Olegarius: Difference between revisions

{{Infobox Saintsaint

|namehonorific_prefix= Saint Olegarius

|death_date=March 6, March 1137

|feast_day= [[March 6 March]]

|birth_place= Barcelona

|canonized_datebeatified_date=25 May 1675

Saint '''Olegarius Bonestruga''' (orfrom '''Oligarius''')[[Germanic languages|Germanic]] '''Bonestruga'Oldegar'', ({{lang-langx|la|Ollegarius, Oligarius}}, {{langx|ca|Oleguer}}, {{lang-langx|es|Olegario}}; 1060 –– [[6 March]] [[1137]]) was the [[Bishop of Barcelona]] from 1116 and [[Archbishop of Tarragona]] from 1118 until his death. He was an intimate of [[Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona]], and often accompanied the count on military ventures.

Olegarius was canonised in 1675 and his major shrine and sepulchre is in the side chapel of Christ of Lepanto in the cathedral of Barcelona. His feast is celebrated the date of his death: March 6 March. An unreliable ''[[Biography|vita]]'' was composed for his canonisation, based on a fourteenth-century ''Vitae sancti Ollegarii'', which is based on a lost twelfth-century ''vita'' often ascribed to Olegarius' contemporary of Barcelona, [[Renald the Grammarian]].<ref name="McCrank160">McCrank, 160 n8.</ref>

== Early ecclesiastical career ==

Olegarius was born to a noble family of [[Barcelona]]. His father was a follower of [[Ramon Berenguer I, Count of Barcelona|Ramon Berenguer I]], [[Count of Barcelona]]; his mother was Guilla (or Guilia). At the age of ten, Olegarius entered the guild of [[canon (priest)|canon priests]] of the [[Cathedral of Barcelona]]. He later served as superior ([[Provost (religion)|provost]]) of the canonries of Barcelona and then [[Sant Adrià de Besós]] (1095&ndash;11081095–1108), and later as [[abbot]] of the [[Augustinians|Augustinian]] monaterymonastery of [[Saint-Ruf]] (Saint Rufus) in [[Avignon]] (1113&ndash;11181113–1118).<ref name="McCrank162">McCrank, 162 and nn 15 and 17.</ref> As abbot of Saint-Ruf, Olegarius had mediated the international west Mediterranean alliance between the [[Republic of Pisa]], [[Giudicato of Cagliari|Kingdom of Cagliari]], [[County of Provence]], and Barcelona against the [[Almoravid]] pirates based on the [[Balearic Islands]], resulting in the [[1113–15 Balearic Islands expedition|expedition of 1113–15]].<ref name="McCrank162" /> In the ''Gesta triumphalla per Pisanos, facta de captione Hierusalem et civitatis Mayoricarum'' of the Pisan deacon Enric (not, as sometimes alleged, [[Lorenzo Verones]]), Olegarius' namesname is misspelled as ''Nogelarius'' or ''Nigelarius''.<ref name="McCrank162" />

At some point he joined the ''cofradía'' (confraternity) of [[San Pedro de la Portella]].<ref>McCrank, 161.</ref> Raymond Berenguer III named him bishop of Barcelona in 1116, and he was consecrated by Cardinal [[Boso of Santa Sant'Anastasia]] in the cathedral of [[Maguelone]] in [[ProvenceOccitania]] during the pontificate of [[Paschal II]]. In 1117 he went to [[Rome]] to pay homage to [[Pope Gelasius II]].

== Ecclesiastical reformer and leader ==

As a churchman Olegarius was of the [[Gregorian reforms|reforming tradition]]. He was often present at papal synods. He attended [[Council of Toulouse|Toulouse]] in 1119, [[Council of Reims|Rheims]] in 1120, [[First Lateran Council|First Lateran]] in 1123, [[Council of Narbonne|Narbonne]] in 1129, [[Council of Clermont|Clermont]] in 1130, and [[Council of Reims|Rheims]] in 1131.<ref name="Fletcher43">Fletcher, 43.</ref> At First Lateran he had been declared legate ''a latere'' over the [[Crusade]] in New Catalonia (i.e., the province of Tarragone) and began to take the title ''dispensator'' or ''rector'' of Tarragona.<ref>McCrank, 163 and n19.</ref> At Narbonne the council confirmed the interprovincial archconfraternity (''confratrium'') for the restoration of the church of Tarragona which Olegarius had established on a more local level a year earlier.<ref name="McCrank167">McCrank, 167.</ref><ref>McCrank, 172.</ref> Members of the confraternity, lay and ecclesiastical, noble or otherwise, paid membership dues which went to Olegarius' archdiocese.<ref>McCrank, 168.</ref> At Clermont he probably met [[Bernard of Clairvaux]] and his arguments were influential in the condemnation of [[Antipope Anacletus II]]. He attended the council of [[San Zoilo]] in [[Kingdom of Castile|Castile]] on [[4 February]] [[1130]].<ref name="McCrank165n27">McCrank, 165 n27.</ref>

In the 1120s Olegarius reformed the monastery of [[Eulalia of Barcelona|Santa Eulàlia]] outside Barcelona, turning it into a community of Augustinian canons.<ref>Brodman, 34.</ref> Indeed, he was extensively involved in the Augustinian reform of the Catalan monasteries.<ref name="McCrank162" /> In 1132 he excommunicated the monastery of [[Santa Maria de Ripoll]] over the right to exercise justice for crimes committed on the monastery's land.<ref>Freedman, 135.</ref> In 1133 Olegarius granted the sheets and beds of all deceased clergy to the hospital of [[En Guitard]] in Barcelona.<ref>Brodman, 31.</ref>

