Pope Silverius was bishop of Rome from 8 June 536 to his deposition in 537, a few months before his death. His rapid rise to prominence from a deacon to the papacy coincided with the efforts of Ostrogothic king Theodahad, who intended to install a pro-Gothic candidate just before the Gothic War. Later deposed by Byzantine general Belisarius, he was tried and sent to exile on the desolated island of Palmarola, where he starved to death in 537.
Young St John the Baptist in Glory with St Catherine of Alexandria and Pope Silverius (Orazio Samacchini, c. 1550–75)
Feast day of Saint Silverius, Ponza. 20 June 2008
A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Eastern Orthodox Church, Lutheranism, Methodism and Anglicanism, as well as other organisations such as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, view the diaconate as an order of ministry.
Saint Stephen, one of the first seven deacons in the Christian Church, holding a Gospel Book in a 1601 painting by Giacomo Cavedone.
Ornately embroidered dalmatic, the proper vestment of the deacon (shown from the back with an appareled amice)
A Catholic deacon wearing his dalmatic and biretta
Greek Orthodox deacon in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, wearing an orarion over his sticharion. On his head he wears the clerical kamilavka.
