Created Saturday 04 May 2013
Ató was Bishop of Vic from 957 to 971, having previously been a member of the chapter of Santa Maria de Girona, where he rose to the rank of archdeacon under Bishop Godmar II. His promotion to the bishopric of Vic probably owed much to an apparently close connection to Count-Marquis Borrell II of Barcelona, Girona, Osona and Urgell, with whom he voyaged to Rome in 970. Traditional scholarship holds that the purpose of this voyage was to promote Ató to the vacant archbishopric of Tarragona, which was to be translated to Vic, but I have shown that this is unlikely. Ató did not long enjoy whatever dignity he had on his return, as he was assassinated in 971 in what seems to have been a struggle for control of the episcopal city between two branches of a local family. Ató appears in the following documents:
Ató 29;
Amer 9 & 10;
Banyoles 35;
CC4 678, 1034, 1045, 1080, 1087, 1088, 1106, 1499 & IX;
CC5 360;
Comtal 170;
Condal 128, 146, 147, 148, 149, 159, 162 & 163;
Dotalies 63 & 79;
Girona 85;
Vic 304, 306, 324, 325, 326, 328, 329, 340, 342, 368, 383, 388, 404, 405, 406, 407, 408, 409, 413 & 527.
For scholarly work on Ató see the following:
Jonathan Jarrett, "Archbishop Ató of Osona: False metropolitans on the Marca Hispanica" in Archiv für Diplomatik Vol. 59 (München 2010), pp. 1-42
Ramon Martí, “Delà, Cesari i Ató, primers arquebisbes dels comptes-prínceps de Barcelona (951-953/981)” in Analecta Sacra Tarraconensia Vol. 67 (Tarragona 1994), pp. 369-386
Ramon Ordeig i Mata, “Ató, bisbe i arquebisbe de Vic (957-971), antic arxiprest-ardiaca de Girona” in Studia Vicensia Vol. 1 (Vic 1989), pp. 61-97.
Ramon Ordeig i Mata, “Ató de Vic, mestre de Gerbert d’Orlhac” in Immaculada Ollich i Castanyer (ed.), Actes del Congrés Internacional Gerbert d’Orlhac i el seu Temps: Catalunya i Europa a la Fi del 1r Mil·lenni, Vic-Ripoll, 10-13 de Novembre de 1999 (Vic 1999), pp. 593-618