Silas Francis Marean Chatard (December 13, 1834 – September 7, 1918) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Indianapolis from 1898 to 1918.

Both his father, Ferdinand, and his paternal grandfather, Pierre, an emigrant from Santo Domingo, West Indies, were physicians in Baltimore.

Soon afterward, he felt the call to priesthood and in 1857 began studying at the Pontificio Collegio Urbano de Propaganda Fide in Rome.

During his time as Rector, the First Vatican Council was held, and was able to meet many American Bishops who stayed at the college while in Rome.

His predecessor, Bishop St. Palais had recognized that Indianapolis had become a major city, but deferred the decision to move the seat of the diocese to his successor.

[3] Said to be "the most scholarly clergyman in America",[4] in 1883, Chatard was rumored as the new Archbishop of Philadelphia,[4] That appointment never took place for reasons unknown.

It was he who asked Sister of Providence Mary Theodosia Mug to write a biography of Mother Théodore Guérin.