LUPO SERVATO of FERRIÈRES. - Benedictine abbot and theologian, born at the beginning of the 9th century in the ecclesiastical province of Sens, died at Ferrières c. 862. Having entered the abbey of Ferrières (in the Gâtinais) at a young age, around 828 he was sent to Fulda; returning to his homeland c. 836, he soon enjoyed the favor of Empress Judith and Charles the Bald, who appointed him abbot of Ferrières in place of Odo, who had been involved in the political events that disturbed the Carolingian dynasty at that time.
By now a participant in the entire political-religious life of the era, L. drafted the acts of the Councils of Verneuil (844), Paris (849), Soissons (853), and the Assembly of Marnes near Maastricht (847); he also had to lead troops in the battles of the time, though he proved no skilled warrior; he was more successful in peaceful undertakings: in 844 he was sent by the Bald to Burgundy as an inspector of monasteries, and in 849 he came to Rome to Leo IV, for a purpose not better known. Though entangled in so many affairs, he did not neglect his abbey, in which he revived studies, especially literary ones, enriching its library.
A man of humanistic leanings, he preferred the classical authors, whose quotations fill his correspondence (PL 119, 431-610), of great importance for history and culture: there are letters addressed to the most celebrated figures of the time (Rabanus Maurus, Hincmar of Reims, Jonas of Orléans, Einhard). He also left two hagiographical works of little value: Vita s. Maximini episcopi Treviensis (PL 119, 665-680) and the Vita s. Wigberti abbati Fritzlarensis (ibid., 668-694), to which he added two homilies on the same St. Wigbert (ibid., 693-698). Important for theology is the Liber de tribus quaestionibus (ibid., 621-48), with which he took part in the controversy on predestination provoked by Gottschalk: however, by substantially adhering to strict Augustinianism, he sided with him. As justification for his stance, he compiled in a Collectaneum de tribus quaestionibus (ibid., 647-66) many texts of the Fathers.