LUPO SERVATO DI FERRIÈRES. – Benedictine abbot and theologian, b. at the beginning of the 9th century in the ecclesiastical province of Sens, d. at Ferrières ca. 862. Having entered the abbey of Ferrières (in the Gâtinais) as a young man, around 828 he was sent to Fulda; having returned to his homeland ca. 836, he soon enjoyed the favor of the empress Giuditta and of Carlo il Calvo, who replaced Odo, implicated in the political events that disturbed the Carolingian dynasty at that time, with him as abbot of Ferrières.
By then involved in the entire political and religious life of the period, L. drafted the acts of the Councils of Verneuil (844), Paris (849), Soissons (853), and of the Assembly of Marse near Maastricht (847); he also had to lead troops in the battles of the time, though he did not prove to be a skillful warrior; he was more successful in peaceful endeavors: in 844 he was sent by Carlo il Calvo to Burgundy as an inspector of the monasteries, and in 849 he went to Rome to see Leo IV, for a purpose that is not better known. Entangled in so many affairs, he did not neglect his abbey, in which he caused learning, especially literary studies, to flourish again, enriching its library.
A man of humane disposition, he favored the classical authors, whose quotations fill his epistolary collection (PL 119, 431-610), of great importance for history and culture: it contains letters addressed to the most celebrated figures of the period (Rabano Mauro, Incmaro di Reims, Giona d'Orléans, Egnardo). He also left two hagiographical works of little value: Vita s. Maximini episcopi Trevirensis (PL 119, 665-80) and the Vita s. Wigberti abbati Fritalariensis (ibid., 680-94), to which he added two homilies on the same St. Wigberto (ibid., 693-98). Important for theology is the Liber de tribus quaestionibus (ibid., 621-48), with which he took part in the controversy over predestination provoked by Gotescalco: however, by substantially adhering to rigorous Augustinianism, he drew close to him. To justify his position, he gathered, in a Collectoneum de tribus quaestionibus (ibid., 647-66), numerous texts of the Fathers.