Farfa Abbey is a territorial abbey in northern Lazio, central Italy. It is one of the most famous abbeys of Europe. It belongs to the Benedictine Order and is located about 60 km from Rome, in the commune of Fara Sabina, of which it is also a hamlet.
Guicpert or Wigbert was the Abbot of Farfa for eleven months in 769–70 and probably also the Bishop of Rieti in 778. According to the twelfth-century chronicler of the abbey, Gregory of Catino, Wigbert was an Englishman and already a bishop when he convinced the dying Abbot Alan of Farfa to name him as his successor. From a twelfth-century perspective, Wigbert's accession was invalid because it was not in accordance with the Rule of Saint Benedict, although that rule was neither strictly nor uniformly enforced at Farfa in the eighth century. Nevertheless, the monks found Wigbert's rule a "tyranny" and sought the king, Desiderius, to remove him and confirm their freedom to elect a successor, which he did.
Wandelbert was the Abbot of Farfa sometime between 757 and 761, one of a series of abbots from Aquitaine. His abbacy coincided with a troubled period in the abbey's history and the stormy reign of Duke Gisulf of Spoleto, who seems to have brought some stability to the abbey by the time of his death.
Ragambald was the Abbot of Farfa from 781 until his death. According to the abbey's twelfth-century historian Gregory of Catino, Ragambald was born in a city in Gaul (Gallia), that is, Francia, but he does not explicitly call him a Frank. Succeeding Probatus, a local-born abbot, Ragambald was the first of a line of abbots from Francia, including Altpert (786–90) and Mauroald (790–802). The significance of the Frankish presence at Farfa and of Ragambald's abbacy is summed up:
.. . the ‘new’ abbeys of the time not only arose under Frankish influence but also infiltrated the religious life of Lombard Italy with ‘Frankish’ ideas and attitudes, providing a kind of ‘fifth column’ that prepared the way for Frankish military victory and a more ready acceptance of Frankish political domination.
Vitalis was the "surrogate" Abbot of Farfa in 888, between the death of Spento and the election of the long-serving Peter. The history of the period in Farfa's history, besides the barest chronological outline, has been obscure since it was first written down, by Gregory of Catino in the late eleventh century.
Ingoald was the Abbot of Farfa from 815, succeeding Benedict. At the beginning of his abbacy he vigorously protested the policies of Pope Leo III (795–816), which had resulted in the abbey's loss of property. Ingoald complained about not only the—illegitimate, as he saw it—seizure of Farfa's lands, but also the application of dubious laws of Roman origin in a zone that followed Lombard law. While Ingoald also fostered close contacts with the Carolingian rulers of Francia and Lombardy, he resisted secular encroachments on the abbey's privileges as staunchly as he resisted papal ones. The rate of property transactions at Farfa seems to have peaked under Ingoald, but the surviving documentary evidence is far from complete.
Peter was the long-serving Abbot of Farfa from about 890 until his death. He replaced the interim abbot Vitalis. His abbacy marked the return of stability after a period which saw four abbots in the space of two years.
Aunepert was the second Abbot of Farfa, holding office from the death of the monastery's founder, Thomas of Maurienne, until his own death a few years later. Little is known of Aunepert save that he was from Toulouse, then in the Merovingian kingdom of Aquitaine. By 724 he had been succeeded as abbot by Lucerius when Duke Transamund II of Spoleto granted "a church and its lands" to Farfa.
Lucerius was the third Abbot of Farfa, succeeding Aunepert in 724 at the latest. He was originally from Provence and had been raised at Farfa by Thomas of Maurienne, the first abbot. Lucerius' abbacy was a period of growth and expansion on the part of the abbey. In his first year, he received a grant of a church with its (unspecified) lands from Duke Thrasimund II of Spoleto. This church, dedicated to Saint Getulius, lay within the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Rieti, and according to the tenth-century Exceptio Relationum Thrasimund had to compensate the bishop for his loss.
Benedict was the Abbot of Farfa, Italy from 802 until his death. He is the first abbot mentioned in the eleventh-century history of the abbey written by Gregory of Catino whose origins were not known.
Fulcoald was the fourth Abbot of Farfa from 740. In 739 King Liutprand granted Farfa the right of freedom in abbatial elections, but we do not know if Fulcoald was the product of such a free election or not. Like his predecessor, Lucerius, Fulcoald hailed from Aquitaine, then in southern Francia. "With his abbacy, the quantity of our [historical] evidence dramatically increases [and d]evelopments in secular politics can now be seen to impinge on Farfa's land acquisitions." Fulcoald's abbacy can therefore be defined in terms of three objectives that are apparent in the surviving sources: (a) to extend its landholdings and secure its rights to its properties, (b) to promote a strict and disciplined monastic observance, and (c) to "steer as untroubled a course as possible through the choppy waters of Italian politics".
Alan was an Aquitanian scholar, hermit and homilist who served as the sixth Abbot of Farfa in central Italy from 761. Before taking over at Farfa, Alan composed the Homiliarium Alani, "one of the most successful homiliaries of the late eighth and early ninth centuries", traces of which may be found in the liturgical formulae scattered throughout Farfa's eighth-century charters.
Perto was the Abbot of Farfa from 854/7 to 872. Between 857 and 859 he received a privilege from the Emperor Louis II confirming a cella called Santa Maria del Mignone. Since this is the first time Santa Maria is mentioned in Farfa's possession it may have been acquired around this time by Perto. Louis's diploma confirmed privileges granted Farfa by his father, Lothair I, in 840. The imperial diploma forbade any financial imposition on Farfa by any pope or secular ruler. This diploma may have been aimed at courting good relations with the pope or it may be associated with Louis's intervention in the Duchy of Spoleto in 860. In 864 Louis confirmed Farfa's possessions and, at the insistence of Bishop Peter of Spoleto, protector of the abbey since 840, made a donation to it in the region of Massa Torana.
John I was the Abbot of Farfa from 871/2. He made a few property acquisitions, but his abbacy comes at the start of an obscure period in Farfa's history. He received a confirmation from the Emperor Louis II of all of Farfa's lands on 27 May 872 and another from Charles the Bald in 875. Charles confirmed the abbey's freedom from taxation and secular jurisdiction and gave its abbots jurisdiction in suits involving subjects of the monastery's lands.
Hugh was the Abbot of Farfa from 998. He founded the abbatial school and wrote its history from the late ninth through the early eleventh century under the title Destructio monasterii Farfensis. A later student of his school, Gregory of Catino, wrote a fuller history of the monastery partly based on Hugh's earlier account.
Probatus was the Abbot of Farfa from 770 until 781, and the first abbot native to the Sabina. He steered the abbey through the fall of the Kingdom of the Lombards, trying to prevent the disastrous aggression of its last king, and kept it from falling under the jurisdiction of either the Papacy or the Papal States. With the benefit of his local connections he oversaw a great expansion of the abbey's properties through grants and purchases, and also rationalised its holdings to create a robust base for an early medieval monastic community.
Gregory of Catino was a monk of the Abbey of Farfa and "one of the most accomplished monastic historians of his age." Gregory died shortly after 1130, possibly in 1133.
