About the Basilica of San Clemente:
The Church, dedicated to Saint Clement, is built on what is thought to to have been the site of his home. Saint Clement was the third successor of Saint Peter and reigned during the last decade of the first century. He was one of the Church’s five “Apostolic Fathers” (those with direct link between the Apostles and later generations of Church Fathers). Tradition tells us that Pope Clement was martyred sometime between the year 99 and 101 by having an anchor placed around his neck and thrown in the river.
The Liturgical Feast of Saint Clement is November 23.
The tomb of Saint Ignatius of Antioch is under the main altar in the Basilica of San Clemente:
Born in Syria, Ignatius converted to Christianity and eventually became bishop of Antioch. In the year 107 AD, Emperor Trajan visited Antioch and forced the Christians there to choose between death and apostasy. Ignatius would not deny Christ and thus was condemned to be put to death in Rome.
Ignatius is known for the seven letters he wrote on the journey from Antioch to Rome. Five of these letters are to churches in Asia Minor; they urge the Christians there to remain faithful to God and to obey their superiors. He warns them against heretical doctrines, providing them with the solid truths of the Christian faith especially the belief in the “true presence” of Christ in the Eucharist, seeing it as the real body and blood of Jesus, not just a symbol. He wrote that those who reject the Eucharist are rejecting Christ’s physical, incarnational sacrifice and that the Eucharist is the “medicine of immortality”.
The sixth letter was to Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, who was himself later martyred for the faith. The final letter begs the Christians in Rome not to try to stop his martyrdom. “The only thing I ask of you is to allow me to offer the libation of my blood to God. I am the wheat of the Lord; may I be ground by the teeth of the beasts to become the immaculate bread of Christ.”
Ignatius met his death in the Circus Maximus in 107 AD.
We celebrate the Feast Day of Saint Ignatius of Antioch on September 17. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, his feast is observed on December 20th.
Also among those entombed here are Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius, Apostles to the Slavs:
Saint Cyril, a brilliant linguist, devised an alphabet, thus becoming the founder of the Slavonic literature. He also adopted Slavonic for the celebration of the liturgy, and circulated a Slavonic translation of the Scriptures.
According to St Cyril’s own report, in 861 AD he recovered the body of St Clement in the Crimea, together with the anchor. Invited to Rome in 867 AD by the Pope, Saints Cyril and Methodius took these remains with them, arriving in 868 AD. The body of Saint Clement was solemnly escorted to and interred in San Clemente. A year later, Saint Cyril died in Rome. Saint Methodius asked for permission to take the body back to Greece. When the Pope and people of Rome would not allow this, Saint Methodius requested that the burial be in San Clemente itself.
During the French revolution the relics of St Cyril were placed in safekeeping and eventually were lost. In the 1960s the Irish Dominican Fathers discovered a small fragment of the relics. Pope Paul VI personally placed this fragment in the Basilica of San Clemente in the hope “that the sacred relics of St Cyril might be a cause of union with the See of Rome”.
One of the most interesting aspects of this Basilica is the layers of civilization that you will find…it is like going back in time. If you start at the bottom, you will see the remains of an earlier pagan temple, then above that is an early 4th century Christian church, and then at street level is the church you see today, which dates from the 12th century. The photos below show some of the paintings still visible in the early church below.
We celebrate the Feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius on February 14.
Traveling to the Basilica of San Clemente in Rome:
The Basilica is a short walk from the Colosseum, as you can see by the map below.
Address: Via Labicana, 95, 00184 Roma RM, Italy
Click here for the official website of the Basilica of San Clemente in Rome.
⇐ Back to Catholic shrines and places of interest in Rome