SILVANUS. - Homoian bishop of Tarsus, about whom relatively little is known. He took part in the Council of Sirmium of 351, and in 357 he hosted St. Cyril of Jerusalem, when the latter was deposed by Acacius of Caesarea (Theodoret, Hist. eccl., II, 26).
His contemporaries did not spare him praise, and his orthodoxy was extolled also by St. Hilary of Poitiers. At the Council of Seleucia (359) he maintained that the formula of the so-called Synod in encaeniis (Antioch 341) should be approved and accepted, and he was a member of the commission of Eastern bishops that was to dispute against Budossius of Antioch and Acacius of Caesarea in the presence of the emperor Constantius. On that occasion he distinguished himself particularly in the defense of the doctrine of the "consubstantiality" of the Word with the Father, also subscribing to the letter addressed to the delegates of Rimini to put them on guard against the machinations of the Acacians. The legation, however, did not obtain what it desired; indeed, at the Council of Constantinople (360) several bishops were deposed, among them S. as well (Theodoret, Hist. eccl., II, 23).
S. was one of those numerous semi-Arians of the 4th century who upheld the faith of Nicaea, but were scandalized by the term ἀμοιόαιος because they were convinced that by it the means was offered to the Sabellians to mask themselves, and for this reason he maintained that the more appropriate term was that of ἀμοιόαιος.
He returned to his see under Julian and was a member of the legation sent to Pope Liberius and to the emperor Valentinian in 366. The latter could not be reached, since he was in Gaul; the legates then turned to the Pope, before whom they professed the Nicene faith and received letters of communion for the Easterners. In the winter of 367 another synod had been convoked at Tiana, at which it was decided to convene, at short notice, a synod to be held at Tarsus, in the see of S. The purpose of the Synod of Tarsus was to have been the restoration of ecclesiastical peace and concord. But the intervention of the Macedonians and the Acacians, with the emperor Valens, prevented that Synod from being able to assemble. S. died around 373.
Bibliography3 works
Martiniano Roncaglia