Christ's Faithful People
Christ's Faithful People
ca. 76 - 91 AD
St. Cletus has given earlier historians some trouble because of his name. Two of the early lists of the popes, the so-called "Liberian Catalogue" and the "Poem Against Marcion" list an Anacletus as well as a Cletus. Most ancient lists, however, give the papal succession as Peter, Linus, Cletus, Clement; and modern scholars agree that this is the correct listing. Anacletus is a variant of Cletus, and this seems to have caused the difficulty.
St. Cletus was a Roman. His father's name was Emilianus. Cletus ruled the Church from some time in the reign of the Emperor Vespasian to some time in the reign of Domitian. He was martyred and buried near St. Peter on the Vatican. St. Cletus' feast is celebrated along with that of St. Marcellinus on the twenty-sixth of April.
