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| St/ Clement of Rome |
ST CLEMENT, POPE, MARTYR (A.D. 100)
Feast: November 23
St Clement, the son of Faustinus, a Roman by birth, was of
Jewish extraction; for he tells us himself that he was of the race of Jacob. He
was converted to the faith by St. Peter or St. Paul, and was so constant in his
attendance on these apostles, and so active in assisting them in their
ministry, that St. Jerome and other fathers call him an apostolic man; St.
Clement of Alexandria styles him an apostle; and Rufinus, almost an apostle.
Some authors attribute his conversion to St. Peter, whom he met at Cesarea with
St. Barnabas; but he attended St. Paul at Philippi in 62, and shared in his
sufferings there. We are assured by St. Chrysostom that he was a companion of
the latter, with SS. Luke and Timothy, in many of his apostolic journeys,
labours, and dangers. St. Paul (Phil. iv, 3) calls him his fellow-labourer, and
ranks him among those whose names are written in the book of life; a privilege
and matter of joy far beyond the power of commanding devils. (Luke x. 17) St.
Clement followed St. Paul to Rome, where he also heard St. Peter preach, and
was instructed in his school, as St. Irenaeus and Pope Zosimus testify.
Tertullian tells us that St. Peter ordained him bishop, by which some
understand that he made him a bishop of nations, to preach the gospel in many
countries; others, with Epiphanius, that he made him his vicar at Rome, with an
episcopal character to govern that church during his absence in his frequent
missions. Others suppose he might at first be made bishop of the Jewish church
in that city. After the martyrdom of SS. Peter and Paul, St. Linus was appointed
Bishop of Rome, and after eleven years, succeeded by St. Cletus. Upon his
demise in 89, or rather in 91, St. Clement was placed in the apostolic chair.
According to the Liberian Calendar he sat nine years, eleven months, and twenty
days.
At Corinth, an impious and detestable division, as our saint
called it, happened amongst the faithful, like that which St. Paul had appeased
in the same church; and a party rebelled against holy and irreproachable
priests and presumed to depose them. It seems to have been soon after the death
of Domitian in 96, that St. Clement, in the name of the church of Rome, wrote
to them his excellent epistle, a piece highly extolled and esteemed in the
primitive church as an admirable work, as Eusebius calls it. It was placed in
rank next to the canonical books of the holy scriptures, and with them read in
the churches. Whence it was found in the very ancient Alexandrian manuscript
copy of the Bible, which Cyril Lucaris sent to our King James I, from which
Patrick Young, the learned keeper of that king's library, published it at
Oxford in 1633. St. Clement begins his letter by conciliating the benevolence
of those who were at variance, tenderly putting them in mind how edifying their
behaviour was when they were all humble-minded, not boasting of anything,
desiring rather to be subject than to govern, to give than to receive, content
with the portion God had dispensed to them, listening diligently to his word,
having an insatiable desire of doing good, and a plentiful effusion of the Holy
Ghost upon all of them. At that time they were sincere, without offence, not
mindful of injuries, and all sedition and schism was an abomination to them.
The saint laments that they had then forsaken the fear of the Lord, and were
fallen into pride, envy, strife, and sedition; and pathetically exhorts them to
lay aside all pride and anger, for Christ is theirs who are humble and not
theirs who exalt themselves. The sceptre of the majesty of God, our Lord Jesus
Christ, came not in the show of pride, though he could have done so; but with
humility. He bids them look up to the Creator of the world, and think how
gentle and patient he is towards his whole creation; also with what peace it
all obeys his will, and the heavens, earth, impassable ocean, and worlds beyond
it, are governed by the commends of this great master. Considering how near God
is to us, and that none of our thoughts are hid from him, how ought we never to
do anything contrary to his will, and honour them who are set over us! showing
with a sincere affection of meekness, and manifesting the government of our
tongues by a love of silence. "Let your children," says the saint,
"be bred up in the instruction of the Lord, and learn how great a power
humility has with God, how much a pure and holy charity avails with him, and
how excellent and great his fear is."
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11th-century fresco in the Basilica of San Clemente, Rome:
Saints Cyril and Methodius bring Saint Clement's relics to Rome
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It appears by what follows, that some at Corinth boggled at
the belief of a resurrection of the flesh, which the saint beautifully shows to
be easy to the Almighty power, and illustrates by the vine which sheds its
leaves, then buds, spreads its leaves, flowers, and afterwards produces first
sour grapes, then ripe fruit; by the morning rising from night; and corn
brought forth from seed. The saint adds a strong exhortation to shake off all
sluggishness and laziness, for it is only the good workman who receives the
bread of his labour. "We must hasten," says he, "with all
earnestness and readiness of mind, to perfect every good work, labouring with
cheerfulness; for even the Creator and Lord of all things rejoices in his own
works." The latter part of this epistle is a pathetic recommendation of
humility, peace, and charity. "Let every one," says the saint,
"be subject to another, according to the order in which he is placed by
the gift of God. Let not the strong man neglect the care of the weak; let the
weak see that he reverence the strong. Let the rich man distribute to the
necessity of the poor, and let the poor bless God who give :h him one to supply
his want. Let the wise man show forth his wisdom, not in words, but in good
works. Let him that is humble, never speak of himself, or make show of his
actions. Let him that is pure in the flesh, not grow proud of it, knowing that
it was another who gave him the gift of continence. They who are great cannot
yet subsist without those that are little; nor the little without the great. In
our body, the head without the feet is nothing; neither the feet without the
head. And the smallest members of our body are yet both necessary and useful to
the whole." Thus the saint teaches that the lowest in the church may be
the greatest before God, if they are most faithful in the discharge of their
respective duties. St. Clement puts pastors and superiors in mind that, with
trembling and humility, they should have nothing but the fear of God in view,
and take no pleasure in their own power and authority. "Let us," says
he, "pray for all such as fall into any trouble or distress; that being
endued with humility and moderation, they may submit, not to us, but to the
will of God." Fortunatus, who is mentioned by St. Paul, was come from the
church of Corinth to Rome, to inform that holy see of their unhappy schism. St.
