Place in the Apostolic Succession
Clement belongs to the first generation of Roman bishops after the Apostles. Ancient writers portray him as a contemporary of Peter and Paul: Tertullian, writing around the year 199, reported the Roman claim that Clement was ordained by Peter himself, while Saint Irenaeus noted that Clement had seen the blessed Apostles and conversed with them. Eusebius described him as the third bishop of Rome and as a co-laborer of Paul.
His exact position in the succession was already uncertain in antiquity. Most early evidence places him as the fourth pope, following Linus and Cletus or Anacletus, but other early lists name him as the first, second, or third successor of Peter. He is regarded as the first of Peter's successors of whom anything definite is known.
The Epistle to the Corinthians
Clement's letter to the Corinthians, known as First Clement, was written about A.D. 96 in response to a schism at Corinth in which certain presbyters had been deposed and the church drawn into sedition against its rulers. The letter appeals for repentance, unity, and obedience, drawing on biblical examples and emphasizing hierarchical order and the apostolic succession of bishops and deacons.
It is one of the oldest extant Christian documents outside the New Testament and is counted among the earliest affirmations of the principle of apostolic succession. A second letter long attributed to Clement, known as Second Clement, was later judged to be a homily of unknown authorship rather than a genuine work of his.
Exile and Martyrdom
Some early sources indicate that Clement died a natural death. A later tradition, attested in apocryphal accounts no older than the fourth century and developed further by the ninth century, holds that he was banished from Rome to the Chersonesus, in the Crimea, during the reign of the Emperor Trajan, and that he was put to death by being tied to an anchor and thrown into the sea.
Clement was first explicitly named a martyr by Rufinus around the year 400. Historians have noted that this martyrdom tradition may rest on confusion with the consul Titus Flavius Clemens, who was put to death under Domitian, and that for the identification of his relics the anchor appears to be the principal evidence.
Relics and Veneration
Around A.D. 868, Saint Cyril, one of the missionary brothers to the Slavs, is recorded as discovering in a Crimean mound bones buried together with an anchor, which he took to be the relics of Clement. These were carried to Rome and deposited by Pope Adrian II in the altar of the Basilica of San Clemente, where they are enshrined.
Clement is commemorated on November 25 in the Russian Orthodox tradition and on November 23 as a pope and martyr in the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, and the Lutheran Church. As a saint of the undivided first-century Church, he is honored across these traditions.
