Clement

Who they were

St Irenaeus lists the bishops of Rome: after Peter and Paul founded the Church, they handed the episcopate to Linus; Anacletus followed him, and third after the apostles came Clement. He had known the apostles and heard them preach, so that Origen called him 'disciple of the apostles'.

When news reached Rome that the Church of Corinth had broken its unity through quarrels, Clement wrote to it - 'the Church of God sojourning in Rome to the Church of God sojourning in Corinth' - and, Irenaeus says, 'a powerful letter restored peace to the Church'. Eusebius says he died in the third year of the emperor Trajan, after nine years as bishop.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: Clement has been honoured as a saint since the early Church. Eusebius, Jerome and Irenaeus say nothing of a martyrdom; the title of martyr comes from a Roman tradition of the late fourth century.

Why that counted as sanctity

Clement, a disciple of the apostles, used the authority of the Church of Rome to heal a divided Church, and his letter is one of the earliest Christian writings after the New Testament.

Connected on this site

• Titus Flavius Clemens Saint Brother or sister