Anaclet

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Earliest pictorial representation of anaclet from the 6th century.
Imago clipeata in S. Paolo fuori le mura , Rome

Anaklet (also Anenkletos , Anencletus , Anacletus , Cletus or Kletus for short ) is considered to be the second successor of Simon Peter in the leadership of the Christian community in Rome , which he is said to have held between 76 and 95 for a period of several years. He is likely to have been a prominent presbyter or episcope and to be identical to the canon saint "Kletus" mentioned in the Roman mass canon .

Historical key points

The name Anaklet (from Greek  ὁ Ἀνάκλητος , ho Anáklētos ) means "the called, the chosen". Anenkletos (Ανέγκλητος) was a name common in Rome among slaves and freedmen , which allows speculative conclusions to be drawn about his social position . His successor, Clement of Rome , may have been a Jewish freedman and former house slave, which could similarly apply to Anaclet. In any case, historically it can be assumed that Anaclet and Clemens officiated as presbyters or episcopes in Rome at about the same time.

At that time, Greek was still predominantly spoken in the Christian congregations in Rome and all leading figures were Greek-speaking congregation members. It was not until the 3rd century that the ruling class of the Roman community was increasingly recruited from Latin- speaking Christians.

A monarchical episcopate did not exist in the Roman community in Anaclet's time, rather the elders (presbyters) of the various Christian groups or house communities spread across the city - possibly together with charismatic teachers or prophets - formed a kind of leadership college for the entire community. A prominent position of Kletus / Anaklet among the Roman presbyters, perhaps also the title Episkopos , which prevailed in the course of the 2nd century for the heads of the presbyter college, are generally regarded as secure. Research approaches that Anaclet and others listed in the bishops' lists believed to be completely invented personalities, do not have a convincing basis according to the prevailing research opinion.

The possible violent death of Anaclet during the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian (81-96) is often associated with the assumed persecution of Christians Domitian . The extent and historicity of the possible persecution of Christians under Domitian have, however, become increasingly questionable in historical studies since the 1970s and are in doubt. Even independent of this discussion, the note about a martyrdom of Cletus, which appears for the first time in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum , is hardly reliable as historical evidence.

Lore

In the oldest Roman list of bishops handed down by Irenaeus , Anenkletus is named as the successor of Linus and the predecessor of Clement. This order, which is mostly assumed to be original, is also confirmed by the church historian Eusebius of Caesarea , who refers to Hegesipp in parts of his presentation : He describes Anaclet as the third bishop of Rome , who took over this office from Linus in 80 and after twelve Years ago by Clemens.

The alternative order handed down by Optatus von Mileve or Augustine (Linus, Clemens, Anaklet) is not documented before the 4th century. From the middle of the 4th century, Roman lists such as the Catalogus Liberianus as well as in documents dependent on it such as the Carmen adversus Marcionitas , the Martyrologium Hieronymianum and the Liber Pontificalis made a probably unhistorical distinction between two bishops with similar names, of which the older clitus and the younger is said to have been called Anaclitus . The order and the period of their work are told differently and in some cases contradictingly in these representations: According to the Liberian catalog, both are said to have followed Linus and Clemens in immediate succession, while later sources refer to Kletus as the successor of Linus and Anaclet as the successor of Clemens. The Liber Pontificalis from the 5th century, which established this order, provides more detailed biographical details for both personalities such as origin (Kletus was born in Rome, Anaclet was a Greek from Athens ), names of their fathers (Aemilianus or Antiochus), information on Career and episcopal work (for example, Kletus is said to have already served Peter as an assistant and ordained 25 presbyters; Anaclet had ordained five presbyters, three deacons and six bishops during his term of office). As in the Catalogus Liberianus, the term of office for Kletus is 77–83, for Anaclet 84–95; In contradiction to this, however, the same source ascribes a "twelve-year" pontificate to Kletus. The Liber Pontificalis also specifies the day of their burial (Kletus April 26th, Anaklet July 13th). All of this information is assessed as largely ahistorical in research.

