Ordoño of Astorga

Ordoño of Astorga was bishop of Astorga, in the kingdom of León in Spain, in the 11th century, and he died on 23 February 1065 (by some sources, around that year). He is honored as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.

The news about him is confused and contradictory, because he was confused with other bishops of Astorga of the same name at the same time. Some authors call him a Benedictine monk at the monastery of Sahagún, in the time of Sampiro; others see no grounds for this. The date on which he became bishop is also unclear: some say 1055 or 1061, others 1062, on the basis of the epitaph of his grave.

The best-⁠known event of his episcopate, on which all authors agree, is his part in the translation of the body of Saint Isidore from Seville to León: in 1063 King Ferdinand I of León organized a military expedition against Mérida, in the taifa of Badajoz, and from there charged Ordoño and the bishop of León, Alvito, to go to Seville and bring the relics. He was buried in the church of Santa Marta in Astorga; when the church was demolished, in the 19th century, the relics were taken to Santa Colomba in Astorga. The chest was lost and found again in 1985 in the episcopal palace, from where it was taken to the new parish of Santa Marta, where it is today.

He is a local saint of the West; he died in 1065, after the separation of the Churches in 1054; no Orthodox synodal canonization is known.