Oveco (Bishop of Oviedo)

Oveco (died 957x62) was the Bishop of Oviedo from 913/4, whose episcopate lasted almost half a century. Despite his longevity he is a relatively obscure figure. His origins lie in the same landed and wealthy aristocratic family as those of the Count Piniolo (Piñolo) who founded the monastery of San Juan Bautista de Corias. While the city of Oviedo and its diocese were overshadowed at the time of Oveco's election, at the height of his career, during the turbulent reign of Ramiro II, he was the senior bishop of the realm and his city was labelled the sedem regum ("seat of kings").

According to a theory advanced by Carlos González de Posada (1745–1831) and Manuel Risco there were two Ovecos who were bishops of Oviedo between 913 and 961. These years in the history of the diocese of Oviedo are extremely obscure and must be reconstructed primarily from documentary evidence extracted with care from amongst the forgeries of Bishop Pelagius. Posada partitioned the documentary references to Oveco into an Oveco I (until 920, when he died according to Risco) and an Oveco II (926–61). Part of the confusion is due the probable presence in Oviedo since at the latest 899 of an auxiliary bishop named Hermenegild and counted by Posada as Bishop Hermenegild II (915–22) based on a document of 921. Posada also placed a certain Flacinus II in 923–25.

Though Oveco signed a document of 27 June 912 as Oveco Ovetensis sedis episcopus ("Oveco, bishop of the see of Oviedo"), his predecessor, Flacinus, was still bishop in October that year and it is probable that the copyist of the document dated it early by a year. Oveco appears in several charters of Ordoño II that are clearly dated incorrectly, but the authenticity of these (in spite of their dating clauses) is not established. A charter of 1 December 914 conserved in the Cathedral of Mondoñedo is the earliest attestation of Oveco as bishop with a certain date. On 29 January 915 Oveco attended a council of bishops held in Zamora. The council discussed the refoundation of the dioceses of Tuy and Lamego and the return of certain properties which had been held by the other bishops for sustenance during the period when their cities were under the control of the Emirate of Córdoba but which in fact pertained to the Diocese of Iria Flavia.

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