{"ok":true,"date":"2027-11-23","dateKey":"11-23","liturgicalDay":"St. Clement, Pope and Martyr","rank":"Double","color":"red","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.","author":"Our Lord Jesus Christ","source":"John 15:13, Douay-Rheims"},"season":"Time after Pentecost","novenas":[],"octaveContexts":[],"subject":"City of God in Exile: St. Clement, Pope and Martyr - 2027-11-23","previewText":"St. Clement, Pope and Martyr. Christ Is King Over Public Life. Resist secular liberalism, which treats society as though it could be rightly ordered without Christ.","plainText":"CITY OF GOD IN EXILE\nSt. Clement, Pope and Martyr\n2027-11-23 - Time after Pentecost - Double - red\nPLAIN-LANGUAGE GUIDE FOR TODAY\nCommemoration: a shorter liturgical remembrance of another saint or observance occurring on the same day.\nMartyr: a Christian who was killed rather than deny Christ or abandon the Faith.\nApostolic: belonging to the faith, mission, teaching, or authority handed down from Christ through the apostles.\nThe full Breviary lessons preserve an older English translation. Read the modern explanation first; it identifies the people, event, and doctrine before the historical wording appears.\nTODAY IN THE ROMAN YEAR\nPope St. Clement stands near the Apostles and witnesses that the Roman Church received a real duty to guard order, doctrine, and unity. His martyrdom teaches that authority is anchored not in earthly success but in fidelity to Christ. Pray for the Church to remain steady when confusion makes novelty appear stronger than tradition. Through Mary to Jesus: receive grace humbly, answer it faithfully, and give the glory to God. Acknowledge that God is the source of every grace and has freely willed that His graces should come to us through the hands of Our Blessed Mother. Ask her to obtain the help needed to serve her Son today.\n\n\"It is not that we take her for the last end of our services, for that is Jesus Christ alone; but we take her for our proximate end, our mysterious means and our easy way to go to Him.\"\nSt. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 265\n\nHere St. Louis de Montfort guards true devotion from every distortion: Jesus Christ alone is the end. Mary never asks the soul to stop with her. Like her word at Cana, her maternal office is a continual direction toward obedience: do whatsoever He shall say to you.\n\nLet this give you both confidence and order. You need not approach the duties of grace as an orphan relying upon personal strength. Go to Jesus beside the Mother He gave you, but go prepared to hear Him, to renounce sin, to receive Catholic truth whole, and to obey.\n\nPRACTICE\nRead a short passage from an approved catechism and receive it as a rule of belief and life.\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.\"\nOur Lord Jesus Christ, John 15:13, Douay-Rheims\n\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - November 23\nThe birthday of pope St. Clement, wno held the sovereign Pontificate the third after the blessed apostle Peter. In the persecution of Trajan, he was banished to Chersonesus, where, being precipitated into the sea with an anchor tied to his neck, he was crowned with martyrdom. His body was taken to Rome during the pontificate of Nicholas I., and placed with due honors in the church which had been previously built under his invocation. — At Rome, St. Felicitas, mother of seven sons, martyrs. After them she was beheaded for Christ, by order of the emperor Marcus Antoninus. — At Merida, in Spain, St. Lucretia, virgin and martyr, who consummated her martyrdom in the persecution of Diocletian, under the governor Dacian. — At Cyzicum, in Hellespont, St. Sisinius, martyr, who, after many torments, was put to the sword, in the same persecution. — At Iconium, in Lycaonia, the holy bishop Amphilochius, who was the companion of St. Basil and St. Gregory Nazianzen in the desert, and their colleague in the episcopate. After many combats for the Catholic faith, he rested in peace, with the reputation of a holy and learned prelate. — At Girgenti, the decease of St. Gregory, bishop. — In the village of Hasbein, St. Tron, priest and confessor. — At Mantua, blessed John the Good, of the Order of Augustinians, whose celebrated life was written by St. Antoninus.\n\nHIGHLIGHTED SAINT\nSt. Clement\nPope and martyr, third after blessed Peter.\nThe Martyrology honors Pope St. Clement as holding the sovereign Pontificate third after blessed Peter.\nIn the persecution of Trajan he was banished to Chersonesus and crowned with martyrdom by being cast into the sea with an anchor tied to his neck.\nLet St. Clement steady the exiled heart. The Church's pastors may be driven outward, but Christ's charge remains.\nFROM MATINS\nThe Pope who recorded martyrs and fed exiles with living water.\nMatins - Second Nocturn - St. Clement, Pope and Martyr\nRoman Breviary\n\"His teaching and the holiness of his life brought many to believe in Christ.\"\n- The Breviary identifies St. Clement as the third Pope after St. Peter and as the fellow-laborer praised by St. Paul.\n- It remembers his care for the memory of martyrs, assigning scribes to gather their acts and sufferings, and his orthodox writing in explanation of the Christian religion.\n- In exile among condemned Christians in the Crimea, his prayer and miracle of water brought consolation to the faithful and many unbelievers to Christ before his martyrdom.\nLet St. Clement teach you to remember and hand on what the apostles taught. The Church preserves the testimony of martyrs, feeds Christians in exile, writes in defense of true doctrine, and suffers rather than surrender Christ.\nFULL BREVIARY LESSONS\nFourth Lesson - Disciple of St. Peter and Guardian of Martyr Memory\nClement, the son of Faustinus, was a Roman, from the quarter of the Coelian Mount. He was a disciple of the blessed Peter, and is the same concerning whom Paul saith, writing to the Philippians: \"And I entreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the Gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellow-labourers, whose names are written in the book of life.\" He succeeded Cletus as Bishop of Rome. He it was who divided the seven quarters of the city among seven scribes, one to each, whose duty it was to search out most carefully, and record in writing the sufferings and acts of the Martyrs. He himself also wrote much, and that most orthodox and healthy, whereby he clearly explained the Christian Religion.\nFifth Lesson - Living Water for Christians in Exile\nHis teaching and the holiness of his life brought many to believe in Christ, and he was therefore exiled by the Emperor Trajan to Kherson, in the Crimea, where he found two thousand Christians, who had been condemned by the same Trajan. There they all worked in the marble quarries. During their labour they suffered for want of water, and Clement prayed, and then went up an hill hard by, on the top whereof he saw a Lamb standing, touching with its right foot a flowing spring of sweet waters. Therewith they all quenched their thirst, and by this miracle many unbelievers were brought to believe in Christ, and began to honour the holiness of Clement.