The Fathers of the Church spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, defended the Church in apologetic writing and fought the many heresies of the first six centuries of Christianity. These men, also called Apostolic Fathers, gave special witness to the faith, some dying the death of a martyr. Like Jesus who referred to Abraham as a spiritual father (Luke 16: 24) and St. Paul, who referred to himself in the same terms (1 Cor 4: 15), the Fathers were zealous for the word of God. Their writings are a testimony to the faith of the early Church, yet many Christians are unfamiliar with the work of Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, Justin the Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian of Cathage, Athanasius, Ephraim, Cyril of Jerusalem, Hilary of Poitiers or Gregory the Great to name of few of the early Fathers. This site will provide biographical information and examples of the writing of these great men of faith. We will focus on Clement of Rome.
St. Clement of Rome was the third successor of Peter the Apostle as bishop of Rome. Dio Cassius in his history of Rome identified a man named Clement with the martyred consul Titus Flavius Clemens, a member of the imperial family, but this is not likely, nor can he be identified as Church historian Eusebius and Origen speculate, with the Clemens who assisted St. Paul and who was mentioned in the Letter to the Philippians. His service as Bishop of Rome was probably from about 80-98 A.D. Below are some excerpts from his extant writings. About 110 A.D. he was sentenced to a martyr's death in the arena by the Emperor Trajan. On the journey to Rome he wrote seven letters, which are his only surviving letters: