A obra de Apríngio Pacense: subsídios para uma caracterização sócio religiosa da diocese de Beja nos primeiros séculos cristãos

We will seek, from the only work of Apringius, the first known bishop of the present city of Beja in the portuguese region of Baixo Alentejo, that reached our days, the "Commentary on the Apocalypse of Saint John", as well as the echo it had in the literature of his time, to characterize the christian community of Pax Iulia in the early Christian centuries, while also highlighting the action and role played by the pacensis bishop. Isidoro of Seville, who presented him to us, refers Apringius as having written a treaty on the Apocalypse with wisdom and erudition. Their immense scholarship and religious vigour testify to the presence of a community present for some time. However, the spontaneous advent of such a bishop in a supposedly newly christianised conjuncture is unusual when we come across a territory where urban christian communities have been notorious since the beginning of the fourth century in Ebora and Ossonoba (Council of Illiberis) and in the mid-1900s. 5th century in Myrtilis. In fact, works of this density, praised, among others, by the ‘'warrior of orthodoxy'' Saint Isidore of Seville, did not appear ex nihilo. We are convinced that by reference to them we will be able to illuminate the early Christian centuries of this Alentejo diocese.