\nSixth Lesson - Martyrdom in the Sea\nThese things moved Trajan to send a messenger to the Crimea, who tied an anchor about Clement's neck, and cast him into the deep of the sea. After it had been done, while the Christians were praying on the shore, the sea went back three miles, and when they followed it, they found a grotto of marble, in form like a temple, and therein a stone coffin wherein was laid the body of the Martyr, and, hard by, the anchor wherewith he had been sunk. Then were the country people moved to receive the faith of Christ. The body of Clement was afterwards brought to Rome, in the time of Pope Nicholas I, and buried in his own Church. A Church was also built in the Crimea, in the place where God had made the water to break forth. Clement lived as Pope nine years, six months, and six days. He held two Ordinations in the month of December, wherein he made ten Priests, two Deacons, and fifteen Bishops for divers places.\nTHE PILGRIM'S SPIRITUAL CONFERENCE\nChrist Is King Over Public Life\nThe Church places this truth before you today: Our Lord's kingship is not confined to private devotion. Men, families, laws, and nations are subject to His authority. Do not hurry past it as though doctrine belonged only to books and controversies. A revealed truth is also a light by which the soul must judge its loyalties, its fears, its habits, and the duties immediately before it. The Church's Catholicity includes the public claim of Christ over all peoples, not merely the private consolation of believers.\nThe grace to be practiced is Apostolic constancy in exile, drawn from today's saintly witness. Ask God for more than the natural appearance of this virtue. Temperament may make an action seem easy for a time, but supernatural virtue remains faithful because God is worthy of obedience, even when feeling offers no assistance and no one notices the cost. Imitate Mary's gratitude. Magnify the Lord for His gifts instead of turning them into a reason for self-esteem.\nThere is also an enemy to recognize: Resist secular liberalism, which treats society as though it could be rightly ordered without Christ. Do not study this danger only in other people. Look quietly for the door by which it seeks entrance into your own soul - perhaps through delay, curiosity, resentment, human respect, attachment to comfort, or the desire to control the outcome. Dying to self today means choosing apostolic constancy in exile when pride, comfort, fear, resentment, or human respect asks for control.\nDo the faithful act and entrust its fruit to divine Providence, God's wise and loving governance of all things. Place effort and outcome into Our Lady's hands so that the whole offering may be presented to her Divine Son. Confidence in God is not passivity: obey, pray, work, and accept that visible success, consolation, or immediate relief may not be given. God remains faithful when the duty is hidden and the outcome uncertain. Therefore, perform the duty that belongs to you, use the lawful means God has provided, and then surrender the fruit. When consolation is absent, trust the order of divine Providence. Our Lady remains a Mother in darkness as surely as in joy. Give thanks before beginning, ask Mary's help while working, and return the completed act to Jesus without claiming it as your own.\nThe Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of catholic; the witness placed beside it is Pope Pius XI.\nYour resolution before God: Read a short passage from an approved catechism and receive it as a rule of belief and life.\nCarry this word: The barque is safest when her shepherds remain anchored in the received Faith.\nTHE PILGRIM'S MIRROR\n\"It behoveth thee to break thine own will in many things, if thou wilt have peace and concord with others.\"\nThomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 17, p. 27\nConcord bought by surrendering truth is false, but many quarrels arise from preference rather than principle. Yield what belongs to self-will while holding fast what belongs to God.\n\nLearn to distinguish the two before the moment of conflict. Doctrine, purity, justice, and necessary duty may require firmness. Your preferred method, timing, recognition, or last word usually does not. The soul becomes strong when it stops spending zeal upon the defense of self.\nToday's Practice: Yield harmless preferences cheerfully whenever truth and duty do not require firmness.\nDAILY EXAMEN\nMake your Magnificat in little: name God's mercies, diminish self, and entrust tomorrow to the Mother He has given you.\n- For what grace or mercy should I thank God today?\n- What sin, fault, neglected duty, or resistance to grace must I confess?\n- What definite amendment will I carry into tomorrow?\nPRAYER\nO Lord, through Pope St. Clement, preserve the Roman Church in apostolic doctrine and give her children obedience without blindness and courage without rebellion.\nDAILY RULE FOR THE PILGRIM\nA brief rule to keep every day:\nBegin with morning prayer\nAdore the Blessed Trinity and offer the whole day to Jesus through Mary before other duties claim the mind.\nKeep the Angelus\nPause morning, noon, and evening to remember the Incarnation.\nSeek Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament\nAttend Holy Mass when duty permits; otherwise make a Spiritual Communion and renew desire for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.\nReturn to Jesus and Mary\nUse frequent holy aspirations during work, waiting, suffering, and temptation.\nPray the Rosary\nKeep the mysteries of Christ before the mind with Our Lady and learn to imitate what they contain.\nEnd with night prayer and examen\nGive thanks, confess faults, forgive injuries, make a practical amendment, and entrust the night to Our Lady.\nCONTINUE STUDY\nAuthority and the Kingship of Christ: https://cityofgodinexile.com/authority-and-revolt/authority-the-modernist-revolt-against-the-kingship-of-christ?entered=1\nOpen this day in the Sacred Calendar: https://cityofgodinexile.com/sacred-calendar?date=2027-11-23&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2027-11-23&entered=1\nBrowse the Formation Index: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch/formation?entered=1","html":"\n\n \n \n \n City of God in Exile: St. Clement, Pope and Martyr - 2027-11-23\n \n \n
\n St. Clement, Pope and Martyr. Christ Is King Over Public Life. Resist secular liberalism, which treats society as though it could be rightly ordered without Christ.\n
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City of God in Exile

