Olegarius

Olegarius was born to a noble family of Barcelona. His father was a follower of Ramon Berenguer I, Count of Barcelona; his mother was Guilla (or Guilia). At the age of ten, Olegarius entered the guild of canon priests of the Cathedral of Barcelona. He later served as superior (provost) of the canonries of Barcelona and then Sant Adrià de Besós (1095–1108), and later as abbot of the Augustinian monastery of Saint-Ruf (Saint Rufus) in Avignon (1113–1118). As abbot of Saint-Ruf, Olegarius had mediated the Mediterranean alliance between the Republic of Pisa, Kingdom of Cagliari, County of Provence, and Barcelona against the Almoravid pirates based on the Balearic Islands, resulting in the expedition of 1113–15. Raymond Berenguer III named him bishop of Barcelona in 1116, and he was consecrated by Cardinal Boso of Sant'Anastasia in the cathedral of Maguelone in Occitania 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 reforming tradition. He was often present at papal synods. He attended Toulouse in 1119, Rheims in 1120, First Lateran in 1123, Narbonne in 1129, Clermont in 1130, and Rheims in 1131. 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. 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. Members of the confraternity, lay and ecclesiastical, noble or otherwise, paid membership dues which went to Olegarius' archdiocese. 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 Castile on 4 February 1130. In the 1120s Olegarius reformed the monastery of Santa Eulàlia outside Barcelona, turning it into a community of Augustinian canons. Indeed, he was extensively involved in the Augustinian reform of the Catalan monasteries. In 1133 Olegarius granted the sheets and beds of all deceased clergy to the hospital of En Guitard in Barcelona. == Restoration of Tarragona ==

After Tarragona was 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. He received the bull of confirmation and the pallium on 21 March.—and also received ecclesiastical administrative rights over the projected diocese of Tortosa (which had not yet been conquered) from Pope Gelasius. He was a close counsellor to Ramon Berenguer III and Ramon Berenguer IV. At some point after the Battle of Corbins—a great Catalan defeat—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. Between 1126 and 1130 Olegarius was very active in rebuilding Tarragona, its churches especially. He also actively encouraged resettlement and colonisation and laboured to bring in knights and other soldiers for the new territory's defence. == Diplomatic activity ==

In 1129 Olegarius was drawn into the Investiture Controversy then raging between Papacy and Empire and he returned to southern France to be with the pope in exile. Olegarius helped establish the Knights Templar in Catalonia "to serve God and fight in our land" in 1134. 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. == Sources ==