Silverius

Who they were

Silverius, son of Pope Hormisdas (who had been married before ordination), was a subdeacon when he was elected Pope in 536 through the influence of the Ostrogoth king Theodahad. The Empress Theodora wanted him to accept the deposed Monophysite patriarch Anthimus; he refused, and she resolved to replace him with the deacon Vigilius.

In March 537, on the strength of a forged letter accusing him of plotting to open the gates of besieged Rome to the Goths, the Byzantine general Belisarius had him arrested, stripped of his vestments and exiled to Patara in Lycia. The bishop of Patara proved his innocence to the emperor Justinian, who ordered a new inquiry, but on his return to Italy Vigilius had him taken to the island of Palmaria, where he died of hardship.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: the faithful invoked him at his grave on Palmaria soon after his death, and he was later venerated as a saint.

Why that counted as sanctity

Silverius would not bend the faith to please an empress, and died an innocent exile for it.

Connected on this site

• Hormisdas Saint Father, Parent