Beatus of Liébana (Spanish: Beato; c. 730 – c. after 785) was a monk, theologian, and author of the Commentary on the Apocalypse, mostly a compendium of previous authorities' views on the biblical Book of Revelation or Apocalypse of John. This had a local influence, mostly in the Iberian Peninsula, up to about the 13th century, but is today remembered mainly for the 27 surviving manuscript copies that are heavily illustrated in an often spectacular series of miniatures that are outstanding monuments of Mozarabic art. Examples include the Morgan Beatus and Saint-Sever Beatus; these are covered further at the article on the book. Most unusually for a work of Christian theology, it appears that Beatus always intended his book to be illustrated, and he is attributed with the original designs, and possibly the execution, of the first illustrations, which have not survived.
Aside from his work, almost nothing is known about Beatus. He was a monk and probably an abbot at the monastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana, Cantabria, in the Kingdom of Asturias, the only region of Spain remaining outside of Muslim control. It is thought that he was probably one the large number of monastic refugees who moved north, to lands remaining under Christian rule after the Muslim conquest of southern and central Spain. Beatus appears to have been well known by his contemporaries. He was a correspondent with the notable Christian scholar, Alcuin, and a confidant of queen Adosinda, daughter of Alfonso I of Asturias and wife of Silo of Asturias. He was present when Adosinda took her vows as a nun in 785, the last record we have of his life. A supposed biography, the Life of Beatus, has been identified as a 17th-century fraud with no historical value.