The Living Tradition An Orthodox Archive of the Church Fathers and Early Church

Canonised Father of the Church

Clement of Rome

Also known as Clement I; Pope Clement

Bishop of Rome at the end of the first century, whose letter to the divided church at Corinth is among the earliest Christian writings outside the New Testament.

  • Received Orthodox teachingTaught consistently and received throughout the Orthodox Church, though not necessarily formulated in a conciliar definition. This is not a claim that no Father ever wrote differently.
  • Historical consensusBroadly agreed among historians working from the surviving evidence. Consensus can shift when the evidence or the method changes.
  • Disputed authorshipThe attribution of a work is contested, or is known to be a scholarly convention. A work's authorship and the Church's reception of it are two separate questions.

Awaiting official-source verification Content last reviewed 2026-08-29

What still needs checking (2)
  • The text of 1 Clement is NOT in this archive. The working copy's file for it lacked the provenance required by the source policy and was refused by the extraction pipeline. Obtain a public-domain edition, archive it, then upgrade this page and add quotations.
  • Confirm the commemoration date and the Orthodox account of his life against an official Orthodox source.

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Dates
died around 99 — The traditional dates of his episcopate and death are late and not securely attested.
Region
Rome
See
Rome
Language of composition
Greek
Commemoration
25 November (Orthodox Church in America and other Orthodox jurisdictions) — Julian-calendar jurisdictions observe the date thirteen days later on the civil calendar.

Life

Clement was bishop of Rome at the end of the first century. Almost nothing about his life can be established with confidence. Eusebius reports that he succeeded Anencletus and identifies him with the Clement named in Philippians 4:3, though Eusebius is writing more than two centuries later and the identification is an inference.

His letter to the church at Corinth was written when a group there had deposed its presbyters. It is a letter of one church to another, urging the restoration of order, and it was read publicly in churches long afterwards — Eusebius says as much.

Works

Generally accepted as authentic

  • First Epistle to the Corinthians — Not archived here; see the outstanding items above.

Disputed, spurious or lost

  • The Second Epistle to the Corinthians — Not by Clement. An early homily, transmitted with his name.
  • The Clementine Homilies and Recognitions — Third- or fourth-century romances written under his name.
  • The two Epistles on Virginity — Later works transmitted under his name.

Theological and spiritual contribution

The letter is the earliest surviving evidence of one church intervening in the affairs of another, and of an argument that the ministry of presbyters is not a matter the congregation may set aside at will. How much weight that bears on later questions of Roman primacy has been argued for centuries; the letter is written in the name of the church of Rome rather than of Clement personally, which is itself worth noticing.

It is also an early witness to Christian use of the Scriptures of Israel and of apostolic writings, and to the vocabulary of order in the Church.

Controversy and reception

  • Ignatius of Antioch

    Bishop of Antioch, martyred at Rome early in the second century, whose seven letters are the earliest sustained witness to the Church ordered around a bishop, presbyters and deacons.

    Father or writer

  • The Church, bishops and councils

    Apostolic succession, the conciliar habit, and why reception is what makes a council ecumenical.

    Theme

Your notes

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Sources for this page

  1. Tier C Eusebius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.); Arthur Cushman McGiffert (trans.) Eusebius, Church History, Book III, Chapter 16 translated edition of primary texts On the letter, its occasion and its public reading in the churches. Source record
  2. Tier C Eusebius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.); Arthur Cushman McGiffert (trans.) Eusebius, Church History, Book III, Chapter 38 translated edition of primary texts On the letter's reception and on works falsely circulated under Clement's name. Source record

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