Bernat Calbó was born about 1180 at Mas Calbó (Manso Calvo) near Reus, on the road from Vila-Seca toward Salou in Catalonia, of a family of the knightly class. He studied, including at Lérida, and early entered the service of the Church as a jurist and functionary at the curia of the Archdiocese of Tarragona, later becoming a canon and vicar general of the cathedral there.
In 1214 he took the Cistercian habit at the monastery of Santes Creus. He rose to be elected its first abbot and, in 1223 (some sources give 1233), was named Bishop of Vic while remaining perpetual abbot of Santes Creus. Pope Gregory IX appointed him inquisitor against the Waldenses on the Catalan frontier with France in 1232. He took part in the Cortes of Monzón in 1236 and in the provincial councils of the Tarraconense in 1239 and 1243, governing his diocese with the care of a pastor and the skill of a trained lawyer.
In 1238 he and his episcopal household joined the crusade of King James I of Aragon against the taifa of Valencia. He brought material aid to the sieges of Burriana and Valencia. When Valencia fell, Bernat and his men joined the first celebratory Mass offered in the city's central mosque. He received grants of land in the new Kingdom of Valencia, which he visited again in 1242, and as a jurist he helped publish the Valencian laws known as the Furs of Valencia. Tradition also links him with Saint Raymond of Peñafort in the work of the conquest.
He died on 26 October 1243 (sources place the death at Vic or Tarragona) and was buried in the Cathedral of Vic. Pope Alexander IV beatified him in 1260; Pope Clement XI canonized him on 26 September 1710. In the eighteenth century his relics were placed in a silver urn in a chapel of the cathedral; during the Spanish Civil War in 1936 the tomb was desecrated, though some relics were saved and are kept at the Prioral of Saint Peter in Reus, which also honors him as an illustrious son. He is usually shown as a bishop in the Cistercian habit. The Cistercians keep his feast on 24 October, the diocese of Vic on 26 October, and many calendars on 25 October.
May Saint Bernat Calbó obtain for us a share in his zeal for justice and the defense of the Church, that we may serve God and neighbor with the same fidelity today.
