Boniface II (Latin Bonifatius) was the first Bishop of Rome of Ostrogothic Roman descent — his father Sigibald was a Roman-resident Goth of the Ostrogothic immigration to Roman Italy in the late 5th century. He had been Pope Felix IV's archdeacon and personal designee for the papal succession, but his election in September 530 was bitterly contested. A second faction of the Roman clergy elected the priest Dioscorus as rival pope (the Dioscorian antipapacy); Dioscorus died of natural causes only 22 days into the contested election, ending the schism.
Boniface's two-year pontificate is principally significant for his formal ratification of the canons of the Council of Orange of 529 — the foundational anti-Semi-Pelagian regional council that had been convened by Caesarius of Arles in southern Gaul in July 529 (see Caesarius's entry already in the catalogue). Boniface II's January 25, 531 letter to Caesarius — formally approving the Orange canons — gave universal Catholic doctrinal authority to the Augustinian-Catholic grace doctrine that the Orange canons had formalized. The doctrine remained the standard Catholic teaching on grace, predestination, and the fall until the Council of Trent.
He died at Rome on October 17, 532.