BREME, ABBEY OF SAN PIETRO DI. - Founded in 929 in the town of the same name (Bremetum, Bremitum or Bremidum) in the Lomellina (today the diocese of Vigevano) by Marquis Adalbert, father of King Berengar II, to receive the scattered monks of the Novalesa (v.), destroyed by the Saracens.
The abbey of B. soon rose to great prestige and power, so much so that in the 12th century it had churches and possessions in the dioceses of Pavia, Vercelli, Asti, Ventimiglia, Turin, Geneva, Vienne, Embrun, Milan and Grenoble, as appears from the bull of Eugene III of 9 February 1152. The rich possessions of the abbey were soon coveted by certain noble families, who then, with the added burden of commendams, slowly brought it, especially between the 14th and 15th centuries, to material and moral ruin, which became complete with the sackings and violence carried out during the struggle between France and Spain (early 16th century). On 23 June 1543 the abbey of B. was in fact united with the Olivetan monastery of S. Bartolomeo in Strada in Pavia; some time later it recovered its independence, but it was definitively suppressed in 1785. Its last monks took refuge in the abbey of S. Maria delle Grazie in Novara. Its rich archive suffered the fate of the abbey's chequered fortunes; the few documents concerning it, scattered here and there, have recently been collected and published by L. C. Bollea. The abbey of B. entered into possession of all the rights of the Novalesa, which became a priory of it, after the restoration works carried out there at the behest of the abbot of Breme Gezo (ca. 980-1002). With the beginning of the 13th century the said priory began to work to make itself independent of the abbey of B.; this attempt was then politically favoured by the counts of Savoy, so much so that in 1601 it again received the title of abbey.
At the abbey of B. around 1050 the Chronicon Novaliciense was composed, as Bollea has excellently demonstrated (pp. 98-102) against its latest editor C. Cipolla (Monumenta Novaliciensia vetustiora, II [Fonti per la Storia d'Italia, 32], Rome 1901).
The abbot of Breme, Pellegrino, composed between 955 and 972 the hymn « Omnipotentis Dei et Genitoris » sung in all the priories dependent on B. on the day of the Assumption (cf. Chronicon Nov., V, 6).
Bibliography5 works
A. Pietro Frutaz