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St. Clement, Pope and Martyr

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2027-11-23 - Time after Pentecost - Double - red

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“Walk whilst you have the light, that the darkness overtake you not.”
John 12:35
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Plain-Language Guide for Today

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Commemoration
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a shorter liturgical remembrance of another saint or observance occurring on the same day.
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Martyr
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a Christian who was killed rather than deny Christ or abandon the Faith.
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Apostolic
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belonging to the faith, mission, teaching, or authority handed down from Christ through the apostles.

The full Breviary lessons preserve an older English translation. Read the modern explanation first; it identifies the people, event, and doctrine before the historical wording appears.

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Today in the Roman Year

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Pope St. Clement stands near the Apostles and witnesses that the Roman Church received a real duty to guard order, doctrine, and unity. His martyrdom teaches that authority is anchored not in earthly success but in fidelity to Christ. Pray for the Church to remain steady when confusion makes novelty appear stronger than tradition.

Through Mary to Jesus: receive grace humbly, answer it faithfully, and give the glory to God.

Acknowledge that God is the source of every grace and has freely willed that His graces should come to us through the hands of Our Blessed Mother. Ask her to obtain the help needed to serve her Son today.

“It is not that we take her for the last end of our services, for that is Jesus Christ alone; but we take her for our proximate end, our mysterious means and our easy way to go to Him.”

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 265

Here St. Louis de Montfort guards true devotion from every distortion: Jesus Christ alone is the end. Mary never asks the soul to stop with her. Like her word at Cana, her maternal office is a continual direction toward obedience: do whatsoever He shall say to you.

