SILVERIO, POPE, saint. — A native of Frosinone and son of Pope Ormisda, he was elected pontiff in June 536 through the intervention of the Gothic king Theodahad, despite being only a subdeacon and despite the opposition of the clergy.
His brief pontificate was entangled in and beset by the political and religious struggles that disturbed Italy in those years, and of which S. became a victim. Shortly after his election, his protector Theodahad died, and Belisarius occupied Rome (December) on behalf of the Byzantine Emperor, driving out the Gothic king Witigis. The latter returned the following February, besieging Rome for about a year, during which he devastated churches and cemeteries, especially in the Via Salaria district, where he had encamped.
Meanwhile, during the siege, the deacon Vigilius arrived in Rome from Constantinople, where he was apocrisarius, bearing letters from the empress Theodora recommending to Belisarius that he work for Vigilius’s election to the papal see. It seems that he had promised Theodora to restore to the Church of Constantinople the patriarch Anthimus, previously deposed by Pope Agapetus, and especially to annul the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon. Belisarius, eager to obey the Empress but at the same time unable to depose the legitimate pontiff, by whom, moreover, he had been well received, summoned S. to his palace and sought to persuade him to comply with the imperial demands. Naturally, the Pope refused; recourse was then had to calumny, and an alleged letter from S. to Witigis was circulated, in which he promised to surrender Rome to him by opening the Asinarian Gate near the Lateran. Belisarius recalled S., who easily cleared himself of the calumny; and, in order to remove every suspicion and pretext from his enemies, he went to live near the church of S. Sabina. The intrigues against him, however, did not cease. In March 537 he was summoned to Belisarius’s palace for the third time, and while his clerics were detained in the antechamber, S. was admitted accompanied only by Vigilius. Suddenly a deacon removed the pallium from him, while two others clothed him in a monastic habit. The clerics waiting outside were informed that S. was no longer pope and that they should proceed to elect his successor: naturally, the elected man was Vigilius! S. was sent into exile at Patara in Lycia; there he was able to make the bishop of the place aware of the true state of affairs, and the latter, courageously acting in a saintly manner, went to Justinian and reproached him for the atrocious crime. The Emperor then ordered that S. be brought back to Rome and subjected to a regular trial; but, on reaching Italy, he was handed over to Vigilius, who had him confined on the island of Palmaria, where he died from privation and hunger. His tomb became a destination for pilgrimages, and the Lord also worked miracles there. In the Roman Martyrology, S. is commemorated on 20 June, but this date was arbitrarily established by Ado.