The doubling of the person Kletus / Anaklet may have arisen because the short form Κλητος was added to the full name Ἀνάκλητος in earlier lists, from which later chroniclers mistakenly constructed two different personalities. According to the Liber Pontificalis , both are buried in the immediate vicinity of the tomb of Peter , which Anaclet himself adorned with a representative monument ( memoria ). According to Mario Ziegler, this note, which is anachronistic, could be based on a confusion with the Roman bishop Anicetus , who ruled at the time of the Hegesipp. A Peter sanctuary built around 160 is also archaeologically documented.

The Roman mass canon and, following it, the first prayer of Holy Mass in the current missal of the Roman Catholic Church only mentions Kletus and does not know Anaclet at all. This may be due to the fact that Kletus is mentioned as a martyr in the Liber Pontificalis , while Anaclet is said to have died a natural death, so that only Kletus was included in the martyrdom of the canon in the 6th or 7th century together with Linus and Clemens.

The letters ascribed to Anaclet belong to the pseudo-idorical forgeries .

Adoration

The feast day of St. Kletus in the Martyrologium Romanum is April 26th, for Anaklet in the Calendarium Romanum Generale until 1960 July 13th was named as the day of death. Both commemorative days were removed from the general calendar in the 1960s due to historical uncertainty. In the Annuario Pontificio , Anaklet / Kletus is listed today as the third Pope after Peter and Linus and his reign is dated from 76 to 88. According to an unhistorical legend published for the first time by Ferdinando Ughelli , Kletus is said to have been sent by Peter as bishop to Ruvo in Apulia before his papacy , where his memory is venerated in a lower church associated with his name at an ancient well, which probably dates from the Antonine period. Relics associated with Anaklet have been in the Church of St. Linus in Rome since 1999 .

iconography

Cletus and Anacletus are both depicted on imagines clipeatae (circular portraits) from the monastery of Saint Paul Outside the Walls , the earliest dating from the 5th and 6th centuries.

In the early papal cycles, Kletus and Anaklet are depicted in conventional clergy costumes from late antiquity, mostly tonsured . A copy from the St. Nicholas Oratory showed the Pope in pontificals with a book and gesture of blessing; other frescoes from the 11th century already show Kletus in the cope with tiara . Sometimes he is with Peter and Linus as an assistant to St. Klemens shown. Schematic woodcuts from Schedel's World Chronicle show the Popes in the 15th century with a tiara and a cross staff . A copper engraving by Johann Matthias Steidlin from the 18th century after a painting by Johann Wolfgang Baumgartner shows Anaklet raising the bones of St. Peter and at the incensing of the sarcophagus .

literature

Web links

Commons : Anacletus  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Herrmann Schreiber : History of the Popes. Econ, Düsseldorf / Vienna 1985, p. 10.
  2. ^ Bernhard Schimmelpfennig : The papacy. From antiquity to the renaissance. Special edition of the 6th, bibliographically updated edition, WBG , Darmstadt 2009, p. 9.
  3. ^ Bernhard Schimmelpfennig: The papacy. From antiquity to the renaissance. Special edition of the 6th edition, Darmstadt 2009, pp. 5, 8.
  4. ↑ Jörg Ulrich : Euseb, HistEccl 111, 14-20 and the question of the persecution of Christians under Domitian , in: ZNW 87 (1996), pp. 269–289 (here especially pp. 269 f .; 287–289); Otto Zwierlein : Criticals on the Roman tradition of Peter and the dating of the First Letter of Clement , in: GFA 13 (2010), pp. 87–157 (here: p. 144); also (although waiting, see p. 22; 37) Christoph Markschies : Das antike Christianentum. Piety, ways of life, institutions. 2nd edition (first edition 2006), Beck, Munich 2012, p. 40 f.
  5. ^ Bernhard Schimmelpfennig: The papacy. From antiquity to the renaissance. Special edition of the 6th edition, Darmstadt 2009, p. 12.
  6. ^ Juan del Carmelo: Santidad en el pontificado. Los más grandes papas santificados a lo largo de la historia. Dagosola, Alcobendas 2009, p. 227.
predecessor Office successor
Linus Bishop of Rome
(the name Pope was first used after 384)
between 77/95 		Clement I.
personal data
SURNAME Anaclet
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Anenkletos; Anencletus; Anacletus; Anacletus; Anaclitus; Kletus; Cletus; Clitus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Presbyter or Episkopus in Rome (between 76 and 95)
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century
DATE OF DEATH 1st century
Place of death Rome