Let this give you both confidence and order. You need not approach the duties of grace as an orphan relying upon personal strength. Go to Jesus beside the Mother He gave you, but go prepared to hear Him, to renounce sin, to receive Catholic truth whole, and to obey.

Read a short passage from an approved catechism and receive it as a rule of belief and life.

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Quote of the Day

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“Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
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Our Lord Jesus Christ, John 15:13, Douay-Rheims

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Roman Martyrology - November 23

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The birthday of pope St. Clement, wno held the sovereign Pontificate the third after the blessed apostle Peter. In the persecution of Trajan, he was banished to Chersonesus, where, being precipitated into the sea with an anchor tied to his neck, he was crowned with martyrdom. His body was taken to Rome during the pontificate of Nicholas I., and placed with due honors in the church which had been previously built under his invocation. — At Rome, St. Felicitas, mother of seven sons, martyrs. After them she was beheaded for Christ, by order of the emperor Marcus Antoninus. — At Merida, in Spain, St. Lucretia, virgin and martyr, who consummated her martyrdom in the persecution of Diocletian, under the governor Dacian. — At Cyzicum, in Hellespont, St. Sisinius, martyr, who, after many torments, was put to the sword, in the same persecution. — At Iconium, in Lycaonia, the holy bishop Amphilochius, who was the companion of St. Basil and St. Gregory Nazianzen in the desert, and their colleague in the episcopate. After many combats for the Catholic faith, he rested in peace, with the reputation of a holy and learned prelate. — At Girgenti, the decease of St. Gregory, bishop. — In the village of Hasbein, St. Tron, priest and confessor. — At Mantua, blessed John the Good, of the Order of Augustinians, whose celebrated life was written by St. Antoninus.

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Highlighted Saint

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St. Clement

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Pope and martyr, third after blessed Peter.

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The Martyrology honors Pope St. Clement as holding the sovereign Pontificate third after blessed Peter.

In the persecution of Trajan he was banished to Chersonesus and crowned with martyrdom by being cast into the sea with an anchor tied to his neck.

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Let St. Clement steady the exiled heart. The Church's pastors may be driven outward, but Christ's charge remains.

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From Matins

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The Pope who recorded martyrs and fed exiles with living water.

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Matins - Second Nocturn - St. Clement, Pope and Martyr

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Roman Breviary, Proper lessons for St. Clement

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“His teaching and the holiness of his life brought many to believe in Christ.”
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  • The Breviary identifies St. Clement as the third Pope after St. Peter and as the fellow-laborer praised by St. Paul.
  • It remembers his care for the memory of martyrs, assigning scribes to gather their acts and sufferings, and his orthodox writing in explanation of the Christian religion.
  • In exile among condemned Christians in the Crimea, his prayer and miracle of water brought consolation to the faithful and many unbelievers to Christ before his martyrdom.
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Let St. Clement teach you to remember and hand on what the apostles taught. The Church preserves the testimony of martyrs, feeds Christians in exile, writes in defense of true doctrine, and suffers rather than surrender Christ.

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Full Breviary Lessons

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Fourth Lesson - Disciple of St. Peter and Guardian of Martyr Memory

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Clement, the son of Faustinus, was a Roman, from the quarter of the Coelian Mount. He was a disciple of the blessed Peter, and is the same concerning whom Paul saith, writing to the Philippians: "And I entreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the Gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellow-labourers, whose names are written in the book of life." He succeeded Cletus as Bishop of Rome. He it was who divided the seven quarters of the city among seven scribes, one to each, whose duty it was to search out most carefully, and record in writing the sufferings and acts of the Martyrs. He himself also wrote much, and that most orthodox and healthy, whereby he clearly explained the Christian Religion.

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Fifth Lesson - Living Water for Christians in Exile

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His teaching and the holiness of his life brought many to believe in Christ, and he was therefore exiled by the Emperor Trajan to Kherson, in the Crimea, where he found two thousand Christians, who had been condemned by the same Trajan. There they all worked in the marble quarries. During their labour they suffered for want of water, and Clement prayed, and then went up an hill hard by, on the top whereof he saw a Lamb standing, touching with its right foot a flowing spring of sweet waters. Therewith they all quenched their thirst, and by this miracle many unbelievers were brought to believe in Christ, and began to honour the holiness of Clement.

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Sixth Lesson - Martyrdom in the Sea

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These things moved Trajan to send a messenger to the Crimea, who tied an anchor about Clement's neck, and cast him into the deep of the sea. After it had been done, while the Christians were praying on the shore, the sea went back three miles, and when they followed it, they found a grotto of marble, in form like a temple, and therein a stone coffin wherein was laid the body of the Martyr, and, hard by, the anchor wherewith he had been sunk. Then were the country people moved to receive the faith of Christ. The body of Clement was afterwards brought to Rome, in the time of Pope Nicholas I, and buried in his own Church. A Church was also built in the Crimea, in the place where God had made the water to break forth. Clement lived as Pope nine years, six months, and six days. He held two Ordinations in the month of December, wherein he made ten Priests, two Deacons, and fifteen Bishops for divers places.

