ALAN OF FARFA. - Benedictine, originally from Aquitaine and a monk of Santa Maria di Farfa, of which he was elected abbot in 761. Before that, however, he had spent a considerable time in eremitical life on Mount Acuziano, engaged in transcribing manuscripts. He died on 3 March 769 (or 770), after having designated as his successor a certain Guibert, an Anglo-Saxon bishop; this provoked disputes and harmed monastic discipline.
A. published a sermonary, with a prologue in which he declares himself its author; however, it has been observed that its content is absolutely identical to the sermonary attributed to Egino of Verona (q.v.), which sermonary, in turn, is nothing other than the ancient sermonary of the basilica of St Peter in the Vatican (cf. G. Löw, *Il più antico sermonario di S. Pietro in Vaticano*, in *Riv. di Arch. Crist.*, 19 (1942), pp. 143-83). A complete study of A.’s sermonary is provided by E. Hosp, *Il sermonario di A. di Farfa*, in *Ephemerides liturgicae*, 50 (1936), pp. 375-83; 51 (1937), pp. 210-41.