Saint Clement I

Saint Clement I was Bishop of Rome at the end of the first century, the third successor of Saint Peter after Linus and Anacletus. He is counted among the Apostolic Fathers, that is, the writers of the first generations after the Apostles, and he is known as the author of the Letter to the Corinthians. The Church commemorates him on November 23 as pope and martyr.

Very little is known about his life. We do not know the year of his birth; later accounts make him a Roman. Saint Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons at the end of the second century, wrote that Clement had seen the Apostles, had conversed with them, and still had their preaching echoing in his ears. According to Tertullian, the Church of Rome maintained that he was ordained by Saint Peter himself. The years of his ministry are also uncertain; the Holy See’s list of popes gives the period from 92 to 99.

At that time a rift had opened in Corinth: a group of younger members of the community had removed its presbyters from their ministry. Clement wrote, in the name of the Church of Rome, a letter in Greek calling for peace and concord. He explains the delay of his reply by the calamities that had befallen his Church; these are taken to be the persecution under Emperor Domitian, and so the letter is dated to just after the year 96. Benedict XVI called it a first exercise of the Roman primacy after the death of Saint Peter.

Clement recalls humility and brotherly love and teaches that order in the Church comes from God: the Father sent Christ, Christ sent the Apostles, and they appointed the first leaders of the communities and provided that other proven men should succeed them in their ministry. The letter also mentions the martyrdom of Peter and Paul. It closes with a great prayer, which also intercedes for those who govern; it is the oldest Christian prayer for political authorities after the New Testament.

We have no certain information about his death. Eusebius of Caesarea reports that Clement died in the third year of Trajan’s reign, that is, at the turn of the first and second centuries, and he does not mention martyrdom. The title of martyr appears with his name from the end of the fourth century. A later account of his martyrdom relates that Trajan exiled him to Chersonesus in Crimea, where he met Christians condemned to labor in the quarries, and that he was afterward thrown into the sea with an anchor around his neck. This is why he is depicted with an anchor.

Saint Jerome wrote at the end of the fourth century that a church built in Rome preserved the memory of his name; on its site the Basilica of Saint Clement stands today. In the ninth century Saints Cyril and Methodius brought to Rome relics that had been found in Crimea and were held to be the remains of Clement. Pope Hadrian II received them with reverence, and they were laid in the basilica that bears his name, where Saint Cyril also rests.

Clement has been venerated as a saint since antiquity, without a formal canonization. The Roman Canon mentions his name among the first successors of Saint Peter, and the ancient liturgical books of the West already record the day of November 23. On this day the Roman Martyrology commemorates the deposition of his body in Rome.