St. Pope Clement, Apostolic Succession & The Miracle of St. Blaise

0:16 He hello, I am Jeff. Today I'm fundamentally Catholic. We're going to step back into the first century the church. It was still warm with the memories of the Apostles, but it was being threatened and persecuted by the Romans, and it was still learning how to stand as the body of Christ in the middle of it. Also the fourth Bishop of Rome, Pope Saint Clement. He was formed by the Apostles. He carried Peert's voice into the next generation. His words still echo across the centuries. Before he was the fourth Pope, before he was a martyr, before he was a bridge between the Apostles and the church, Clement he was simply a Roman. He was born in Rome around the year thirty five. Now his name Clement, it's common among Roman and led and everything about him and his later writing suggests that he was educated, articulate, and steeped in the rhythms of Roman civic life. We do not know his profession, We do not know his family story.

1:03 We don't know the moment that he first heard the Gospel. Maybe that's the point. God often shapes the greatest instruments in silence. What we do know is clements knew the Apostles themselves. Ancient writers say that he heard Peter preach. Some say that he knew Paul. Others actually think that Clement was who Paul praised in the Philippians. Whether or not these are true or not, one thing is certain. Clement was formed by the Apostic generation. He absorbed their teachings, their memory, and their authority and their fire. When his time came, he stepped into leadership not as a politician, but as a disciple. Imagine Rome around the year ninety. The Apostles they've all been martyred. The eyewitnesses to the Resurrection, they're all dying out. The church is spreading, but sore divisions, rivalries, and pressures of persecution. This is the world that Clement stepped into as the fourth successor of Peter, not as an administrator, but as a father, a bridge between the age of Miracles and the age of the Church. Clement, he might be best known for the crisis in Corneth.

1:58 Word reached him in Rome. The church in Corneth was tearing itself apart. Younger members had overthrown their elders, pride, ambition, fractionalism, and where they were poisoning the whole community. So what does Clements do Well? He writes a letter. It's the earliest papal document outside of scripture. It's a letter that is so powerful and so pastoral, so authoritative that some early Christians they read it as liturgy just outside of the scriptures too. And in it Clemens does something astonishing. He speaks not as a distant observer, but as a shepherd with real authority. He reminded them that the apostles appointed bishops and deacons, and that the church must remain in the order that Christ established. He calls them back to humility, clarity, obedience. He writes, why are there strivings and anger and division among you? Have we not one God and one Christ and one spirit of grace? Clement?

2:47 He was general, firm, and deeply rooted in the Apostic memory. Now I'm going to take a quick sidebar here, So why does the church have bishops and priests today? Well, this is where Clemens's voice reached it straight into our century. The crisis and Cornate wasn't just ancient church squabble. That was the first test of something that we still live with today, Apostolic succession. Now the structure Christ gave his church the reason we have bishop's, priests and deacons. Clement reminds the Corinthians that the Apostles did not leave the church in a loose collection of volunteers. They appointed leaders, They laid their hands on him. They passed on authority the same way that Christ passed it on to them. And Clement said, this wasn't a one time event. The Apostles established a pattern of lineage, a living chain that will continue until the end. The chain is still here.

3:29 Every bishop alive today was ordained by another bishop, who was dained by a previous bishop, who was adained by a previous bishop, all the way back to the apostles. Every priest, you know, the one who baptized your children, heard your confessions, annointing your parents, celebrated your wedding, he shares the same Apostic ministry as the bishop. This is not a bureaucracy. This is not hierarchy for hierarchy's sake. This is the Church guarding the gift Christ's creator. Clement saw what was happening when the order is ignored, division, confusion, pride, chaos, so he stepped in, not to nominate, but to protect, not to control. But to shepherd, not to impose power, but to preserve unity. That is why even today the Catholic Church looks the way it does. It's not because Rome invented a system, but because the Apostles handed it on a mission. Okay, now let's go back to Clement his theology of order. Clement's letter is not just a rebuke, it is a vision. He sees the Church as a living organism held together by God's own design. He points to the harmony of the obedience of the angels, the unity of the body of Christ, and the Apostolic succession that safeguards the faith. For Clement, unity was not optional, it is a mark of the Church. Now, Clement's story it does not end with a letter. Under Roman Emperor Trajan, Clement was exiled to the minds of Crimea. He has a brutal punishment meant to break the spirit. Instead, Clement evangelized to the prisoners. He brings water to those that are thirsty, he brings hope to the condemned, and he brings Christ into the darkness. For this he ascends to death the soldiers. They tied an anchor around his neck and cast him into the sea over the side of a boat. So the fourth Pope. He died as the first pope died witness to Christ, a shepherd who laid

5:02 down his life for his sheep. Clemen's anchor became a symbol. His letter becomes a cornerstone of early Christian literature. His memory becomes a reminder that the papacy is not a throne, it's a cross. Clements stands as the last pope who personally knew the apostles and whose voice still speaks to us in writings not in the Bible, but if you want, you can still read Clements's letter to the Corinthians. Clement's legacy it doesn't end with his death. It shaped generation of bishops who followed him. Now among them stands one of the most loved bishops in the Church's history, Saint Blaze. Saint Blaze, he was a bishop and sebaste that's in Turkey today. It was during the early three hundreds perse guestion against the Christians became so bad that he had to go to a cave to hide out. Now, not to save himself, but so he could continue to minister to his people. Tradition says that during his time in solitude.

5:48 Wild animals of the region would come to him for healing, creatures that would normally fear humans or be feared by humans. They approached him and he gently intendedly treated their wounds, then sent them back out in the forest. The most well known story of Saint Blaize was of the mother and of her choking child. The mother brought her young son to Blaze, desperate because the boy had a fishbone stuck in his throat. Blaze prayed over him, blessed him, and the child recovered ingratitude. The mother later returned with food and candles. The candles became the symbol of the Blessing of the Throat, celebration celebrated every year on February third. Just celebrated it. Catholics around the world received the Blessing of the throats. Two candles are crossed and placed gently at the throat, and the priest gives a blessing. Eventually, soldiers discovered Blaze in the cave. They arrested him. Now Counts say that the animals in the forest gathered around him and they were trying to protect him, but he calmed the animals down and he surrendered peacefully. He was taken to sabast He refused to renounce Christ and was martyred. Yeah, he was beaten with the stick, his flesh was ripped open with iron combs, and he was beheaded. It was the year three sixteen. Now Blaze, he was between his thirties and forties, somewhere in that area in his journey.

6:52 Even Marco Polo told the visiting the shrine of the Great Saint Blaze as he was going along. Now that shrine is no longer there, Cleming and Blaze. The bishops, two martyrs, two men separated by two centuries, yet united in the mission Christ and trusted the apostles. This is the church that Christ founded. This is what it means to be fundamentally cathlic So thank you for listening to I sure appreciate you being here. Make sure you follow us. You can always find us every time. We're easy to file and we'll talk to you next time. Until then, God bless