RACA. — A transcription into Greek (ἀρχά), then into Latin, of an Aramaic word (רָקָא).
RACA (Ratchis). — King of the Lombards from 744 to 749. His reign was marked by a policy of internal peace and he presented as evidence of weakness his withdrawal in 749 from the siege of Perugia due to the direct intervention of Pope Zachary. This return to the old policy would have provoked the reaction of the national party, which deposed Ratchis to replace him with his brother Aistulf (July 749). Ratchis, having gone to Rome, received the monastic habit from Pope Zachary and retired to Montecassino. The bellicose policy of Aistulf plunged the Kingdom into such a serious crisis that, at his death in 756, the Catholic-pacifist party, which had maintained secret dealings with Ratchis, would have taken him from Montecassino and reinstated him on the throne. Pope Stephen II, in agreement with the Franks, would have preferred to support Duke Desiderius, who made the most extensive promises of territorial restitutions, and would have abandoned Ratchis, who, having returned to Montecassino, ended his days there in obscurity.
More recent and acute studies affirm that Ratchis intended to unify the peninsula precisely because he was steeped in Romanitas, present his abdication and entry into Montecassino as the conclusion of an inner spiritual drama, and interpret his return as a temporary regency, demanded by the gravity of the situation. Desiderius’ initial compliance may have been inspired by Ratchis, who, having completed his task, returned to the monastery.