[1] He joined the Salesian Society of St John Bosco, and attained a high administrative position in that congregation, until 25 August 1935, when he was appointed Bishop of Pamplona.

Following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, across the whole of the part of Spain which called itself 'National', the bishops sought to keep control of the priests that had gone as volunteers with the columns or militias, placing themselves at the orders of the military chiefs.

[2] The most famous of Olaechea's deeds during the Civil War was his sermon of 15 November 1936 No mas sangre (No More Blood), during the act of granting insignia to the Accion Catolica Feminina.

When a man had been killed at the front and his body brought back to his town, the ceremony often concluded with the rapid execution, without any legal process whatever, of some rojillos, ( little reds, meaning contemptible), from the locale.

No more blood than Christ the Lord wishes to be spilt, by way of intercession, on the fields of battle, to save our glorious and shattered fatherland; [-] Catholics!

When there arrives in the village the body of a hero who has died in battle and we feel the blood boil in our veins [-] then let there be a man and let there be a woman who, stretch out their arms over him and cry with all their strength 'No!