Today the Church celebrates the life, and reflects upon the death, of Clement, who lived around 100 AD.
Clement was active as an elder in the Church in Rome towards the end of the first century and was reputed to have been a disciple of the apostles.
He wrote an epistle to the Corinthians which witnessed to ministry in the Church and concerned the authority and duties of the ministers. That letter clearly showed the authority of one senior presbyter intervening in a conflict in another Church and is full of valuable information about the history of the developing Church and its ministry at this time. His hierarchical view of Church order set a future pattern for episcopal practice and ministry.
Clement seems to have been president of a council of presbyters which governed the Church in Rome and his letters are clearly written on their behalf. A fourth-century document has Clement being exiled to the Crimea where he was then put to death by being thrown into the sea with an anchor around his neck.
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