Utto, Bl.

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UTTO, BL.

Benedictine abbot also known as Otto, Othon, Odon; d. c. 800. He was baptized and reared by (Bl.) Gamelbert, priest (?) and lord of Michaelsbuch. Some time before 772 Utto founded the monastery of metten just north of Deggendorf in Lower Bavaria, on Gamelbert's property. Utto had possibly been a monk at reichenau, near Constance, for his first monks at Metten came from there. Legend says that Utto had a chance encounter with Charlemagne in the wood of Metten; Pope Leo III is supposed to have sent him an ivory crozier. His cult was authorized Aug. 25, 1909. The oldest likeness of him is in a pontifical (c. 1070) of Bl. gundecar of Eichstätt. The figure on Utto's tomb in the abbey church is from the 14th century.

Feast: Oct. 3.

Bibliography: Acta Sanctorum Oct. 2:207-214. vita gamelberti, Momumenta Germaniae Historica, (Berlin 1826), "Sriptores rerum Merovingicarum" 7.1:183-191. b. ponschab, Die heiligen Utto und Gamelbert (Metten 1910). w. fink, Entwicklungsgeschichte der Benedictinerabtei Metten, 3 v. (Munich 1926-30) 1:9-87; 2:9-24. j. braun, Tracht und Attribute der Heiligen in der deutschen Kunst (Stuttgart 1943) 710-711.

[w. e. wilkie]