Bernardo Pignatelli (or 'Paganelli') of Pisa was canon of Pisa cathedral when, in 1138, he heard Bernard of Clairvaux preach and abandoned his canonry to enter the Cistercian abbey of Clairvaux. Bernard sent him as abbot, first to Scandriglia, then to the abbey of Tre Fontane outside Rome where, in 1145, the cardinals — fleeing the Republican revolt in Rome under Arnold of Brescia — elected the humble Cistercian abbot pope by acclamation.
His pontificate was dominated by exile from a Rome controlled by the commune (he resided at Viterbo, Pisa, and the Cistercian houses of France), by the disastrous Second Crusade (which he proclaimed in 1145 and which Bernard preached at his command), and by the long struggle with Arnold of Brescia's republican experiment in Rome. He held the great reforming Council of Reims in 1148.
Bernard wrote for him the De Consideratione — five books addressed to his former novice on the dangers of papal worldliness and the priority of contemplation — one of the foundational texts of medieval reflection on the papal office. Eugene died at Tivoli in 1153 and was buried at St. Peter's. Pope Pius IX beatified him in 1872.