ALTO, ST.

Hermit and monastic founder; d. c. 770. According to tradition, he came to the region near modern Dachau shortly after the middle of the eighth century and lived for a time as a hermit on some forest land given him by Pepin III. He was not, it would appear, one of the early missionaries who labored with virgilius of salzburg in southern Bavaria. After a few years he built the monastery of Altomünster, which was destroyed in the tenth century during the Hungarian invasion. St. boniface is said to have consecrated the monastic church erected during the lifetime of Alto. The authenticity of the saint's relics preserved today at Altomünster is not fully established. Sometime in the eleventh century othloh of Sankt-Emmeram wrote his Vita s. Altonis (Monumenta Germaniae Historicum: Scriptores 15:843–846), which preserved the local traditions concerning the life of the saint.

Feast: Feb. 9.

Bibliography: a. bayol, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912) 2:830–831. m. manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters (Munich 1911–31) 2:101. a. m. zimmermann, Kalendarium Benedictinum (Metten 1933–38) 1:190, 192. j. l. baudot and l. chaussin, Vies des saints et des bienhereux selon l'ordre du calendrier avec l'historique des fêtes (Paris 1935–56) 2:216. r. bauerreiss, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 1:403.

[h. dressler]