Saint
Pope Clement I is also known as Clement of Rome. There are differing
views as to exactly when and where he was born. The general agreement
is that he may have been a freed man from a Roman household. He is
generally considered by the Roman Catholic Church to be one of the
Greek Fathers and an Apostolic Father. He was the third successor to
Peter as Pope, after Linus and Anacletus (Cletus), and writings from
other Early Fathers including those of St. Irenaeus, Origen, and St.
Jerome, to name a few, say that Clement was baptised by Peter. He was
also a contemporary of Paul, and one of the early writers in speaking
of Clement, said that "the preaching of the Apostles still rang
in his ears".
The
one thing that gives us more knowledge about Clement than the first
two sucessors of Peter, is Clements "Epistle to the
Corinthians", a letter he wrote to the "sojourning Church
in Corinth from the sojourning Church in Rome", in regard to a
schism happening there. The date of the letter is believed to have
been around 96 A.D. His name does not appear in the letter nor did he
direct the letter to a bishop at Corinth, but, the letter seems to
have been generally intended for all in the Church at Corinth.
Clements Epistle, is also the first evidence of papal correction to a
Church outside of Rome. The letter he wrote was so highly regarded by
the Church at Corinth, that a decade or so later, the bishop in
Corinth in a letter to Rome, mentions that the letter from Clement
was read at their assemblies. Indeed, this letter was also included
in the early Bibles of many of the eastern Churches, before the canon
was established in the Latin Vulgate.
