Bernat Calbó (or Calvó) (''c''. 1180 – 26 October 1243), sometimes called Bernard of Calvo, was a

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

jurist, bureaucrat, monk, bishop, and soldier. Born and educated in Manso Calvo near

Reus Reus () is the capital of Baix Camp, in the province of Tarragona, in Catalonia, Spain. The area has always been an important producer of wines and spirits, and gained continental importance at the time of the Phylloxera plague. Nowadays it is kno ...

, Bernat belonged to a family of the

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

ly class and early on served as a jurist and functionary at the ''curia'' of the

Archdiocese of Tarragona The Archdiocese of Tarragona (Latin, ''Tarraconensis'') is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical territory located in north-eastern Spain, in the province of Tarragona, part of the autonomous community of Catalonia. The archdiocese heads the ecclesi ...

. In 1214 he became a Cistercian monk at the monastery of

Santes Creus The Monastery of ''Santa Maria de Santes Creus'', ( ca, Reial Monestir de Santa Maria de Santes Creus) is a former Cistercian monastery in the municipality of Aiguamúrcia, Catalonia, Spain. The abbey was erected in the 12th century, in today ...

, eventually being elected its first abbot and, in 1223 or 1233,

Bishop of Vich The Roman Catholic Diocese of Vic ( la, diocoesis Vicen(sis)) is a diocese with its seat in the city of Vic in the ecclesiastical province of Tarragona in Catalonia, Spain. Its cathedral is a basilica dedicated to Saint Peter. History A dioce ...

. In 1238 he and his episcopal household joined the Crusade of ''

Reconquista The ' (Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the Nasrid ...

'' launched against the ''taifa'' of Valencia."Pontifical ornaments of St. Bernat Calbó", Museu Episcopal de Vic
/ref> Bernat brought material aid to the sieges of Burriana and

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

. When the latter fell to the forces of

James I of Aragon James I the Conqueror ( es, Jaime el Conquistador, ca, Jaume el Conqueridor; 2 February 1208 – 27 July 1276) was King of Aragon and Lord of Montpellier from 1213 to 1276; King of Majorca from 1231 to 1276; and Valencia from 1238 to 12 ...

, Bernard and his troops joined the rest for a celebratory first Mass in the central mosque of the city. He received many grants of land in the Kingdom of Valencia, which he visited a second time in 1242. Still a jurist, he helped to publish the Valencian laws, the so-called

Furs of Valencia '' Furs'' of Valencia ( ca-valencia, Furs de València, ) were the laws of the Kingdom of Valencia during most of the Middle Ages and early modern Europe. The laws were a series of charters which, altogether, worked similarly as a modern Consti ...

, before his death at Vich in 1243. He was buried in the Cathedral of Vic. In 1260 he was

beatified Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their nam ...

Pope Alexander IV Pope Alexander IV (1199 or 1185 – 25 May 1261) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 12 December 1254 to his death in 1261. Early career He was born as Rinaldo di Jenne in Jenne (now in the Province of Rome), he ...

and on 26 September 1710 he was

canonised Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of ...

by Pope Clement XI. The Cistercians celebrate his feast day is on 24 October; the diocese of Vich on 26 October.Rimoldi, Antonio. "San Bernardo Calvó", ''Santi e Beati'', 30 August 2011
/ref> He is usually represented as a bishop in a Cistercian habit.

References

Sources

*Burns, Robert Ignatius. ''The Crusader Kingdom of Valencia: Reconstruction on a Thirteenth-Century Frontier''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1967. See page 309. {{DEFAULTSORT:Calbo, Bernat 13th-century jurists Spanish Roman Catholic saints 13th-century Christian saints 13th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the Kingdom of Aragon Spanish Cistercians 1180 births 1243 deaths Year of birth uncertain