ON ST. CLETUS, CONFESSOR, NOT A BISHOP, AT TIVOLI IN LATIUM,
ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY.
SYLLOGE.
Cletus, confessor, at Tivoli in Latium. (S.)
BY V. D. B.
§ Sole section. His cult was at different times on different days. The few deeds known from the Life of St. Peter of Trevi. Relics and a hospital marked with his name.
I would not pursue the praises of Tibur, commonly Tivoli, a suburbicarian city: [St. Cletus was venerated on the 24th of September, then on the 24th of October, and now on the 25th of October.] they are met with everywhere in the books on the Roman territory or Latium. It venerates very many saints as its dwellers, whose names will be given by the renowned Gaetano Moroni Dizionario di erudizione ecclesiastica, tom. LXXVI, p. 82 et 83., and more fully by our Giuseppe Rocco Volpi Vetus Latium profanum, lib. XVIII, cap. 16, tom. X, p. 537 et seqq.. Among these comes St. Cletus, of whom mention has already twice occurred in our Work among those passed over. For since his feast was formerly kept on the 24th of September, Ferrari mentioned him at this day both in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy and in the General Catalogue of Saints, noting however that already at the beginning of the seventeenth century his feast had been transferred to the 24th of October. Wherefore at the 24th of September our predecessors mentioned his name, earnestly requesting that, before they arrived at the saints of the 24th of October, suitable documents should be communicated to them; but they sang to the deaf. Nor can we boast that a happier lot has fallen to us, since we have received promises indeed, but no literary records. Moreover, Ferrari is a witness that the people of Tivoli knew nothing of the deeds of St. Cletus. And why we have undertaken to speak of St. Cletus on this day, and not on the preceding one, we explained among those passed over at the 24th of October, where we showed that the feast of St. Cletus has now been moved by one day and is celebrated on the 25th of October. As for anyone among the martyrologists or other writers of that kind who may have praised St. Cletus, we know of no other than Ferrari, whom we have just indicated: for the Italian Hagiology, which came out at Bassano in the year 1773 and records the memory of St. Cletus under the 24th of September, must be considered rather a new edition of Ferrari's Catalogue of the Saints of Italy than a new book.
[2] [He was the teacher of St. Peter of Trevi and sent him out to preach with an iron cross,] Something about St. Cletus has become known to us from the Acts or ancient Lessons of St. Peter the confessor, venerated at Trevi in Latium on the 30th of August. For we read these things in them Acta SS., tom. VI Augusti, p. 641.: Blessed Peter therefore, from the region commonly called Carzoli, in the diocese of the Marsi, born and brought up in the fortress of Arcisvegetis, was good and innocent from the time of his boyhood. But when he had reached adolescence, he was compelled by his mother and father to take a wife; refusing this, he secretly left his homeland and went to Tibur, and there attached himself to a certain most honourable man, Cletus by name: with whom he remained for two years: in which he learned all his teaching: so that many good things seemed to be done to the aforesaid Cletus by him rather than by himself. For which reason the aforesaid Cletus reported to Gregory, bishop of the same city, asking him to do something good for him. The bishop, hearing this, rejoicing tonsured him and fitted him out as a cleric, as if he knew letters, which he had never known. The aforesaid master then brought him an iron cross one palm in length, and still preserved at Trevi in a separate reliquary; and he delivered it into his hands, saying: "Go through the whole world, and preach nothing other than what God has taught us: but seek your homeland first; and urge its inhabitants to good work and instruct them to withdraw from evil." St. Peter then endeavoured to fulfil his master's command, and visited the neighbouring peoples in apostolic fashion.
[3] [Whether St. Cletus was a deacon or a presbyter. He seems to have lived about the year 1049.] Now that that most honourable man, named Cletus, is the same as the St. Cletus with whom we are dealing is the tradition of the people of Trevi Acta SS., tom. VI Augusti, p. 634.. Our Pierantonio, who wrote annotations on the Life of St. Peter Ibid., p. 633., Ferrari in both of his Catalogues, and similarly Volpi Vetus Latium profanum, p. 539. call him a deacon of the church of Tivoli; but Moroni Dizionario di erudizione ecclesiastica, tom. LXXVI, p. 82. a presbyter. It would perhaps not be imprudent to trust these titles little, and to call him simply a most honourable man; especially since within two years he did not even teach St. Peter his letters: a negligence that would scarcely be understood in a deacon or presbyter. But from the age of Bishop Gregory one may learn to some extent at what time St. Cletus lived. For in Ughelli's Catalogue of the bishops of Tivoli, as corrected by Coleti Italia sacra, tom. I, col. 1308., and in the other one published by Moroni Dizionario etc., tom. LXXVI, p. 190 et 191., only one Gregory occurs in early times, who sat between the years 1049 and 1054: whence it appears that St. Cletus flourished about the middle of the eleventh century.
[4] Relics and a hospital at Tivoli. In the year 1700 Pierantonio wrote to our predecessors Acta SS., tom. VI Augusti, p. 634 et 635.: In the square near the cathedral there formerly existed the hospital of St. Cletus, a citizen of Tivoli, whose sacred head is preserved in the sanctuary of the aforesaid cathedral church, dedicated to St. Lawrence the martyr; Ferrari in both Catalogues, and following him the anonymous editor or author in the Italian Hagiology, relates that not the head, but the body is preserved. Moroni declares Dizionario etc., tom. LXXVI, p. 82. that neither head nor body is kept there, but a portion of the body; which seems to have been said with accuracy. Moroni also speaks of the hospital of St. Cletus; which he reports to have perished no otherwise than that of St. Angelus: so that now only that of St. John exists, open to the sick. Other institutions of charity I pass by. The cult of St. Cletus is therefore very sparing, spread only by an annual feast within one very narrow diocese and by the preservation of some relics.