Saint Clement of Rome

Clement was the fourth Pope of Rome,
reigning from 88 - 99 AD.

He was one of first Apostolic Fathers of the Church, together with Polycarp and Ignatius of Antioch

Born about 30 AD, Clement was probably a Gentile and a Roman. He seems to have been at Philippi with St. Paul (A.D. 57) when that first-born of the Western churches was passing through great trials of faith. There, with holy women and others, he ministered to the apostle and to the saints.

He was possibly in some public service, and probably had visited Corinth in those days. From the apostle, and his companion, St. Luke, he no doubt learned the use of the Septuagint (the Old Testament in Greek).
Round the dome of Saint Peter’ Basilica in Rome in letters 6 feet high in Latin are written the words from chapter 16 of Matthew’s gospel, Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and I will give to thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.

In A.D. 180 Bishop Iraneus of Lyons wrote that the Church of Rome had been founded by the apostles Peter and Paul and that its faith had been passed down by an unbroken succession of bishops.

He named the bishops, who succeeded the Apostles, providing us with the earliest surviving list of the popes – Linus, Cletus, Clement, Evaristus, Alexander, Sixtus and so on.

Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus reigned from 54 - 68 AD
Within 10 years of Christ’s death Christianity escaped from Palestine along the sea roads of Pax Romana northwards to Antioch and onto Ephesus, Corinth and Thessalonica and westwards to Cyprus, Crete and Rome. By A.D. 49, according to the pagan historian Suetonius, Christian Jews were a significant presence in Roman synagogues and their beliefs were causing trouble. The tradition that Peter and Paul had been put to death at the hands of Nero about A.D. 64 was universally accepted in the second century.

However Clement wrote of the Roman Authorities: “Grant to them, Lord, health, peace, concord, and stability, so that they may exercise without offense the sovereignty that you have given them. Master, heavenly King of the ages, you give glory, honor, and power over the things of earth to the sons of men. Direct, Lord, their counsel, following what is pleasing and acceptable in your sight, so that by exercising with devotion and in peace and gentleness the power that you have given to them, they may find favor with you.
Saint Irenaeus wrote that Clement had seen the blessed apostles and still had their preaching echoing in his ears.

In his letter from Rome to the Corinthians Clement expressed his regret that ‘sudden and calamitous events’ had prevented him from writing sooner. He is probably referring to the persecution of Christians by the Emperor Domitian who died in A.D. 96.

At this time dissension had occurred among brothers in Corinth. So Clement dispatched a powerful letter to the Corinthians exhorting them to peace, renewing their faith and declaring the tradition received from the apostles.

“We could say that this letter was the first exercise of the Roman primacy after Saint Peter’s death” writes Pope Benedict in his book Church Fathers.
Pope Benedict XVI from 2005 until his reirement in 2013
Father Hubertus Drobner in his book “The Fathers of the Church:” writes: “it is the oldest extant work of Christian literature apart from the biblical writings.”
In his letter Clement writes of the joyful proclamation of God’s forgiveness and of the gift of his love. The Lord’s goodness, he writes, is always greater than all our sins.

He stresses that the Church’s structure is sacramental and not political. The action of God, who comes to meet us in the liturgy, precedes our decisions and our ideas. The Church is above all a gift of God and not something we ourselves created.

He prays “O Lord, grant to all kings and rulers health, peace, concord, and stability, that administering the authority you have given them, in peace and gentleness, with godliness, they may continue to please you.”
The prayer for rulers and governors acquires special importance. It is the oldest prayer extant for political institutions. Thus, in the period following their persecution, Christians, well aware that the persecutions would continue, never ceased to pray for the very authorities who had unjustly condemned them. It is necessary to pray for one’s persecutors as Jesus did on the Cross.

But this prayer also contains a teaching that guides the attitude of Christians toward politics and the State down the centuries. In praying for the authorities, Clement recognized the legitimacy of political institutions. At the same time, he expressed his concern that the authorities would be docile to God, “devoutly in peace and meekness exercising the power given them by God”.

Caesar is not everything. Another sovereignty emerges whose origins and essence are not of this world but of “the heavens above”. It is that of Truth, which also claims a right to be heard by the State.
Statue of the Emperor Domitian in the Vatican
Martyrdom of St Clement by Bernadino Fungai
According to a 4th century legend , Clement was banished from Rome to the Crimean peninsula during the reign of the Emperor Trajan and was set to work in a stone quarry. Finding on his arrival that the prisoners were suffering from lack of water, he knelt down in prayer. Looking up, he saw a lamb on a hill, went to where the lamb had stood and struck the ground with his pickaxe, releasing a gushing stream of clear water.

This miracle resulted in the conversion of large numbers of the local pagans and his fellow prisoners to Christianity. As punishment, Clement was martyred by being tied to an anchor and thrown from a boat into the Black Sea.
The Basilica of Saint Clement in Rome is dedicated to Pope Clement I. Its structure is a three-tiered complex of buildings:

(1) the present basilica built just before the year 1100 during the height of the Middle Ages;

(2) beneath the present basilica is a 4th-century basilica that had been converted out of the home of a Roman nobleman, part of which had in the 1st century briefly served as an early church, and the basement of which had in the 2nd century briefly served as a temple to the god Mithras;

(3) the home of the Roman nobleman had been built on the foundations of republican era villa and warehouse that had been destroyed in the Great Fire of AD 64.
The Interior of San Clemente

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church St. Clement provides the Church’s most ancient prayer for political authorities:

“Grant to them, Lord, health, peace, concord, and stability, so that they may exercise without offense the sovereignty that you have given them. Master, heavenly King of the ages, you give glory, honor, and power over the things of earth to the sons of men. Direct, Lord, their counsel, following what is pleasing and acceptable in your sight, so that by exercising with devotion and in peace and gentleness the power that you have given to them, they may find favor with you.”

The Church Fathers
Saint Ignatius of Antioch
The Flying Palaces of Angkor
Saint Polycarp
Saint Justin Martyr
Saint Iraneus of Lyons
Saints Perpetua and Felicity
Saint Clement of Alexandria