Oleguer (saint)

St. Oleguer (12th century)

Tomb of Saint Oleguer in Barcelona Cathedral

Oleguer Bonestruga (* around 1060 in Barcelona ; † March 6, 1137 ) was Bishop of Barcelona and Archbishop of Tarragona . His remains are interred in the Chapel of Christ of Lepanto in Barcelona Cathedral.

Oleguer's feast day is the day of his death on March 6th.

Live and act

Oleguer Bonestruga was born into a noble family in Barcelona. His father was a high official of Ramon Berengar I , the Count of Barcelona . His mother Guilia came from the Gothic nobility.

Before he became bishop of Barcelona, he was chairman of the canons of Barcelona, Sant Adrià Besòs and from the monastery Sant reputation in Avinyó . He founded the Collegiate Monastery of Santa Maria in Terrassa . During the tenure of Pope Paschal II , he was appointed Bishop of Barcelona in 1116 in Mauguio , the capital of what was then the County of Melgueil in southern France . In 1118 he traveled to Rome to meet the new Pope Gelasius II.

After Tarragona was conquered by the Moors , he was made Archbishop of Tarragona in 1118 without losing his episcopate in Barcelona. From then on he worked as a metropolitan with all rights and received the not yet recaptured diocese of Tortosa as diocesan administrator .

As adviser and employee of Count Ramon Berengar III. and Ramon Berengar IV , he had considerable political influence. He was instrumental in the renewal of the Roman church and achieved greater independence from secular rulers. In the new areas of the Camp de Tarragona , however, this led to violent conflicts with the local Count Robert d'Aguiló .

He took part in the Council of Reims (1119) and the First Lateran Council (1123). As envoy of Pope Innocent II , he met Bernhard von Clairvaux at the Council of Clermont in 1130 . His language skills eventually led to the excommunication of the antipope Anaclet II .

He played a special role in December 1134 when he brokered a peace between Ramiro II of Aragon and Alfonso VII of Castile in Saragossa .

Canonization 1675

Oleguer was canonized in 1675 . This shows how strong his work and his fame in the people and in the Church was still centuries after his death.

literature

• Antoni Joan Garcia de Caralps: Historia de S. Oleguer, arçobispo de Tarragona y obispo de Barcelona: escriuense en ella su vida, milagros y excellencias, muchos loores de Cathaluña, con las historias de importancia que acaecieron en su tiempo ... Sebastian Matevad , Barcelona 1617 ( digitized in the google book search).
• Antoni Joan Garcia de Caralps: Breve resumen de la historia y vida de San Olegario, obispo de Barcelona y arzobispo de Tarragona. Oficina de Brusi, Barcelona 1817 ( digitized in the Google book search).
• Ursula Vones-Liebenstein: Ollegar . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 6, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-7608-8906-9 , Sp. 1399.
• . In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 9, Bautz, Herzberg 1995, ISBN 3-88309-058-1 , Sp. -.
• Lawrence J. McCrank: The Foundation of the Confraternity of Tarragona by Archbishop Oleguer Bonestruga, 1126-1129. In: Viator. Volume 9, 1978, pp. 157-168.
• RA Fletcher: Reconquest and Crusade in Spain, c. 1050-1150. In: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. 5th Series, Vol. 37, 1987, pp. 31-47, JSTOR 3679149 .

Web links

• Ollegarius of Tarragona in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints