Cletus or Anacletus

Biography

He was born in Rome on the Esquiline Hill. Some maintain that in Athens, and already at a very young age, he was converted in Rome to the Christian faith by Saint Peter himself, who soon ordained him as a deacon and a little later as a priest.

The two names indicate the same person. Under his pontificate Domitian unleashed the 2nd. persecution against Christians, because they did not want to contribute to the reconstruction of the temple of Jupiter, destroyed by a fire. Provisions emanated for the consecration of bishops; He dictated rules for the attire of ecclesiastics, prohibiting them from growing beards and hair. He had a small aedicule built over the tomb of St. Peter, which was the first nucleus on which Constantine erected, in the year 324, the first great Basilica dedicated to the prince of the Apostles. Cletus died a martyr in the year 88 and was buried next to St. Peter.