Pope Clement I

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Styles of Pope Clement I
Reference style	His Holiness
Spoken style	Your Holiness
Religious style	Holy Father
Posthumous style	Saint

Pope Clement I, the bishop of Rome also called Clement of Rome and Clemens Romanus, was the fourth pope, after Anacletus. He is also considered one of the Apostolic Fathers.

There is no ground for identifying him with the Clement mentioned in Philippians 4:3 "Writers of the 3rd and 4th cents., like Origen, Eusebius, and Jerome, equate him [St. Clement I], perhaps, correctly, with the Clement whom St. Paul mentions (Phil. 4:3) as a fellow worker." — . He may have been a freedman of Titus Flavius Clemens, who was consul with his cousin, the Emperor Domitian. The Shepherd of Hermas (Vision II. 4. 3) mentions a Clement whose office it is to communicate with other churches; this function has been adduced to support Clement's authorship of the letter to the church at Corinth, Greece, ascribed to him: full details are at the entry Epistles of Clement.

Liber Pontificalis believes that Clement of Rome had personally known Saint Peter, and states that he wrote two letters (the second letter, 2 Clement is no longer ascribed to Clement) and that he died in Greece in the third year of Trajan's reign, or 100. A 9th century tradition says he was martyred in Crimea in 102, tied to a ship's anchor and thrown overboard to drown, but earlier sources say he died a natural death. The Vatican's "Annuario Pontificio" (2003) cites a reign from 92 to 99. He is commemorated on November 23.

Symbology

The Mariner's Cross is also referred to as ''St. Clement's Cross.

Writings

A second epistle, better described as a homily and written in the second century, has been traditionally ascribed to Clement, but recent scholarship discredits his authorship.

Clement is also the hero of an early Christian romance or novel that has survived in at least two different versions, known as the Clementine literature, where he is identified with Domitian's cousin T. Flavius Clemens.

Reference

Popes of the Roman Catholic Church