== Restoration of Tarragona ==

After [[Tarragona]] was [[Reconquista|re-conquered]] from the [[Moors]], on [[8 March]] [[1118]] Olegarius was consecrated archbishop of Tarragona (remaining bishop of Barcelona) by Gelasius, who as a monk had lived at Saint-Ruf under Olegarius.<ref name="McCrank163n17">McCrank, 163 and n17.</ref> He received the bull of confirmation and the [[pallium]] on [[21 March]].<ref name="McCrank163n17" /> He was granted full jurisdiction over [[Tarragona]] and its countryside by Ramon Berenguer III&mdash;throughIII—through a process, agreed on [[23 January]] [[1118]], whereby the secular lordship was granted to the Churchchurch pending reconquest<ref>McCrank, 163.</ref>&mdash;and—and also received ecclestiasticalecclesiastical administrative rights over the projected diocese of [[Tortosa]] (which had not yet been conquered) from Pope Gelasius.<ref name="Bisson">Bisson, 27.</ref><ref>Bishko, 405.</ref> He was a close counsellor to Ramon Berenguer III and [[Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona|Ramon Berenguer IV]].

At some point after the [[Battle of Corbins]]&mdash;a—a great Catalan defeat&mdash;indefeat—in 1124, Olegarius is said to have gone on a pilgrimage to the [[Holy Land]]. He cut his stay short at [[Antioch]] because of concern for Tarragona and had returned by 1127.<ref>McCrank, 164 n24.</ref>

Between 1126 and 1130 Olegarius was very active in rebuilding Tarragona, its churches especially.<ref name="McCrank165">McCrank, 165.</ref> He also actively encouraged resettlement and colonisation and laboured to bring in knights and other soldiers for the new territory's defence.<ref name="McCrank165" /> He "conferred benefices regularly,", according to his ''vita''.<ref name="McCrank165" /> In 1126&ndash;11271126–1127, the period of his greatest activity in New Catalonia, he began encouraging a second Crusade effort. He began by compensating [[William V of Montpellier]] for the knights he had lent to Barcelona in 1124&ndash;11251124–1125 and by reconciling William with his son, [[Bernard IV of Melgueil]], in order to strengthestrengthen the anti-Almoravid alliance.<ref name="McCrank165" /> On [[14 March]] [[1129]] he ceded this secular authority in the district of Tarragona to [[Robert Bordet]], with whom he had an antagonistic relationship, with the title of ''princeps Tarraconensis'', effectively the archiepiscopate's [[vidame]] or ''defensor''.<ref name="McCrank167" /><ref name="Bisson" /> Instead Olegarius concentrated on restoring the [[metropolitan (religion)|metropolitan]].<ref name="Bisson" /><ref>Bishko, 406.</ref>

== Diplomatic activity ==

In 1129 Olegarius was drawn into the [[Investiture Controversy]] then raging between [[Papacy]] and [[Holy Roman Empire|Empire]] and he returned to southern France to be with the pope in exile.<ref name="McCrank165" /> He was briefly in Barcelona and then in Castile (at San Zoilo) in 1130 before returning to France. He was back in Barcelona for the ''[[cortesParliament|cort]]'' of 1131, whereat Olegarius successfully petitioned for a restoration of the tithe on the revenues from Barcelona's port, which a new treaty he had negotiated with the [[Republic of Genoa]] had recently augmented.<ref name="McCrank166">McCrank, 166 and n39.</ref>

Olegarius helped establish the [[Knights Templar]] in Catalonia "to serve God and fight in our land" in 1134.<ref name="Fletcher43" /> In 1122 he was a signatory at [[Montearagón, Toledo|Montearagón]] to the foundation charter of the military [[confraternity of [[Belchite]], founded by [[Alfonso the Battler]].<ref name="Fletcher46">Fletcher, 46.</ref> He played an important role in December 1134 when, at [[Zaragoza]], he brokered a peace between [[Ramiro II of Aragon]] and [[Alfonso VII of Castile]]. He also negotiated the marriage alliances between [[Douce I, Countess of Provence]] and Ramon Berenguer III and of [[Petronila of Aragon]] to Ramon Berenguer IV.<ref>[http://www.arqbcn.org/episcopologi.html Episcopologi]</ref>

== Sources ==

* Bishko, Charles Julian. [http://libro.uca.edu/bishko/spr1.htm "The Spanish and Portuguese Reconquest, 1095&ndash;14921095–1492".] ''A History of the Crusades, vol. 3: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries''. Harry W. Hazard, ed. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1975.

* Bisson, Thomas N. ''The Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986. {{ISBN |0 -19 -821987 -3}}.

* Brodman, James William. [http://libro.uca.edu/charity/charity.htm ''Charity and Welfare: Hospitals and the Poor in Medieval Catalonia''.] University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998.

* Fletcher, R. A. [httphttps://linkswww.jstor.org/sici?sici=0080-4401%281987%295%3A37%3C31%3ARACISC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Dstable/3679149 "Reconquest and Crusade in Spain, c. 1050&ndash;11501050–1150."] ''Transactions of the Royal Historical Society'', 5th Ser., '''37''' (1987), pp. 31&ndashnbsp;4731–47.

*Freedman Freedman, Paul H. [http://libro.uca.edu/vic/vic.htm ''The Diocese of Vic: Tradition and Regeneration in Medieval Catalonia''.] New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1983.

* McCrank, Lawrence J. "The Foundation of the Confraternity of Tarragona by Archbishop Oleguer Bonestruga, 1126&ndash;11291126–1129." ''Viator'', '''9''' (1978) pp. 157&ndashnbsp;168157–168.

== Notes ==

[[Category:12th -century Roman Catholic archbishops in the Kingdom of Aragon]]

[[Category:12th-century Spanish people from the County of Barcelona]]