Silas is a fictional antagonist character in the popular 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code and the 2006 film based on it. In the film, his adult self was portrayed by Paul Bettany, and his young self by Hugh Mitchell. He is an albino monk, a devotee of the Catholic organization Opus Dei, who practices severe corporal mortification (he is seen using a metal cilice and flogging himself). During the events of the main storyline, he is about forty years old. Silas's real name is unknown. He originally lived in Marseille with his parents. However, his father was furious at having an albino for his son, and blamed Silas's mother, eventually killing her. Enraged, Silas murdered his father using a butcher's knife and fled. He was only seven years old. He later fell into a life of crime, and was imprisoned in Andorra in the Pyrenees until freed by an earthquake which destroyed the prison walls. He found refuge with a young Spanish priest named Manuel Aringarosa, who gave him the name Silas, after a person in the Bible who was the companion of Paul of Tarsus, imprisoned at Philippi and freed by an earthquake after singing. Aringarosa eventually became a bishop and also the head of Opus Dei.Before the story's main narrative, Aringarosa puts him in contact with an enigmatic figure called The Teacher and tells him that the mission he will be given is of utmost importance in saving the true Word of God. Under the orders of The Teacher, he murders Jacques Sauni Show less «