UGO di FARFA. - Born into a noble family of the Marsica around 972, died 25 Dec. 1038, he became abbot of Farfa in Dec. 997.
Although he had obtained this dignity through simony, as he himself confessed, he introduced the Cluniac reform into his monastery with great energy, following the advice of Odilone di Cluny and Guglielmo di Digione. He restored the property of the monastery, which had been scattered and usurped during the crisis following the devastation wrought by the Saracens in 898, using arms for this purpose as well. He involved himself in the struggles of the Crescenzi against the counts of Tuscolo; he was in contact with Ottone III, Enrico II, and Corrado II, obtained favors from them, and defied their hostility.
His spiritual and administrative activity was accompanied by a notable literary production: the Destructio Farfensis recounts the painful vicissitudes of the monastery between 890 and 998; the Diminutio monasterii sets forth the struggles undertaken for the recovery of property in the Sabina, while the Constitutiones document the reforming activity of the energetic abbot; the Quaerimonium was presented to Corrado II in order to assert possession of certain castles; the Breve de rebus perditis returns to the painful question of the dispersal of the abbey’s patrimony: all are brief but vigorous and vivid writings, revealing his notable literary and historiographical gifts.