Ratpert's contemporaries in the "Inner School" included Notker the Poet and the charismatic poet-polymath Tuotilo of St Gallen: the three later became close colleagues in the monastery.
Moengal had originally arrived with his uncle Marcus, an itinerant bishop, when they turned up at St Gallen as pilgrims, visiting the shrine of their compatriot, Saint Gallus.
[4] In addition to his duties as monastery school master and his activities as a writer of legal records, Ratpert produced poetry and chronicled the history of the abbey.
His other works include the All Saints' Day Litany, "Ardua spes mundi" (The World's highest hope"),[5] the Eucharist song "Laudes, omnipotens, ferimus" ("We bring you praise, all powerful one"),[6] an Old High German "St Gallen Song" and his Chronicle of the Monastery, "Casus sancti Galli" (literally "The Matter of St Gallen").
Ratpert's original "St Gallen Song" survives today only in the form of its Latin translation, which was also penned by Ekkehard.