When his father abdicated in 988 to become a monk in
Monte Cassino, Wifred's brother
Bernard received
Besalú while
Oliba received
Berga. Their mother acted as
regent until 994. When Oliba followed his father into the church in 1003, his county passed to Wifred. In that year Wifred and Bernard joined an alliance of Christian princes to fend off a Muslim invasion at the
Battle of Torà. Like his father and brother before him, he had a great affection for the church. He participated actively in the consecration of many churches and monasteries, such as
San Martín del Canigó, founded in 1007 and consecrated in 1009. Despite this, he did fight to free his county from the jurisdiction of the
diocese of Urgell and thus entered into conflict with
Saint Ermengol. In 1023, Wifred entered into a peace concord with
Berengar Raymond I of Barcelona and
William I of Besalú. In the early thirteenth-century
Liber feudorum Ceritaniae the first folio is
illuminated with a scene of Wifred receiving the
homage of Sarn and Dalmau, lords of
Castellfollit. The picture, painted by a different artist from the rest of book, is of a higher calibre than the others and is in the
Byzantinist style that was becoming dominant in Catalonia around 1200. In 1035, he finally followed his father and brother into monastic retirement, becoming a monk in his own foundation of San Martín del Canigó. He died some fifteen years later in 1050. His
mortuary roll was taken as far as
Liège where the local
cathedral chapter contributed fourteen poems. ==Marriage and issue==