Pope Clement of Rome

We are aware from the writings of Hegesippus, St. Irenaeus of Lyons and Eusebius of Caesarea that St. Clement was the third successor to St. Peter as Bishop of Rome (after Linus and Cletus). The fact that he held such a position of authority is clearly evident in the opening address of his epistle whereby he makes an attempt to heal the ruptures in the Church of Corinth which resulted in insurrection against the bishop and presbyters and their deposition. St. Clement in his epistle is deeply concerned with the sin of pride which he saw as responsible for the jealousy, strife and disorders racking the Corinthians.

St. Clement wrote only one epistle which was held in very high esteem in the early Church: “Clement has left us one recognized epistle, long and wonderful, which he composed in the name of the church of Rome…in many churches this epistle was read aloud to the assembled worshippers in early days, as it is in our own” (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3, 4, 80). The Apostolical Canons of the sixth century actually includes St. Clement’s epistle in the New Testament canon. Some in the early Church held the opinion that St. Clement also wrote the book of Hebrews or translated it into Greek. Extant ancient copies of St. Clement’s epistle exist in Greek, Syriac and Latin.

Most authorities date the composition of St. Clement’s epistle around the years 96-98 AD (Lightfoot, Harnack, Funk). This dating is based upon the opening words of the epistle’s main text, “Owing to the sudden and repeated calamities and misfortunes which have befallen us,” as referring to the persecution of the Emperor Domitian. However, Jurgens (Vol. 1, p. 7) prefers to give the year 80 for the epistle’s date basing his view that (i) the “repeated calamities” in question rather refers to the eruption of Vesuvius which also caused fire and pestilence in Rome, (ii) there are very few New Testament references in the work and (iii) that the martyrdom of Sts. Peter and Paul are referred to as recent events.

St. Irenaeus (Against Heresies 3, 3) states that St. Clement knew and worshipped with Sts. Peter and Paul. Both Origen and Eusebius identify him as the Clement who collaborated with St. Paul and mentioned in his Epistle to the Philippians (4, 3), but this is doubted by all other authorities (Andrew Louth, Early Christian Writers, Penguin Books, 1968, p. 18).  According to Tertullian (The Demurrer Against the Heretics 32, C. 199 AD), it was St. Peter who ordained him as presbyter and then bishop of the Church of Rome. Hence the enormous value of his epistle in understanding ancient Apostolic teaching, especially as concerns the Eucharist.

Of the life and death of St. Clement very little is known. According to Rufinus (C. 400 AD) St. Clement is said to have died a martyr’s death in exile around the year 100 at the order of the Emperor Trajan. His crimes allegedly relating to his preaching and miracles which converted thousands, including hundreds of high rank. He was thrown into the Black Sea with an iron anchor. Around the year 868, St. Cyril, while in the Crimea to evangelize the Kazars, dug up some bones in a mound together with an anchor and had them translated to Rome whereupon they were deposited by Pope Adrian II in the high altar of the basilica of St. Clement.

Source: http://scta.org.au/