Pope Vigilius

Pope Vigilius
Papacy began	29 March 537
Papacy ended	7 June 555
Predecessor	Silverius
Successor	Pelagius I
Personal details
Birth name	Vigilius
Born	Rome, Ostrogothic Kingdom
Died	7 June 555 Syracuse, Sicily, Eastern Roman Empire

Pope Vigilius (died 7 June 555) was Pope from 29 March 537 to his death in 555. He is considered the first pope of the Byzantine Papacy.

He belonged to an aristocratic Roman family; his father Johannes is identified as a consul in the Liber pontificalis, having received that title from the emperor. According to Procopius, his brother Reparatus was one of the senators taken hostage by Witigis, but managed to escape before the Ostrogothic king ordered their slaughter in 537.

Vigilius entered the service of the Roman Church and was ordained a deacon in 531, in which year the Roman clergy agreed to a decree empowering the pope to determine the succession to the Papal See (something theologians now consider invalid). Vigilius was chosen by Pope Boniface II as his successor and presented to the clergy assembled in St. Peter's Basilica. The opposition to such a procedure led Boniface in the following year to withdraw his designation of a successor and to burn the decree respecting it.

The second successor of Boniface, Pope Agapetus I (535–536), appointed Vigilius papal representative (apocrisiary) at Constantinople. Empress Theodora sought to win him as a confederate to revenge the deposition of the Monophysite Patriarch Anthimus I of Constantinople by Agapetus and also to gain aid for her efforts in behalf of the Monophysites. Vigilius is said to have agreed to the plans of the intriguing empress who promised him the Papal See and a large sum of money (700 pounds of gold).

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