09 — Veneration and Legacy
How the Church remembers Clement, and what his letter has meant. These files set out his liturgical veneration — the feast on 24 November (Orthodox) and 23/25 November (Roman), his place in the eucharistic canon, and the Basilica of San Clemente in Rome that houses his relics over one of the most remarkable archaeological sites in the city — and then offer a final assessment of his legacy: the abiding importance of 1 Clement as the earliest datable Christian document, a witness to early church order, and a model of the pastoral care of one church for another.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostolic Father)
Clement is venerated across the whole undivided tradition. In the East he is commemorated as the holy hieromartyr Clement, pope of Rome, on 24 November; in the West his feast is 23 November (formerly 25), and his name stands in the Roman Canon among the early martyrs. His memory is anchored materially in the Basilica of San Clemente al Laterano, where the relics brought from Cherson by Cyril and Methodius were laid, and beneath whose medieval and early-Christian levels lie a fourth-century basilica and a first-century Roman house with a Mithraeum — a vertical section through the very centuries this collection studies. This section presents the feast and the cult, and then assesses the man and the letter: a figure of whom little can be known, who nonetheless left the Church its oldest dated writing and one of its enduring statements on concord, humility, and order.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| Feast and Cult | The veneration of St. Clement — the feast (24 Nov Orthodox; 23/25 Nov Roman), the hymnography, his place in the Roman Canon; the Basilica of San Clemente in Rome (the three levels: medieval, 4th-c. basilica, 1st-c. insula and Mithraeum) and the relics. |
| Legacy and Assessment | A final assessment — the enduring significance of 1 Clement (oldest dated Christian text, witness to church order, the pastoral model); the contrast between the elusive man and the influential letter; what the collection has shown about handling a thin and overgrown record. |
See Also
- The Letter to the Corinthians — the work that is the substance of the legacy
- The Relics and Cyril and Methodius — the relics housed at San Clemente
- The Primacy Debate — the contested strand of the reception
- The Church Fathers — Clement’s place in the patristic legacy
- The Pre-Schism Church — the undivided Church that venerates him
References
- Holmes, Michael W. The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations. 3rd ed. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007.
- Lightfoot, J. B. The Apostolic Fathers, Part I: S. Clement of Rome. 2 vols. London: Macmillan, 1890.
- The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church (November). Ed. Holy Apostles Convent. Buena Vista, CO.
- Lona, Horacio E. Der erste Clemensbrief. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998.