Haito

Haito (or Hatto or Heito) (764 – 17 March 836) was the bishop of Basel from 802 and simultaneously abbot of Reichenau Abbey from 806.

Life Haito was born in 764. At the age of five, along with his brother Wadilcoz, he entered the Abbey of Reichenau, on an island in Lake Constance. Abbot Waldo (786-806) made him head of the monastic school, and in this capacity he did much for the instruction and classical training of the monks, as well as for the growth of the library. The Abbey gained influence in the Carolingian dynasty by educating the clerks who staffed Imperial and ducal chanceries.

As a substitute for Abbot Waldo, who was often absent in the service of Charlemagne and who, as Bishop of Pavia, also administered the bishopric of Basel, Haito grew into the position of abbot on the Reichenau at an early age. In 802 he became Bishop of Basel.

When Waldo was transferred to the Abbey of Saint Denis, near Paris, in 806, Haito was made Abbot of Reichenau, and about the same time bishop of Basel. The so-called Murbach statutes, long attributed to Murbach Abbey because of their tradition, are actually Haito's, implementing regulations for the Aachen reform plans of 816 for the monastery of Reichenau. That same year, he took part in the Aachen Reform Synod, called to establish regulations for the monastic life in the Frankish realm.

In 823 he resigned both positions, owing to serious infirmities, and spent the remainder of his life as a simple monk in the monastery of Reichenau where he died on 17 March 836.

While Bishop of Basel, he issued a number of regulations in twenty-five chapters, known as the Capitulare Haitonis, in which he legislated on matters of diocesan discipline. Priests should lead exemplary lives and be able to preach in both Latin and the vernacular. They were forbidden to live with women and stay in taverns. The statutes were probably published at a synod.

The copy of the so-called St. Gall monastery plan can be traced back to his initiative. Haito is an outstanding example of the close connection between ecclesiastical, political and scholarly activity in the Carolingian Empire.