ST CLEMENT I., POPE - 23 NOVEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN NOVEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 23rd of November

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SAINT CLEMENT I., POPE

(A.D. 100) Saint 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 Caesarea with St Barnabas; but he attended St Paul at Philippi in 62, and shared in his sufferings there. 

HE SHARED IN ST PAUL'S SUFFERINGS

We are assured by St Chrysostom, that he was a companion of this latter, with SS. Luke and Timothy, in many of his apostolic journeys, labours, and dangers. 

St Paul (Phil. 4:3) 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 10:17) 

HE FOLLOWED ST PAUL TO ROME

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 Zozimus 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. 

ST PETER, LINUS, CLETUS, CLEMENT

After the martyrdom of SS. Peter and Paul, St Linus was appointed bishop of Rome, and after eleven years was 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.   

ST CLEMENT WAS PLACED IN THE APOSTOLIC CHAIR

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 the Corinthians 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. 

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. 

POPE CLEMENT'S LETTERS TO THE CORINTHIANS

Besides these letters of St Clement to the Corinthians, two others have been lately discovered. 

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 are set in a true light.

IN THE ANCIENT CANON OF THE ROMAN MASS, HE IS RANKED AMONG THE MARTYRS

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 style St Clement a martyr. In the ancient canon of the Roman mass, he is ranked among the martyrs. 

From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Clement may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.