Saint Clement of Rome

He was a Roman and the son of the senator Faus fils du sénateur Faustinien Fourth pope of the Church, martyr, and author of the Epistle to the Corinthians. tinian, an ally of the emperors Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian. He was born in the Caelian Hill district and was first a disciple of Saint Paul: thus this Apostle, in his Epistle to the Philippians (chapter IV), assures that he labored with him in the ministry of the Gospel, and that his name is written in the Book of Life. Ther eafter, he a saint Pierre Apostle and first pope, mentioned as the father of Petronilla. ssisted Saint Peter in the government of the Roman Church, and he acquired a very high reputation for his prudence and virtue. Tertullian (Prescriptions, book II, chapter XXXII), Saint Epiphanius (Haer. XXVII), and Rufinus (Preface to the book of Recognitions of this holy Pope) say that this Prince of the Apostles, upon dying, named him his successor; but, as it is certain that he did not succeed him immediately, but only afte r Saint L saint Lin Immediate successor of Saint Peter before Clement. inus, they add that he did not wish to accept this office until after this blessed Pontiff, who had been the coadjutor of Saint Peter; and he acted in this manner, either out of humility, deeming himself unworthy of such a great honor, or out of prudence and precaution, not wishing to give cause to believe that ecclesiastical offices could become hereditary.

"Clement," says the Liber pontificalis, "sat for nine years, two months, and ten days (67-76), under the reigns of Galba and Vespasian, from the consulship of Trachalus and Italicus until that of Vespasian and Titus. It was he who, first of all, divided the seven regions of the Roman Church among an equal number of faithful notaries, charged, each in his own district, with scrupulously and in detail recording the acts of the martyrs."

The holiness of Clement was the cause that many pagans abandoned their superstitions to embrace the Christian religion, and that many of the faithful entered into the narrow paths of perfection. Clement gave the veil of virginity to Saint Flavia Domitilla, that sainte Flavia Domitille Roman virgin to whom Clement gave the veil. illustrious virgin whose acts we provided on May 12th. He baptized Sisinnius, one of the foremost men of Rome, who, having come out of curiosity to study what was done in the assemblies of the Christians, had lost his physical sight only to merit, through his conversion, the reception of the sight of the soul. Clement conferred both upon him at the same time, and he was thereafter very zealous, as was his wife Theodora, for the propagation of the Gospel. Finally, this generous Pontiff, a worthy heir to the zeal as well as the chair of Saint Peter, sent evangelical preachers in all directions to combat idolatry and spread the knowledge of the true God throughout the world.

While he was applying himself with such courage to the salvation of souls, a furious persecution suddenly arose against the flock of Jesus Christ. Torcutianus, Count of the Offices, so influenced the subordinate prefects that they stirred up a sedition among the people to demand the ruin and massacre of this innocent troop. They attacked the holy Pastor primarily, accusing him of sacrilege, impiety, disobedience to the emperors' edicts, and blasphemy against the gods. Some citizens, on the contrary, took his side, highly praising his conduct, his good faith, his detachment from earthly goods, his mercy toward the poor, and his charity for the sick and all kinds of afflicted people. These differing sentiments compelled Mamertinus, who held the first prefecture of Rome, to summon the holy Pontiff before his tribunal; but, after examining him himself and finding him guilty of no crime, he informed the Emperor Trajan of all that was happening.

Trajan replie d that Clement empereur Trajan Roman emperor mentioned for his rescript to Pliny the Younger. must sacrifice to the gods, or that, without delay, he should be banished to a desert and barbaric island beyond the Euxine Sea. Upon this decree, Mamertinus did what he could to persuade the blessed Pontiff to obey the prince's orders; but this generous confessor of Jesus Christ replied steadfastly that neither exile nor death would ever make him commit such a detestable impiety. He also tried to win over Mamertinus and make him renounce the idols, and, if he did not succeed completely, he at least inspired in him feelings of gentleness toward the Christians.

Indeed, it was only with regret that he banished our Saint to the Tauric Chersonese (present-day Crimea). He e ven had a comfortab Chersonèse Taurique Place of exile and martyrdom of Saint Clement. le ship prepared for the journey, and when he took leave of him, he shed tears and said these words: "I hope that the God whom you honor will not abandon you in your disgrace, and that He will be your consolation and your help in this banishment that you are about to endure for His glory." Many Christians went into voluntary exile with him and renounced their country so as not to leave such an accomplished master, from whom they received such holy instructions.

