Purpurius^[1] was a Donatist bishop from 305 to 320 AD, who was instrumental in establishing the Donatist movement of Roman North Africa.

He is known from several correspondences.^[2] It was Purpurius who first introduced the likening of the Donatist community as a new expression of the Israelites following Moses in the Desert.^[3]

He was an attendee at the Synod of Cirta, the beginning of the Donatist movement. Optatus tells he had a dispute with Secundus of Tigisis,^[4] who charged him as a murderer,^[5] a charge he admitted. The accusation was he had murdered his nephews at Milevus, though we are not told what the circumstance of the act were. Augustine^[6] describes him as a violent man.

Optatus also claims he was brigand and had stolen vinegar from the imperial stores.^[7]

All this, however, was not enough to exclude him from the meeting though, as Tilley puts it

...since Purpurius had not been a traditor... he was still a member – albeit a sinful member – of the true church. His private affairs, even murder, were no bar to his participation in the ritual of consecration.^[8]