An Elusive Saint of Great Renown

Clement of Rome, traditionally the fourth pope and third successor to Peter, is a mysterious figure whose historical traces are as slight as his reputation and fame are great. His authentic letter to the Corinthian Church from 96 is of great importance; his legend and cult have grown great over the centuries, notably in connection with the Basilica di San Clemente in Rome. Excavations underneath the current twelfth-century basilica led to the discovery of an original fourth–fifth-century church, and beneath it are Roman buildings of the first and second centuries. At this site, visitors can journey back in time from the present day street level, through twelfth-and fourth-century strata, all the way down to the first-century Roman level. Such a journey takes the visitor through a series of complex historical realities, matched in their complexity by the history and narratives surrounding Clement himself. A study of Clement's legends, his writing, and the historical context in which he carried out his priestly life reveal much about the early Church in Rome, allowing us to make contact with a colleague of St. Peter himself.

Contextualizing Clement in Rome

Although his biographical information is elusive, Clement is sometimes linked to the Roman patrician Titus Flavius Clemens (50–95) and his wife Domitilla. Titus was a nephew of the former emperor Vespasianus (69–79) and as such a great nephew of the emperor Domitian (81–96), who nonetheless put Titus to death and exiled his wife in 96 on the grounds of godlessness and deviation into Jewish practices. Legend has sometimes associated Clement with Titus Flavius Clemens himself, though more frequently with a freedman of his household. Scholars now argue that the source of their treason would have been a refusal to sacrifice to the cult of Domitian's divine genius.

Though Titus Flavius Clemens is not now considered to have been Christian, many hypothesize that his wife indeed was of the Christian faith. Returning from exile after the death of Domitian, she may have been responsible for the donation of lands to the Christian community that eventually formed the Catacombe di Domitilla on the Appian Way.