How could there not have been a man whose remains have been lying in the church at Grafrath for centuries?
At some point, Dr.
Ernst Messmer.
He calls his book “Graf Rath” an obituary for a man whose identity has been taken from him.
Andechs / Grafrath - The 85-year-old Messmer from Grafrath was a teacher of Latin and history.
Since retiring in 2000, he has been immersed in the history of his home parish.
At first he was also blinded by what well-known historians had put into the room on the occasion of the state exhibition in Andechs in 1993, namely that there was no saint of Grafrath, instead his name was Razzo and a great military leader and forefather of the Andechs family. Was Meranier.
After 21 years of researching sources, Messmer is now certain that something has been put together that does not belong together - namely Razzo and Rasso / Razo or Rath.
To put it very simply, it is a confusion of names, due to which Grafrath and his saint themselves were almost written off by the church.
Messmer is of the opinion that this man "does not deserve to be called a legendary or fabulous or - quite absurdly - an invented figure".
Messmer encountered the game of confusion when he was still intensively studying the sources.
For him it has meanwhile been documented: “The Razzo tradition is dated much later than that of Count Rath.” And Grafrath has his saint back, whose bones have been laid out on the high altar of the pilgrimage church to this day.
Messmer published his research on 271 pages in Bauer-Verlag, in which he had already published "Graf Rath und seine Hof in Wörth" in 2011.
Remarkably, there are also the works “The miraculous grave of Count Rasso” from 2003 and “Count Rasso” in 2004 published by EOS-Verlag of the Archabbey of St. Ottilien. In the latter, Messmer also speaks of the army leader of Bavaria, of whom the 85-year-old is convinced today that he has nothing to do with the church donor and monastery founder, the popular saint Grafraths.
Count Rath
was published by Bauer-Verlag Thalhofen, 271 pages, 12 euros, available in bookshops.
