Pope of Convicts

(Mazur/www.catholicnews.org.uk)

"One person's trash is another's treasure" is certainly true in this case. I am teaching my RCIA class about Clement I.  We are going through the popes, one by one.  Through google research I came across an article in Hyperallergic by Zachary Small, First Century Pope Found in London Trash.  The article is talking about Clement I, our fourth pope.

Evidently, a reliquary containing the bones of Clement was found by sanitation workers.  The reliquary was eventually turned over to the church.  But it's interesting that this is a bone fragment from a pope who was martyred by being strapped to an anchor and thrown into the Black Sea, surfaced now.  Clement also spent time in prison by doing hard time in a mine.  Christianity was against the law at that time.  While in prison Clement's kindness and teaching his fellow prisoners earned him the title of Pope of Convicts. 

His body was retrieved and when a church was built, it was placed inside.  Over time the church became submerged by the sea.  But at certain times during low tide, the church is still visible.  Before nature took the little church, St. Cyril brought the bones of Clement to the basilica St. Clement in Rome.  Other relics of St. Clement, including his head, are claimed by the Kiev Monastery of the Caves in Ukraine.