Portal:Catholicism/Patron Archive/November 23
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Saint Clement I, the Archbishop of Rome from 88 to 99 AD. Also called Clement of Rome and Clemens Romanus, he was the fourth pope, after Anacletus, according to Catholic tradition. However, other sources [citation needed] cite him as the second pope and successor to Peter.
Saint Clement I is also considered one of the Apostolic Fathers, and his name is in the Roman Canon of the Mass. Saint Clement I is commemorated on November 23 as pope and martyr in the Roman Catholic Churchas well as the Anglican Communion and the Lutheran church. The Syriac Orthodox and Malankara Orthodox Church, as well as the Syriac Catholic and Syro-Malankara Catholic Churches commemorate St. Clement of Rome (called Mor Clemis) on November 24.
Sacred Tradition identifies him as the Clement mentioned in Philippians 4:3. He may have been a freedman of Titus Flavius Clemens, who was consul with his cousin, the Emperor Domitian. The Shepherd of Hermas (Vision II. 4. 3) mentions a Clement whose office it is to communicate with other churches; this function has been adduced to support Clement's authorship of the letter to the church at Corinth, Greece, ascribed to him: full details are at the entry Epistles of Clement.
Liber Pontificalis documents the fact that Clement of Rome had personally known Saint Peter, and states that he wrote two letters (the second letter, 2 Clement is no longer ascribed to Clement) and that he died in Greece in the third year of Trajan's reign, or 100. Earlier sources say he died a natural death. The Holy See's Annuario Pontificio (2003) cites a reign from 92 to 99.
A 9th-century tradition says that St. Clement was exiled from Rome by the Emperor Trajan to a prison camp in Chersonesus, where he was sentenced to work in a stone quarry. In retaliation for having converted large numbers of the local pagans to Christianity, St. Clement was martyred by being tied to an anchor and thrown from a boat into the Black Sea in the year 102.
According to tradition, St. Cyril brought relics of St. Clement to Rome in 868 where they are now enshrined at the Basilica di San Clemente. Other relics of St. Clement, including his head, are claimed by the Kiev Monastery of the Caves in the Ukraine.
Attributes: as a pope with anchor or fish, millstone, keys, a fountain or with a book.
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