Meet the Fathers: Pope St. Clement I

 Probably wrote in early 70. Various ancient sources place him as the first, second, or third successor of St. Peter. (Most commonly, he is held to be the third, after Linus and Cletus.) He was the author of a single surviving Letter to the Corinthians, which is often dated around 95, but this is too late a date.

William Jurgens points to internal evidence that places it no later than 80 or so (the date he favors) and possibly up to ten years earlier. John A. T. Robinson shows internal evidence that places it in the first part of the year 70. Specifically, Clement refers to sacrifices still being offered at the temple in Jerusalem, which was destroyed in July of 70. Clement also refers to the repeated crises that have prevented him from writing to the Corinthians until now, which is a likely reference to the violent “year of four emperors” in 69, a time of civil war that followed the forced suicide of Nero in 68. In it Galba, Otho, and Vitellius were successively acclaimed emperor and then killed or forced to commit suicide before Vespasian finally took office.

The epistle may or may not have been written before Clement was pope. He was, in any event, a major figure of the period, as demonstrated by the fact that a number of later works were attributed to him or written about him. Also referred to as “Clement of Rome.”

MORE INFO.

Comments

[SUZANNE]

I'm glad you're talking about the Fathers, but it's a bit dry as a biography. What did he write about? What did he DO?

[Dr. Eric]

Was St. Cletus from Mississippi? ;-)

[Diane]

I find this fascinating. I'm hoping to hear more about St. Clement in the future:).

Thanks for this blog; I have always wanted to know more about the Church fathers, but my reading time is limited to glancing at blogs a few minutes here and there, and most books on the church fathers are enormous.

[freddy]

Very cool! I'm so glad to see this!

[Catholic Pat]

To Joe and the others who say "not much substance" -- It seems like this site is supposed to act as a preview to the book, and is therefore subordinate. Why would Mr. Akin one to include everything that's in his book on the site?

The title of the post is "MEET THE FATHERS," so it's evident we're talking about WHO the Fathers were... and so a brief bio is perfect for the purpose...

[Jimmy Akin]

Y'all did see the "MORE INFO" link at the bottom, right?

[Tina]

Hey Jimmy! Will your book be sold in stores during Christmas time?

[Steven]

I'm fascinated by the possibility of Clement being dated so early. But it raised a concern in the back of my mind.
Wouldn't that mean that his two predecessors (Cletus and Linus?) only held the post for a total of 6 years between the two of them, if St Peter indeed died around 64 ad? I suppose with Nero's persecutions the head of the Christian Church couldn't enjoy too long of a life expectancy. Is this perhaps why Jurgens didn't want to date it so close to the year 70? Because it limits the window of time for the successors of Peter before Clement?

Looking forward to reading the book.