Peter of Farfa

[1] In 897, Farfa was attacked and sacked, presumably by Saracens, who had begun to settle in south and central Italy and systematically plunder the countryside.

[2] An account of these events, the Destructio monasterii Farfensis, was written by the early eleventh-century abbot Hugh.

He records "the properties of our monastery, which were given mercifully by the pious, [were] dispersed cruelly by the impious [through] evil destruction".

The abbey's treasures were rescued by the monks, and its library and archive were brought by Peter and a few others to the church of Saint Hippolytus in Fermo.

In the late eleventh century, the Farfese monk Gregory of Catino records that many documents were missing from the abbey's archives; these were probably lost during the itinerant period after 897.