ON ST. CLEMENT, ABBOT OF SYRACUSE IN SICILY.
CommentaryClement, Abbot of Syracuse in Sicily (St.)
[1] Octavius Caietanus, in his Sicilian Martyrology, writes from manuscript codices and Syracusan tables the following for March 5: "At Syracuse, of St. Clement, Abbot and Confessor, whose body was carried to Constantinople by George Maniaces." Sacred cult, Induced by the authority of Caietanus, Ferrarius inscribed him in his General Catalogue, and Ménard and Bucelinus in their Benedictine Martyrologies.
[2] The same Caietanus, in his Lives of the Sicilian Saints, volume 2, page 41, indicates somewhat more with these words: "Clement, Prefect of the monastery of St. Lucy, not far from Syracuse. Body carried to Constantinople, His sacred body was formerly kept with great veneration in the same church and was honored together with that of St. Eutychius the Bishop; George Maniaces, a general famous in war, carried them away from there to Constantinople together with the body of St. Lucy, the holy Virgin and Martyr." It is added that this information comes from the Tables of the Church of Syracuse. But in what period Blessed Clement lived, and consequently of what Order he was, could not be ascertained. Meanwhile, Ferrarius, because Caietanus reports him around the year 800, writes that he lived around the year of Salvation 800. Ménard and Bucelinus have also dared to assign him to their Order. St. Lucy is venerated on December 13, and St. Eutychius, Bishop of Syracuse, on November 15, whose memorial from his Acts is more celebrated for having communicated the Body of Christ the Lord when it was brought to him.
[3] around the year 1040. The translation of these three bodies from Syracuse to Constantinople was made around the year of Christ 1040, when George Maniaces the Patrician, sent with a prepared fleet to Sicily by Michael the Paphlagonian, Emperor of the East, defeated the Saracens and recovered Syracuse and other cities.