Clement found in this peninsula more than two thousand faithful deported for the same cause and condemned to extract marble from the quarries. Upon his arrival, he told them that Our Lord had not sent him to them for his own merits, but to make him a participant in their sufferings and to encourage them to remain firm in the faith. One of their greatest hardships was that they were obliged to go and fetch water two leagues away from the quarry where they worked and carry it on their shoulders. The Saint was moved with compassion: he had them pray, prayed himself for them, and no sooner had he finished his prayer than he saw on the mountain a lamb marking with its right foot the spot of a fountain. He went at that very moment to the indicated place, struck it with a spade, and immediately a spring gushed forth which served for the relief of that whole army of confessors. The news of this wonder having spread throughout the province, the people flocked in crowds to see Saint Clement. He took advantage of this opportunity; he preached Jesus Christ to these Barbarians, converted a very great number of them, and conferred upon them the sacrament of Baptism. It is said that there was not a day that he did not baptize up to five hundred. Idols were overturned, their temples torn down, their groves cut down, and, in the space of a year, seventy-five churches were built there in honor of the true God.

Trajan, learning of these admirable advances of Christianity, sent in haste a governor named Ausidius to stop them through the rigor of tortures. This tyrant did not fail to employ against the faithful everything that rage could inspire in him that was most cruel; but, seeing that, far from being intimidated, they came themselves in crowds with unspeakable joy to present themselves for martyrdom, he grew weary of putting them to death and discharged all his fury against the holy Pontiff who strengthened them in the faith. After having tried in vain to make him sacrifice to idols, he condemned him to be cast into the sea with an anchor around his neck, so that, dying in the midst of the waves, he would be deprived of the honors that Christians were accustomed to render to Martyrs. It is impossible to express what the affliction of the remaining faithful was when they learned of the sentence that had been passed against their holy pastor. They accompanied him to the shore, followed him with their eyes into the high seas, and filled the air with their cries and sighs. They all said to God: "Lord, save him." Clement, for his part, commended his spirit to his divine Master, and, cast into the waters, he ended his life there on November 23, in the year 100. Shortly after his death, Cornelius and Phoebus, two of his disciples, advised the other Christians to all join in prayer to ask unanimously of God that He might make known to them where the body of their holy pastor was. A prodigious thing! During their prayer, the sea receded for a league and a half. They followed the movement of its waters on dry land, and they found in this place, which previously covered abysses, a small marble chapel of admirable structure, built by the hand of angels, where the body of the holy Martyr lay, and beside it the anchor that had been the instrument of his torture. They lavished upon him in this place the marks of the deepest respect: his disciples were then warned by revelation to leave this precious relic in that same place, because every year, on the anniversary of the holy Pope's martyrdom, and the seven following days, the sea would recede to that point, and would give free access to all the faithful who wished to go there to perform their devotions.

Indeed, this miracle continued for several centuries, and at that time the blind were enlightened, the deaf recovered their hearing, the mute their speech, the feverish were healed, the possessed delivered, those who suffered from kidney disease or stones were relieved, and all kinds of sick people obtained perfect health: from which it happened that the whole country was so perfectly converted that there were no longer any Jews, pagans, or heretics to be found there. Saint Ephrem, martyr, bishop of the city of Georgia, in the Chersonesus, reports a great miracle that occurred between one of these pilgrimages: one of the principal citizens of the same city and his wife, having inadvertently left their small child asleep in this admirable chapel of Saint Clement, he remained alive there all year in the midst of the waters, and they found him at the end of that time safe and sound, without having had any other food than that which divine providence had provided for him. Saint Gregory of Tours also reports this prodigy; and Cardinal Baronius, in his Annals, says that the proofs of it are so constant in antiquity that there is no reason to call it into doubt.

Saint Clement is represented: 1° causing a spring to gush forth, at the place indicated by a lamb that appears to him, intended to quench the thirst of Christians condemned to the quarries; 2° holding in his hand a marine anchor, the instrument of his martyrdom; 3° having near him or under his feet a small chapel surrounded by water: we have provided the key to this symbol.

