VIGILIUS, POPE. — The turbulent events of his pontificate find their explanation in the conditions of the city, torn between the party of the Gothic dominators and that which looked to the Eastern Empire despite its theological disagreements. VIGILIUS belonged to an aristocratic family and was a deacon when Boniface II designated him as his successor, but he later revoked this designation in the face of the clergy’s discontent (532).
When Agapetus arrived in Constantinople, Vigilius was apocrisiarius there and enjoyed the protection of Theodora, wife of Justinian, who wished to make him pope, hoping he would be an accomplice in her intrigues on behalf of the Monophysites. Arriving in Rome with the remains of Pope Agapetus, he found Pope Silverius (q.v.) already elected under the influence of the Gothic king Theodahad. In March 537, the siege of Rome by the new king Vitigis began; Belisarius, who defended the city in Justinian’s name, quickly sought to rid himself of Silverius, accusing him of plotting with the Goths and driving him from Rome. Vigilius was then elected pope and consecrated on 29 March 537. When Theodora summoned him to honor previous promises, he responded defiantly. He shared all the dangers of the long siege, and when it ended in March 538 with the Goths’ retreat, he worked to repair the damage they had caused to the suburban basilicas and the cemeteries of Giordano on the Salaria, of Callistus, of SS. Peter and Marcellinus, and others. His replies to the consultations of Profuturus, bishop of Braga in Lusitania, remain. On 22 May 545, he appointed Auxanius bishop of Arles and successor to St. Caesarius as “vicar of the Apostolic See,” and then in 546, Aurelianus. In 544, he attended the reading of the subdeacon Arator’s poem on the Acts of the Apostles in the basilica of St. Peter in Vincoli. The second siege of Rome by the Gothic king Totila had begun in 545 when, on 22 November, Vigilius was compelled by Justinian’s will to leave Rome for Sicily, whence he sought to aid the besieged. On 25 January 547, he arrived in Constantinople, where he faced the long, exhausting negotiations with the Emperor and then with the Council concerning the Three Chapters (q.v.). In 553, he obtained from Justinian the Pragmatic Sanction to reorganize the conditions of Italy after the devastating Gothic wars. Having secured permission to return to Rome, he died at Syracuse during the journey on 7 June 555.