When at the end of 860 AD the Byzantine emperor Michael III sent Constantine-Cyril the Philosopher and his brother Methodius on a diplomatic mission to the Hazarians hardly anyone expected what a millennium mark this journey would leave. In those times the Hazarian land was where today the Russian Sochi is on the Black sea and for Byzantine of the 9th century AD its influence on that territory was a strategic priority. That is why as head of mission was appointed the star of Byzantine diplomacy, the European philosopher and the favorite theologian of Patriarch Photius- Constantine-Cyril.
In order to reach the Hazarians Constantine-Cyril and his brother had to pass through the Byzantine province of Herson which is today’s peninsula of Crimea. And exactly there in the Crimea on 30.01.861 AD with the help of the local bishop Constantine-Cyril found in the sea the relics of St. Clement. He moved them to the nearby church of St. Dimiter and later that year he took most of them to Constantinople where they stayed till 867. A smaller part of St. Clement’s relics remained in Herson – Crimea from where the Russian King Vladimir the Great (the Russian equivalent of the Bulgarian Boris I) brought them to Kiev after the Russian conversion to Christianity in 988.
Clemens Romanus I is the fourth bishop of Rome (92-99 AD) who was exiled by emperor Trajan to Crimea for his Christian faith. He there met his martyrdom death- drowned while chained to a dropped anchor in the Black sea waters of Crimea. According to the Christian legend once a year the sea moved apart and showed Clement’s relics. That is how Constantine-Cyril discovered them. The numerous pantheon of martyrs for the Christian religion is due not only to the Roman cruelty but also to the Christian belief in resurrection which made them prefer death to the possible survival. Clemens (Clement) in Latin means merciful and gentle. The religious fame of the name Clemens is linked to this Roman bishop- a Crimean martyr and especially to his relics recovered in the Crimea in 861. They were perceived as a heavenly omen for the trustworthiness of his life story and added to the nimbus of the name itself. The sense of miracle was reinforced by the fact that divine providence gave these relics exactly to a man like Constantine-Cyril.
The relics of St. Clement remained in Constantinople between 861-867. The first version of the Slavonic alphabet was already created by Constantine-Cyril and his brother Methodius around 855. In 864 the Bulgarian King Boris I was baptized as Christian and given the monk name of Michael- like his godfather Emperor Michael III. In the summer of 866 Boris I sent a delegation to Rome with 115 questions addressed to Pope Nikolai I related to the adoption of Christianity. The envoys of Boris I were handed over the “Responsa Nicolai I Papae ad consulta Bulgarorum” on 13.11.866. In the next 867 the same pope sent an invitation to Cyril and Methodius to visit Rome but was unable to meet them- he died on 13.11.867, exactly one year after his responses to the Bulgarian questions. So they were welcomed excitedly by the next Pope Adrian II because the brothers brought to Rome the relics of St. Clement which were recovered in the Crimea in 861. At the end of 867 the pope inaugurated in the Santa Maria Maggiore cathedral the old Bulgarian church books and thus he approved the church service in Slavonic language.
In their journey to Rome Cyril and Methodius were joined by some of their disciples incl. their favorite one Clement, named after the saint whose relics they brought to Rome. Pope Adrian II personally ordained the Bulgarian Clement as priest in 868 in Rome and for us he remained in history as Clement Ohridsky (after his later diocese in Ohrid). The relics of St. Clement were put to rest at the place of his ancient Roman house where today is the basilica in his name- San Clemente. Two years later in that basilica was buried Constantine-Cyril who died in Rome in 869- not far from the relics of the saint whose fame and memory he revived. That is how the Bulgarian national university in the center of Sofia through its patron Clement Ohridski is linked to the name of the ancient Crimea saint Clement. This name is equally dear to Orthodox Slavs and to Roman Catholics since it carries a message of peace. In the distant 9th century Cyril discovered the grave of St. Clement whereas today we discover the grave of Cyril through the basilica of St. Clement.
We do not know the Slavonic pre-church name of Clement Ohridsky before the Roman mission of Cyril and Methodius. Yet it is the only known to me precedent in the Christian pantheon when a certain person was inaugurated as a priest by the name of a saint- St. Clement Romanus (of Crimea). And later this newly inaugurated priest Clement- he himself became a saint, St. Clement Ohridsky, in the Orthodox Bulgarian pantheon. Therefore St. Clement Romanus and St. Clement Ohridsky are different historical personalities though with the same church name and factually linked.
20 years ago on 14.11.1994 I had the honor and privilege to meet Pope John-Paul II in Rome who proclaimed in 1980 Cyril and Methodius as Patrons of Europe. The day after the audience I visited the San Clemente cathedral- 15 min. walk on the left of the Coliseum. In the basement of the basilica we stood in reverence before Cyril’s grave. The fundament of the building goes deep into antiquity and is linked to catacombs from where one can hear the underground river- an extension of the Tiber. The priest of San Clemente asked us to listen quietly and to guess what the noise of that distant echo was. We quickly answered that was the underground river. But he politely disagreed:
“No, this is the whisper of eternity!”
April 2014
Easter Valentin Braykov