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 ca. 862. Having entered the abbey of Ferrières (in the Gâtinais) as a young man, he was sent to Fulda around 828; having returned to his homeland ca. 836, he soon enjoyed the favor of the Empress Judith and of Charles the Bald, who replaced Odo, as abbot of Ferrières, with him, Odo being embroiled in the political events that disturbed the Carolingian dynasty at that time.

By now a participant in the whole political and religious life of the time, L. drafted the acts of the Councils of Verneuil (844), of Paris (849), of Soissons (853) and of the Assembly of Marse near Maastricht (847); he also had to lead troops in the battles of the period, though he did not prove himself a skilled warrior; he was more successful in peaceful undertakings: in 844 he was sent by Charles the Bald to Burgundy as a visitor of the monasteries, and in 849 he came to Rome to Leo IV, for a purpose not better known. Entangled in so many affairs, he did not forget his abbey, in which he revived studies, especially literary ones, enriching its library.

A man of humane temper, he favored the classical authors, with whose quotations his epistolary (PL 119, 431-610) is full, a work of great importance for history and culture: it contains letters addressed to the most famous personages of the time (Rabanus Maurus, Hincmar of Reims, Jonas of Orléans, Eginhard). He also left two hagiographic opuscules of little value: Vita s. Maximini episcopi Trevirensis (PL 119, 665-80) and the Vita s. Wigberti abbatis Fritalariensis (ibid., 680-94), to which he added two homilies on the same St. Wigbert (ibid., 693-98). 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, adhering substantially to rigid Augustinianism, he drew close to him. In justification of his attitude he united, in a Collectaneum de tribus quaestionibus (ibid., 647-66), many texts of the Fathers.

Bibliography9 works

BIBL.: The first complete edition of his works was edited by Baluze (Paris 1664) and passed into Migne. A new edition of the letters in the MGH, Epist., VI, pp. 1-26; anonymous, Notitia: PL 119, 425-26; B. Nicolas, Etude sur les lettres de Servat Loup, Paris 1862; F. Sprotte, Biographie des abtes Servat Lupus von Ferrières, Regensburg 1880; Hutter, I, coll. 811-833; E. Amann, s. v. in DThC, IX, coll. 963-67 (with bibl.); L. Levillain, Loup de Ferrières: correspondance, Paris 1927; I. De Ghellinck, Le mouvement théologique du XIXe siècle, 2nd ed., Bruges-Paris 1948, passim (see index); Fliche-Martin-Fruta, VI, pp. 338, 345.

Antonio Piolanti

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Lupo Servato of Ferrières

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