TOMMASO, abbot of FARFA, saint. — The historical and legendary Farfa (v.) recalls T. of Moriana with great veneration, a monk of Frankish origin.
He is said to have lived for three years in Jerusalem and for three years in Ephesus; on his return from his pilgrimage, enlightened by a vision, he rebuilt the monastery of Farfa in 680, after it had been destroyed by the Lombards, with the support of the now-Catholic dukes of Spoleto (in particular Farololo II) and of the popes, especially Giovanni VII. The foundation of a monastery in a key position between the former Roman Duchy and the Duchy of Spoleto, where a fara (Fara Sabina) had already settled earlier, possessed particular political and religious importance, as the monastery’s rapid development confirms. Tradition also attributes to T. of Moriana the foundation of the monastery of S. Vincenzo al Volturno. Recent studies advance the hypothesis that T. originated not in Frankish Moriana, but in Mauriana, which was a quarter of Constantinople, and that he belonged to that group of missionaries of Eastern origin (adumbrated in the tradition of his pilgrimage and sojourn in the East) whom the Holy See employed at that time to evangelize the Arian Lombards. The bishop Lorenzo would also have belonged to this same circle; his Syrian origin is explicitly recorded, and he is said to have founded the monastery much later than tradition claims.