Saint Clement is the patron saint of Crimea, Velletri, and Seville (because this city was conquered by Ferdinand (1248) on November 23, the feast day of the holy Pope). In Bruges, the boatmen chose him as their patron (doubtless because of the anchor that characterizes him). He is invoked against children's illnesses: we have hinted at the reason for this in his legend.

## CULT AND RELICS. — MONUMENTS. — WRITINGS. The body of the holy Pontiff was transferred from Chersonesus to Rome, under the pontificate of Saint Nicholas I (858-867), by Saint Cyril, apostle of the Slavs, and deposited in a church that had been built in his honor several centuries earlier. Some parts of this precious treasure were detached to enrich France: before 1793, the Abbey of Cluny displayed his sacred head in a silver reliquary; even today, the churches of Saint-Clément in Clermont and Saint-Marcel in Paris have the good fortune to possess some bones of the holy Pope. Let us add that a relic of Saint Clement, which came from Rome in 1848, rests in Bordeaux, near the shrine of Saint Fort, in the church of Saint-Séurin. The primitive chur ch of Saint Clement, of which we église primitive de Saint-Clément Religious building constructed over the saint's ancestral home. have just spoken, was built on the very site of the paternal home of this holy Pope, not far from the Flavian Amphitheatre (now the Colosseum), where so many Christians were thrown to the beasts and where Saint Ignatius of Antioch, crushed under the teeth of the lions, was finally able to quench his thirst for martyrdom. Saint Clement himself had erected a chapel in his own house; later, when the era of persecutions had passed, the faithful built a church in the outbuildings of which the Saint's house was enclosed. It is highly probable that this primitive basilica of Saint Clement was entirely destroyed, or nearly so, during the invasion of the Normans, commanded by Robert Guiscard, in 1084. Pope Paschal II (1099-1118) had it rebuilt at the beginning of the following century. After its reconstruction, it was served by various religious Orders, and lastly by the religious of Saint Ambrose ad nemus (founded and established formerly by Saint Ambrose, in the vicinity of Milan). But these were suppressed under Eugene IV (1431-1447), so that a little later Innocent X (1644-1655) was able to call the Irish Dominicans there, who still serve it today. The primitive basilica having been filled with rubble, the current church rises perpendicularly above the first. Now, in 1857, the Very Reverend Father Joseph Mullooly, prior of the convent of Saint Clement, had the h appy idea of st Joseph Mullooly Dominican prior who directed the excavations of the basilica in the 19th century. arting excavations under the current basilica. He soon discovered three beautiful marble columns and some frescoes. Encouraged by this result, but finding it impossible to continue due to the limited resources of the convent, he had recourse to the Commission of Sacred Archaeology: the latter approved his project, and, in June 1858, he was able to have the work continued; they were not finished until 1868. We will not enumerate all the archaeological treasures that these intelligent excavations have drawn from the bosom of the earth. Let us only say that, thanks to the perseverance of the learned Father Mullooly, the underground basilica is entirely cleared. A magnificent staircase leads from the modern church to the ancient one, whose naves are lit by air vents and lamps: the high altar has been raised in the very place it occupied formerly; the columns are strengthened, the frescoes cleaned. The consecration of the altar took place on November 23, 1867. On January 30, 1868, the solemn translation took place, from the ancient underground basilica to the high altar of the current church, of the relics of Saint Clement, Saint Ignatius of Antioch, and several other Saints, whose precious bones had been engulfed in the earth for a thousand years.

