Blessed Rusten

Rusten (also Rustenus or Rustanus; died September 19, 1125, in St. Blasien) was abbot of St. Blasien Abbey in the southern Black Forest from 1108 to 1125. Rusten can be considered the founder of the Berau convent for women (c. 1115). He likely relocated the existing women's convent from St. Blasien there entirely. As part of the monastic reforms and construction projects he initiated, he obtained the right to free election of the advocate from the princely court under Emperor Henry V in 1125. He immediately replaced Adelgoz, who had been appointed by the Bishopric of Basel, with Conrad of Zähringen—an important victory for monastic libertas on the one hand, and for the Zähringens in their power struggle with the Bishopric of Basel on the other. Rusten was beatified.