Silverius, pope (536 - 537), was a legitimate son of Pope Hormisdas, born before his father entered the priesthood.

He was consecrated on June 8, 536 (probable date).

He opposed the restoration of the monophysite heretic, former patriarch of Constantinople Anthimus, whom Agapetus had deposed, and thus brought upon himself the hatred of Empress Theodora. Theodara then sought to have Vigilius made pope. During Silverius' papacy, it was alleged that he had purchased his elevation to the see of St. Peter from King Theodahad.

On December 9 536, the Byzantine general Belisarius entered Rome, with the approval of Pope Silverius. Theodahad's successor, Witiges, gathered together an army and besieged Rome for several months, subjecting the city to privation and starvation. It was alledged that Pope Silverius wrote to Witiges offering to betray the city.

He was deposed accordingly by Belisarius in March 537 on a charge (not improbably well founded) of treasonable correspondence with the Goths, and degraded to the rank of a simple monk. He found his way to Constantinople, and Justinian I, who entertained his complaint, sent him back to Rome, but Vigilius was eventually able to banish his rival to the prison island Pandataria , where the rest of his life was spent in obscurity. The date of his death is unknown.

According to the Liber Pontificalis, Pope St. Silverius was exiled not to Palmaria, but rather to the Island of Palmarola, where he died a couple of months later, on June 20 537

Incorporating text from the 9th edition (1887) of an unnamed encyclopedia.