Hieromartyr Clement of Rome

Clement was a disciple of the apostles, traditionally identified with the fellow worker Paul names in Philippians 4:3, and became bishop of Rome in the first century, counted third after Linus and Anacletus. His Epistle to the Corinthians, written about the year 96 to heal a schism in that church, is among the earliest Christian writings outside the New Testament and was so revered that some churches read it in the liturgy; it bears precious witness to apostolic succession and to the ordered life of the early Church. According to his later acts, Clement was banished under Trajan to the marble quarries of Chersonesus in the Crimea, where he encouraged the Christian prisoners and his preaching converted many. He was martyred by being cast into the sea with an anchor about his neck. Sts Cyril and Methodius recovered relics venerated as his, bringing them eventually to Rome.