Saint Clement is the author of several theological writings; but others have also been attributed to him which he did not compose. The authentic writings of this holy Pope ar e: 1° His First Epistle to the Première Épître aux Corinthiens Authentic writing of Clement addressing unity and hierarchy. Corinthians. In the second half of the first century, the Church founded by Saint Paul in the capital of Achaia had seen its peace troubled by a sedition. Some minds, infatuated with their vain knowledge, had risen against the depositaries of spiritual power, several of whom were violently expelled from their sees. Torn by these discords, the Church of Corinth turned to that of Rome, the center of Christian unity, to solicit its intervention against the authors of the schism that had broken out in its midst. Hence the origin of this first epistle of Saint Clement. It is one of the most remarkable monuments of sacred eloquence among the Apostolic Fathers. First, this intervention of the Roman Pontiff in the internal affairs of a distant Church provides by itself an almost decisive argument in favor of the supremacy of the See of Rome. Furthermore, by pointing to pride as the moral cause of the schism and to humility as the conservative principle of unity, Clement brings out the intimate relationship that links the moral order and the social order, of which one serves as the foundation for the other. The care he takes to inculcate in the Corinthians obedience to the hierarchy as an essential condition of order proves that in the eyes of the primitive Church, unity of doctrine was inseparable from unity of government. By linking the establishment of the hierarchy and its various degrees to Christ and the Apostles, the disciple of Saint Paul destroys in advance the rationalist systems regarding the constitution of the primitive Church. Finally, the spirit of gentleness that the letter breathes, the tone of paternal authority that is revealed from one end to the other, indicate the true character of ecclesiastical power, which consists in being based on humility and tempered by love. The authenticity of this epistle is clearly established by the numerous citations that the Fathers have made of it, all of which are consistent with the current text; its authority in the Church is affirmed both by Saint Dionysius of Corinth, who had it read every Sunday in the assembly of the faithful, and by Saint Irenaeus, who calls it 'an august monument,' and by Eusebius, who names it 'the great and admirable Epistle.' Outside of the canonical Scriptures, we possess no document whose origin is more certain, and the rationalist school of Tübingen has been forced to admit it through the organ of Baur, its most accredited representative. 2° The fragments of his Second Epistle to the Corinthians (for it has only reached us mutilated: the inscription is missing, and the text stops abruptly in the middle of an interrupted sentence). Saint Clement proposes therein to refute the heretics of his time (Naassenes or Ophites, Sethians, Perates, Ebionites). Thus, he insists more particularly on the divinity of the Savior, the reality of his passion, the magnificent economy of the redemptive work, the realities of the future life, the impossibility of salvation outside the Christian law, and the certainty of the resurrection of the flesh. 3° Two Letters on Virginity recently discovered in a Syriac manuscript and translated into Latin by Cardinal Villocourt. At the time of Saint Clement, as in our own, two kinds of people professed to embrace chastity: the ministers of the altars and souls called to the perfection of the evangelical counsels. To the former, the Pontiff recalls the sublimity of their holy functions and the obligation to remain faithful to them; to the latter, he traces rules of conduct to maintain them in the holiness of their special vocation. Thus, ecclesiastical celibacy, which was said to be a yoke arbitrarily imposed on priests by the ambition of the Popes; the profession of virginity, which was decried as the recent invention of an absurd fanaticism; these two great institutions are found standing in the apostolic age, exactly as they are before our eyes, and truth joins hands across the ages to confound all the sophisms of ancient and modern heresy. Let us say a word about the apocryphal works of Saint Clement. One of the most curious, most interesting, and most original works possessed by the literature of the Church is the theological novel of the Clementines. This name enco mpasses tha Clémentines A collection of apocryphal writings attributed to Saint Clement. t whole class or family of similar writings that are attached to Saint Clement, whose biography they interweave with the theological discussions of his time. Apart from some fairly significant divergences in doctrines and facts, their theme is identical at the core, and consists of embroidering upon a canvas, true or false, borrowed from the life of Saint Clement, a doctrinal fabric more or less linked. These are first twenty homilies or discourses, preceded by two epistles from Saint Peter and Saint Clement to Saint James the Less, Bishop of Jerusalem; then the ten books of the Recognitions, so called because the various members of Saint Clement's family find each other successively after having lost sight of one another; finally, an Epitome or abridgment of the two preceding works, addressed like them to Saint James of Jerusalem. The Clementines, in the form in which we possess them, cannot be the work of Saint Clement. Without mentioning the rest, one finds therein the refutation of heresies that only appeared at the end of the 2nd century, such as that of the Marcionites. Their origin or apocryphal character is a fact acquired by science and admitted by everyone. They are the work of an Ebionite Gnostic of the end of the 2nd century. We have completed the biography of Saint Clement with the *Characteristics of the Saints* by the Rev. Fr. Gabier. The details on the Basilica of Saint Clement in Rome were provided to us by the *Dominican Year*; as for the exposition and analysis of the works of the holy Pope, we have drawn them from the *Apostolic Fathers* by Mgr. Froppel, and the *General History of the Church* by the Abbé Dattas.