OLLEGARIO, bishop of BARCELONA, saint. — Also called Oldegario and Olaguer, born in Barcelona around the middle of the 11th century, died there in 1137. Attached to the cathedral Chapter, he soon became its provost, but after a few years he entered the recently founded monastery of the Augustinian Canons Regular of S. Adriano del Besos, from which he transferred around 1110 to that of S. Ruffo in Provence.
When the bishop of Barcelona, Raimondo, died in 1115 during the wars of Majorca, Count Raimondo Berenguer III presented him for that see, and he was confirmed as bishop by Pope Paschal II. He is found in Rome in 1118, honored by Pope Gelasius II, from whom, as well as from Count Raimondo, he received the charge of restoring the ancient see of Tarragona, destroyed during the invasions of the Saracens, a task that caused him immense toil and expense. As archbishop of Tarragona, without relinquishing the episcopal see of Barcelona, he attended in 1119 the Councils of Toulouse and Reims, presided over by Pope Callistus II, the First Ecumenical Lateran Council in 1123, and that of Clermont in 1130.
Appointed papal legate in Spain for the Crusade,
he took part in the expeditions against Tortosa and Lerida, also visiting the Holy Land. When Count Raimondo died in his arms in 1131, he undertook on his own several important enterprises for his two sees, including the Synod of 1136. A few months later he died and was immediately acclaimed a saint; his cult was confirmed in 1675. His incorrupt body is venerated in the cathedral of Barcelona. Feast day, 6 March.