Clement says, he had dispatched four messengers to Corinth with him, and adds,
"Send them back to us again with all speed in peace and joy, that they may
the sooner acquaint us with your peace and concord, so much prayed for and
desired by us; and that we may rejoice in your good order."
We have a large fragment of a second epistle of St. Clement
to the Corinthians, found in the same Alexandrian manuscript of the Bible; from
which circumstance it appears to have been also read like the former in many
churches, which St. Dionysius of Corinth expressly testifies of that church,
though it was not so celebrated among the ancients as the other. In it our
saint exhorts the faithful to despise this world and its false enjoyments, and
to have those which are promised us always before our eyes; to pursue virtue
with all our strength, and its peace will follow us with the inexpressible
delights of the promise of what is to come. The necessity of perfectly subduing
both the irascible and concupiscible passions of our souls, he lays down as the
foundation of a Christian life, in words which St. Clement of Alexandria
enforces and illustrates. Besides these letters of St. Clement to the
Corinthians, two others have been lately discovered, which are addressed to
spiritual eunuchs or virgins. Of these St. Jerome speaks, when he says of
certain epistles of St. Clement, "In the epistles which Clement, the
successor of the Apostle Peter, wrote to them, that is, to such eunuchs, almost
his whole discourse turns upon the excellence of virginity." These two
letters were found in a manuscript copy of a Syriac New Testament, by John
James Westein, in 1752, and printed by him with a Latin translation at
Amsterdam in 1752, and again in 1757. A French translation of them has been
published, with short critical notes. These letters are not unworthy this great
disciple of St. Peter; and in them the counsels of St. Paul concerning celibacy
and virginity are explained, that state is pathetically recommended, without
prejudice to the honour due to the holy state of marriage; and the necessity of
shunning all familiarity with persons of a different sex, and the like
occasions of incontinence is set in a true light.
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| St. Clement celebrating Mass , century unknown |
St. Clement with patience and prudence got through the
persecution of Domitian. Nerva's peaceable reign being very short, the tempest
increased under Trajan, who, even from the beginning of his reign, never
allowed the Christian assemblies. It was in the year 100 that the third general
persecution was raised by him, which was the more afflicting, as this reign was
in other respects generally famed for justice and moderation. Rufin, Pope
Zosimus, and the council of Bazas in 452, expressly styles St. Clement a
martyr. In the ancient canon of the Roman mass, he is ranked among the martyrs.
Eusebius tells us, that St. Clement departed this life in the third year of
Trajan, of Christ 100. From this expression some will have it that he died a
natural death; but St. Clement says of St. Paul, who certainly died a martyr,
that "he departed out of the world."[1] It is also objected, that St.
Irenaeus gives the title of martyr only to St. Telesphorus among the popes
before St. Eleutherius. But it is certain that some others were martyrs,
whatever was the cause of his omission. St. Irenaeus mentions the epistle of
St. Clement yet omits those of St. Ignatius, though in some places he quotes
him. Shall we hence argue, that St. Ignatius wrote none? When the Emperor Lewis
Debonnair founded the great abbey of Cava, in Abruzzo, four miles from Slaerno,
in 872, he enriched it with the relics of St. Clement, pope and martyr, which
Pope Adrian sent him, as is related at length in the chronicle of that abbey,
with a history of many miracles. These relics remain there to this day. The
ancient Church of St. Clement in Rome, in which St. Gregory the Great preached
several of his homilies, still retains part of his relics. It was repaired by
Clement XI, but still shows entire the old structure of Christian churches,
divided into three parts: the narthex, the ambo, and the sanctuary.
St. Clement inculcates,[2] that the spirit of Christianity
is a spirit of perfect disengagement from the things of this world. "We
must," says he, "look upon all the things of this world, as none of
ours, and not desire them. This world and that to come are two enemies. We
cannot, therefore, be friends to both; but we must resolve which we would
forsake, and which we would enjoy. And we think, that it is better to hate the
present things, as little, short-lived, and corruptible; and to love those
which are to come, which are truly good and incorruptible. Let us contend with
all earnestness, knowing that we are now called to the combat. Let us run in
the straight road, the race that is incorruptible. This is what Christ saith:
keep your bodies pure and your souls without spot, that ye may receive eternal
life."
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