Biagio, Archbishop of Torres

Who was Biagio, Archbishop of Torres?

Biagio was the Archbishop of Torres from 1 December 1202 to his death late 1214 or early 1215.

He was originally from the diocese of Nevers. He went to Rome and became a subdeacon and then a papal notary before 1200. By the influence of Pope Innocent III, he was elected to the vacant see of Porto Torres in 1202. He was consecrated sometime before 7 March 1203. One of his first acts was to order the giudici to punish the murderers of the bishop of Ploaghe, the abbot of Tregu, and the vicar of Camaldoli.

On 10 March 1203, the pope put Comita III of Logudoro under the protection of Biagio and not of Pisa in light of the invasion of Logudoro by William I of Cagliari. On 22 March, with papal consent, he gave Christian burial to Comita's father, Constantine II, who had died excommunicate. In a letter dated that same day to Comita, William, and Hugh I of Arborea, the pope ordered the giudici to take an oath of allegiance to Biagio, thus breaking their link of fidelity to Pisa. Biagio had trouble extracting the oath from William, who had previously made it to Uberto, Archbishop of Pisa. On 15 September, Innocent absolved William of the oath.

In that year, Barisone II of Gallura died and left the succession to Gallura in the hands of the pope, who gave Biagio the responsibility of arranging a marriage for the Gallurese heiress Elena. In 1203, he tried to marry her to Ittocorre of Torres and in 1206 to Trasmondo, a relative of the pope's, but both of these arrangements fell through, and Elena married Lamberto di Eldizio without Biagio's approval, but with the support of the local clergy, who detested Logudorese supremacy.