ON ST. CLEMENT, PRIEST, AT LYONS IN GAUL.
Third Century.
Commentary[1] The illustrious Doctor of the Gauls, St. Irenaeus, Bishop of the Church of Lyons, whose feast day is observed on June 28, is reported to have had several distinguished disciples, and among them Clement the Priest, The feast of St. Clement, concerning whom the most ancient Martyrology of St. Jerome records on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of February: "At Lyons, of Clement the Priest." Galesinius: "At Lyons, St. Clement, Priest and Confessor." Molanus, Canisius, and Ferrarius also mention him.
[2] Saussay writes more fully: "On the same day at Lyons, St. Clement the Priest, who, being a disciple of the Blessed Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr, was adorned by him with the honor of the presbyterate on account of his outstanding merits in knowledge and piety, and under him discharged the duties of the priestly office with the full vigor of the Apostolic spirit. When Irenaeus was beheaded under the cruel Caesar Severus for the defense of piety and the protection of his flock, the events of his life, Clement gave diligent assistance to his fellow priest Zacharias, both in collecting and burying the bodies of Bishop Irenaeus himself and his companion martyrs, and in strengthening the faithful who had been terrified by that storm. At last, after having championed the glory of Christ with remarkable zeal and fortitude, a martyr more by merit than by title, he flew away to his eternal triumphs."
[3] His era. Since, moreover, St. Irenaeus was killed in the persecution of Severus, in the tenth year of his reign, as Eusebius writes in his Chronicle — that is, in the year of Christ 202 — St. Clement must have flourished under the succeeding Emperors Caracalla, Macrinus, and Elagabalus. We shall treat of St. Zacharias the Priest on June 28.