Pape - Saint Anaclet - 3ieme Pape - Nobilis Graecia 100 - 112 - Medal

Specifications
30 mm

Saint Anaclete
Pope and martyr
(† 96)
Saint Anaclet, a Greek by nation, was a native of the famous city of Athens. The good qualities of this adolescent strongly struck Saint Peter who converted him when he preached in Athens. Charmed by his exemplary piety, his zeal for religion, the integrity of his morals and the rare talents with which the Lord had gifted him, the vicar of Christ admitted Anaclet into the clergy, received him deacon, and conferred on him the priestly dignity.

Clothed with this sacred character, Saint Anaclet generously served Saint Peter in the functions of his apostolate and became the inseparable companion of his works and his travels. An angel by the purity of his life and by his unwavering zeal in the service of God, Anaclet quickly became one of the holiest ministers of the emerging Church.

After Saint Peter had crowned his apostolate with a glorious martyrdom, his faithful disciple Anacletus devoted himself under the pontificate of Saint Lin and Saint Cletus, with the same eagerness and the same success. He contributed to a large part of the wonderful progress experienced by the Church of Rome in these very difficult times. The excellence and holiness of Anacletus were to become more evident day by day in the eyes of all, when in the year 83, under the empire of Domitian, the voices of the faithful united unanimously to elect him . to the sovereign pontificate. His elevation to the throne of Saint Peter caused universal joy in Christianity.

In these first days of the Church, everything was to be feared: the power, the cruelty and the multitude of the enemies of the Savior, the fury of the pagans, the rage of the Jews, the timidity and laxity of the faithful. During the third persecution that Trajan incited against the Church in the year 107, Saint Anacletus noted with pain the ravages caused in the flock of Jesus Christ. Although Trajan had not passed any official law against Christians, a sneaky war of extermination was raging against the faithful and especially the bishops. The blood of martyrs flowed abundantly in the East and in the West.

In the midst of the turmoil, Anaclete encouraged some and confused others. As the violence of the persecution increased day by day, this vigilant pastor forgot nothing to encourage the faithful to bear witness to their faith in Jesus Christ. He published beautiful ordinances to keep his flock in their duty. He regarded as half-defeated Christians those who rarely received the divine Eucharist.

To give some mark of his devotion and gratitude to the prince of the apostles to whom he was indebted for his conversion, Saint Anaclet had a church built and decorated at his sepulcher. By a very special providence, it was preserved intact in the midst of persecution.

This worthy representative of Jesus Christ knew how to preserve intact the sacred deposit of faith. He worked successfully to establish Church discipline, preserved good order in the temporal affairs of the Church, and opposed the disorders that had crept into it. This holy pope could not escape for long the searches of the tyrant who sent every day a multitude of condemned people to martyrdom. The year preceding his death, in anticipation of the fate that awaited him, Saint Anaclet conferred episcopal ordination on the priest Evariste who was to succeed him in the office of the sovereign pontificate. After having governed the Church for nine years, three months and ten days, Saint Anaclet won the palm of martyrdom and was buried in the Vatican.