Saint Silas

He appears under two names. Benedict XVI, in a general audience of 2007 on Paul's companions, said that "Silas" is a Greek form of a Jewish name, perhaps from sheal, "to ask, to invoke," and that the Latin form Sylvanus derives from it too. ¹ "The name Silas is attested to only in the Book of Acts," he noted, "while the name 'Silvanus' appears only in the Pauline Letters." ¹ Antonio Borrelli, on santiebeati, says it is settled that they are the same man and that one name is probably a shortening of the other. ² The New American Bible's note on 1 Peter explains that Jews of the time, like Paul, often had a Hebrew name and a Greek or Latin one. ¹¹

Benedict calls him "a Jew from Jerusalem, one of the first to become a Christian," who "enjoyed high esteem in that Church" and was "considered a prophet." ¹

He enters the story at the council of Jerusalem. When the apostles and presbyters had decided what the Gentile converts must observe, they chose representatives to carry their letter to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas: "Judas, who was called Barsabbas, and Silas, leaders among the brothers." ⁴ The letter itself names them: "So we are sending Judas and Silas who will also convey this same message by word of mouth." ⁴

At Antioch, Acts says, "Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, exhorted and strengthened the brothers with many words." ⁴ Judas went back to Jerusalem; some manuscripts, the New American Bible notes, add that "Silas decided to remain there." ⁴ Borrelli says he stayed on at Antioch and preached there as a prophet. ²

Paul and Barnabas fell out over whether to take John Mark with them again, and "so sharp was their disagreement that they separated." ⁴ Barnabas sailed for Cyprus with Mark. "But Paul chose Silas and departed after being commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord." ⁴ Benedict calls him Paul's "new travelling companion." ¹

They went through Syria and Cilicia strengthening the churches, and at Lystra Timothy joined them. ⁴⁵ As they traveled from city to city, Acts says, "they handed on to the people for observance the decisions reached by the apostles and presbyters in Jerusalem," the very letter Silas had carried. ⁵ Kept by the Spirit from preaching in Asia and from entering Bithynia, they came down to Troas, where Paul saw in a vision a Macedonian begging, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." ⁵

At Philippi Paul drove a spirit of divination out of a slave girl whose owners profited by her, and they "seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the public square." ⁵ The magistrates had them stripped and beaten with rods, and the jailer put them in the innermost cell with their feet fastened to a stake. ⁵

"About midnight, while Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God as the prisoners listened, there was suddenly such a severe earthquake that the foundations of the jail shook; all the doors flew open, and the chains of all were pulled loose." ⁵ The jailer, about to kill himself, "fell down before Paul and Silas" and asked what he must do to be saved, and that night he and his household were baptized. ⁵

In the morning the magistrates sent word to let them go quietly. Paul refused: "They have beaten us publicly, even though we are Roman citizens and have not been tried." ⁵ The magistrates were alarmed to hear it, came in person and asked them to leave the city. ⁵ Borrelli takes the verse to mean that Silas, like Paul, was a Roman citizen. ²

At Thessalonica some of the Jews and many Greeks "joined Paul and Silas," until a mob attacked the house where they were staying, and the brothers sent them on by night to Beroea. ⁶ When trouble followed them there, Paul was taken to the coast and on to Athens, "while Silas and Timothy remained behind." ⁶ Benedict says Silas stopped in Macedonia while Paul went on to Athens and then to Corinth. ¹

"When Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia," Acts says, Paul at Corinth "began to occupy himself totally with preaching the word." ⁷ Paul later reminded the Corinthians of "the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed to you by us, Silvanus and Timothy and me." ⁸ Both letters to the Thessalonians open "Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians," which, Benedict says, makes him their joint author. ¹⁹¹⁰

Benedict drew a lesson from it: "Paul does not act as a 'soloist', on his own, but together with these collaborators in the 'we' of the Church." ¹

After Corinth Acts says no more of him, and Borrelli says nothing more is known until he reappears with Peter. ² The First Letter of Peter closes: "I write you this briefly through Silvanus, whom I consider a faithful brother." ¹¹ The New American Bible identifies him with Paul's companion and mentions his "possible role as amanuensis." ¹¹ Borrelli says he helped Peter write it, about 63 or 66. ² Benedict saw in the verse "the communion of the Apostles. Silvanus serves Paul and he serves Peter, because the Church is one and the missionary proclamation is one." ¹

How he died is not known. Borrelli says it is mentioned that he ended his life as a martyr in Macedonia, and that according to the Acta Sanctorum his relics were moved in 691 to Thérouanne in France, where he was venerated until the cathedral was destroyed in 1553. ²

None of the sources consulted names Saint Silas as the patron saint of anything, and this page does not supply one. ¹² The Martyrology remembers him for his ministry to the Gentile churches. ³

Saint Silas's feast day is July 13. ²³ The current Roman Martyrology, as the Italian bishops print it, commemorates him that day as one who, "destinato dagli Apostoli alle Chiese dei gentili insieme ai santi Paolo e Barnaba, pervaso della grazia di Dio, svolse senza sosta il suo ministero": sent by the apostles to the churches of the Gentiles with Saints Paul and Barnabas, and filled with the grace of God, he carried out his ministry without rest. ³

Borrelli says the Roman Martyrology took up July 13 from two earlier catalogues, and that the Byzantine synaxaries and the martyrologies placed him on various dates. ²

His first task was to carry someone else's words: a letter from a council, to be read out and explained to people who were anxious about what it would say. ⁴ When it was read, Acts says, "they were delighted with the exhortation." ⁴

At Philippi he had been stripped and beaten and his feet were fixed to a stake, and at midnight he was singing. ⁵ The story does not say the pain had stopped. ⁵

Most of his work is in the background of other people's letters, a name in a greeting or at a signature. ⁹¹¹ Benedict saw in that the Church itself, many people serving one proclamation. ¹