Famous Christian personages: St. Clement I / ?????????????? I

Pope Clement I is listed as Bishop of Rome, holding office from 88 to his death in 99. He is considered to be the first Apostolic Father of the Church. Clement was said to have been consecrated by Saint Peter, and he is known to have been a leading member of the church in Rome in the late 1st century, incl. times of persecution under Domitian (81–96). According to tradition, in times of Emperor Traian Clement was imprisoned and then banished from Rome to the Chersonesus, an ancient Greek colony in Southern Crimea, and was set to work in a stone quarry. e is recorded to have led a ministry among fellow prisoners. Thereafter he was executed by being tied to an anchor and thrown from a boat into the Black Sea. The Inkerman Cave Monastery (nowadays placed in the area of sea port of Sevastopol) marks the supposed place of Clement's burial in Crimea. Around 868 Saint Cyril and Methodius brought to Rome what they believed to be the relics of Saint Clement, bones he found in the Crimea buried with an anchor on dry land. They are now enshrined in the Basilica di San Clemente. Other relics of St. Clement, including his head, are claimed by the Kiev Pecherska Lavra. He is commemorated as saint martyr in November by the Catholic and Anglican Churches (Nov 23), most Eastern Churches, incl. Byzantine, Greek and Syriac (24) and Russian Orthodox Church (25). He is considered as saint patron of mariners, stone-cutters, and prisoners.