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The Pilgrim's Spiritual Conference

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Christ Is King Over Public Life

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The Church places this truth before you today: Our Lord's kingship is not confined to private devotion. Men, families, laws, and nations are subject to His authority. Do not hurry past it as though doctrine belonged only to books and controversies. A revealed truth is also a light by which the soul must judge its loyalties, its fears, its habits, and the duties immediately before it. The Church's Catholicity includes the public claim of Christ over all peoples, not merely the private consolation of believers.

The grace to be practiced is Apostolic constancy in exile, drawn from today's saintly witness. Ask God for more than the natural appearance of this virtue. Temperament may make an action seem easy for a time, but supernatural virtue remains faithful because God is worthy of obedience, even when feeling offers no assistance and no one notices the cost. Imitate Mary's gratitude. Magnify the Lord for His gifts instead of turning them into a reason for self-esteem.

There is also an enemy to recognize: Resist secular liberalism, which treats society as though it could be rightly ordered without Christ. Do not study this danger only in other people. Look quietly for the door by which it seeks entrance into your own soul - perhaps through delay, curiosity, resentment, human respect, attachment to comfort, or the desire to control the outcome. Dying to self today means choosing apostolic constancy in exile when pride, comfort, fear, resentment, or human respect asks for control.

Do the faithful act and entrust its fruit to divine Providence, God's wise and loving governance of all things. Place effort and outcome into Our Lady's hands so that the whole offering may be presented to her Divine Son. Confidence in God is not passivity: obey, pray, work, and accept that visible success, consolation, or immediate relief may not be given. God remains faithful when the duty is hidden and the outcome uncertain. Therefore, perform the duty that belongs to you, use the lawful means God has provided, and then surrender the fruit. When consolation is absent, trust the order of divine Providence. Our Lady remains a Mother in darkness as surely as in joy. Give thanks before beginning, ask Mary's help while working, and return the completed act to Jesus without claiming it as your own.

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The Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of catholic; the witness placed beside it is Pope Pius XI.

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Your Resolution Before God

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Read a short passage from an approved catechism and receive it as a rule of belief and life.

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The barque is safest when her shepherds remain anchored in the received Faith.
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The Pilgrim's Mirror

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How shall I imitate Christ today?

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“It behoveth thee to break thine own will in many things, if thou wilt have peace and concord with others.”
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Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 17, p. 27

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Concord bought by surrendering truth is false, but many quarrels arise from preference rather than principle. Yield what belongs to self-will while holding fast what belongs to God.

Learn to distinguish the two before the moment of conflict. Doctrine, purity, justice, and necessary duty may require firmness. Your preferred method, timing, recognition, or last word usually does not. The soul becomes strong when it stops spending zeal upon the defense of self.

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Today's Practice

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Yield harmless preferences cheerfully whenever truth and duty do not require firmness.

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Daily Examen

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Three questions before night prayer

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Make your Magnificat in little: name God's mercies, diminish self, and entrust tomorrow to the Mother He has given you.

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  • For what grace or mercy should I thank God today?
  • What sin, fault, neglected duty, or resistance to grace must I confess?
  • What definite amendment will I carry into tomorrow?
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Prayer

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O Lord, through Pope St. Clement, preserve the Roman Church in apostolic doctrine and give her children obedience without blindness and courage without rebellion.

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Daily Rule for the Pilgrim

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A brief rule to keep every day:

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Begin with morning prayer

Adore the Blessed Trinity and offer the whole day to Jesus through Mary before other duties claim the mind.

Keep the Angelus

Pause morning, noon, and evening to remember the Incarnation.

Seek Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament

Attend Holy Mass when duty permits; otherwise make a Spiritual Communion and renew desire for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

Return to Jesus and Mary

Use frequent holy aspirations during work, waiting, suffering, and temptation.

Pray the Rosary

Keep the mysteries of Christ before the mind with Our Lady and learn to imitate what they contain.

End with night prayer and examen

Give thanks, confess faults, forgive injuries, make a practical amendment, and entrust the night to Our Lady.

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Continue Study

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Carry today's lesson into a focused chapter from the library.

\n Authority and the Kingship of Christ\n
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Persevere, pilgrim.

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The gates remain open to the faithful.

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