Silverius, Saint

▪ Italian saint

born , Frosinone, Campania [Italy]

died Dec. 2, 537?, island of Palmaria, near Naples; feast day June 20

      Italian pope from 536 to 537, a victim of the intrigues of the Byzantine empress Theodora.

      Silverius was born to the future pope St. Hormisdas (Hormisdas, Saint) before Hormisdas had entered the priesthood. Silverius was a subdeacon when the Ostrogothic king Theodahad nominated him to the papacy. He was consecrated on June 8, 536, as successor to St. Agapetus I (Agapetus I, Saint), who had angered Theodora by condemning Patriarch Anthimus of Constantinople and thus ruining her plans to restore monophysitism, a doctrine that Christ has only one nature rather than two (i.e., human and divine).

      When Silverius refused to restore Anthimus, Theodora ordered the Byzantine general Belisarius to enter Rome (Dec. 9, 536) and depose Silverius; she replaced him with the deacon Vigilius, then nuncio to Constantinople. The Ostrogothic king Witigis then surrounded Rome and besieged Belisarius, who in March 537 falsely accused Silverius of treasonable collaboration with the Goths.

      Silverius was degraded to the rank of monk and was driven from his see to Lycia, in Anatolia. He appealed to Theodora's husband, the emperor Justinian I the Great, who, apparently unaware of the situation, sent Silverius back to Rome for an inquiry. Vigilius, however, was ultimately able to banish his rival by force to the island of Palmaria, off Naples, where Silverius died by murder or starvation.

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