Abbot Oliba

Who was Abbot Oliba?

Oliba was the count of Berga and Ripoll and later bishop of Vic and abbot of Sant Miquel de Cuixà. He was the son of a noble Catalan house who abdicated his secular possessions to take up the Benedictine habit in the Monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll. He is considered one of the spiritual founders of Catalonia and perhaps the most important prelate of his age in the Iberian Peninsula.

Subsequently raised to the bishopric of Vic and the abbacy of Cuixà, Oliba was a great writer and from his scriptorium at Ripoll flowed a ceaseless stream of works enlightening us about his world. Most importantly, however, are the Arabic manuscripts he translated into Latin for the benefit of all Europe.

Oliba promoted the movement of Peace and Truce of God, towards 1022 and in 1027 the agreement of this treaty with other bishops and noblemen took place in Toulouges and was said that all, noblemen, knights, farmers and monks, agreed to make, days in which nobody could quarrel with anybody and in which the fugitives could take refuge in churches and places holy, sure of being protected and respected, some days every year, be days of Peace.