau, was appointed by him for the first abbot of the monastery. The name of the Abbot of Metten Utto 772 appears in the brotherhood book of the Synod of Dingolfing and 784 in brotherhood book the Abbey of Saint Peter in Salzburg.

Legend

As the late medieval legend Charlemagne stylized to the founder of the monastery of Metten, Utto became a hermit in the woods near Metten. On the hunt Charlemagne had met with him and had to ask the pious man, the foundation of a monastery in honor of St. Michael promised (after 788 ). At the location of this alleged meeting at a source since the 17th century reminds a little church ( Uttobrunn ). This legend is also due to the ( historically untenable ) dating of the death of Blessed Utto in the year 829

1911 composed Kanzlsperger Max ( 1886-1963 ) on a text by the Conventual Mettener Boniface smoke a "religious cantata with living pictures " on the life and legend of the Blessed Utto.

Relics

In Metten Abbey is a medieval Abtsstab is kept until today, who is revered as a staff of the blessed Utto. The Curva from walrus tooth in the form of a dragon surrounding a lamb with flag of victory, however, can not be dated before the start of the 13th century due to comparable properties. The bar itself may be older, since a bronze band below the Curva the Latin inscription bears in Roman capitals: QVOD DNS [= Dominus ] PETRO, PETRVS TIBI CONTVLIT, vtto ("What the Lord has entrusted to Peter that Peter you have transferred, Utto ").