This thread actually solved my problem, indirectly: http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&t=112375 The key is: One other potential trap is that I have just upgraded from Seam 1.2.1 to 2.0b1 and "managed-persistence-context" has been moved from namespace core to persistence. If this is the case, then don't forget to add the persistence namespace to your XML namespace config: xmlns:persistence="http://jboss.com/products/seam/persistence" I am actually using Seam 1.2 and thus I must revert to core tag. And it works! View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4070929#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...