Bernat Calbó

Bernat Calbó (or Calvó) (c. 1180 – 26 October 1243), sometimes called Bernard of Calvo, was a Catalan jurist, bureaucrat, monk, bishop, and soldier.

Born and educated in Manso Calvo near Reus, Bernat belonged to a family of the knightly class and early on served as a jurist and functionary at the curia of the Archdiocese of Tarragona.

In 1214 he became a Cistercian monk at the monastery of Santes Creus, eventually being elected its first abbot and, in 1223 or 1233, Bishop of Vich.

When the latter fell to the forces of James I of Aragon, Bernard and his troops joined the rest for a celebratory first Mass in the central mosque of the city.

Still a jurist, he helped to publish the Valencian laws, the so-called Furs of Valencia, before his death at Vich in 1243.