Antiquity
Forced conversion of the community (letter of Severus)
418·Minorque
The toll is reproduced exactly as the source states it — never rounded, never added to another. Tolls overlap from one event to the next.
What is known of Minorca rests on a single document: the encyclical letter that Bishop Sévère addressed to the churches recounting the events. It is one of the most detailed documents that Late Antiquity has left us concerning a provincial Jewish community — in it one sees its notables, its municipal functions, its synagogue and its books.
The arrival on the island of relics of Saint Stephen, brought by the priest Orose, served as the starting point. Sévère organized a public disputation at Magona, present-day Mahón, where the community lived; eight days of pressure, processions and confrontations followed. The synagogue was burned, its books carried off, and the community forced into baptism; its leader, Théodore, who held the office of defensor civitatis, converted last.
- Period :
- Antiquity
- Type :
- Forced conversion
- Region :
- Western Europe
- Country :
- Espagne
Sévère de Minorque, *Lettre sur la conversion des Juifs*.