Hugo of Farfa

HUGO OF FARFA. - Born of a noble family of the Marsica around 972, died on 25 December 1038, he became abbot of Farfa in December 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 Odilo of Cluny and William of Dijon. He restored the monastery's patrimony, which had been dispersed and usurped during the crisis that followed the devastation perpetrated by the Saracens in 898, using arms to this end as well. He involved himself in the struggles of the Crescenzi against the counts of Tusculum; he was in contact with Otto III, Henry II, Conrad II, obtained favors from them and defied their hostility.

His spiritual and administrative activity was accompanied by a notable literary output: the Destructio Farfensis narrates the painful vicissitudes of the monastery between 890 and 998; the Diminutio monasterii sets forth the struggles undertaken for the recovery of the properties in the Sabina, while the Constitutiones document the reforming activity of the energetic abbot; the Quaerimonium was presented to Conrad II, to claim possession of certain castles; the Breve de rebus perditis returns to the painful question of the dispersal of the abbey's patrimony: all brief writings, but vigorous and colorful, which reveal his notable literary and historiographical aptitude.

Gina Fasoli