Painting of Pope Saint Anacletus,
in the I Gesuiti, Venice, with anachronistic Papal Tiara.
Artist: Palma il Giovane.
Date: 1592.
This File: 15 May 2026.
User: JamesMacKerell.
This File is licensed under the
Share Alike 4.0 International Licence.
Author:
Palma il Giovane (painting);
Didier Descouens (photo).
(Wikimedia Commons)
Text from “The Liturgical Year”.
By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Volume 13.
Time After Pentecost.
Book IV.
Linus, Clement, and Cletus (Anacletus), the immediate successors of Saint Peter, received from his hands the Pontifical Consecration; Anacletus had a less but still inestimable glory of being Ordained Priest by the Vicar of the Man-God.
Whereas the Feasts of most of the Martyr Pontiffs who came after him [Editor: Saint Peter] are only of Simple Rite, that of Anacletus is a Semi-Double, because of his privilege of being the last Pope honoured by the imposition of hands of the Prince of the Apostles.
It was also during his Pontificate that the Eternal City had the glory of receiving within its walls the Beloved Disciple, who had come to fulfil his promise and drink of his Master’s Chalice.
“O Happy Church”, exclaims Tertullian, “into whose bosom the Apostles poured not only their teaching, but their very blood; where Peter imitated his Lord’s Passion by dying on the Cross; where Paul, like John the Baptist, received his Crown by means of the Sword; whence the Apostle John, after coming forth safe and sound from the Boiling Oil, was sent to the Isle of his banishment”.
By the almight power of the Spirit of Pentecost, the progress of The Faith in Rome was proportionate to the bountiful Graces of Our Lord.
Little by little, the great Babylon, drunk with the blood of the Martyrs, was being transformed into the Holy City.
This new-born race, so full of promise for the future, could already reckon among its members representatives of every class of society.
Beside the boiling cauldron where the Prophet of Patmos did homage to the New Jerusalem by offering within her walls his glorious confession, two Consuls, one representing the ancient Patrician Rank, the other the more modern nobility of the Cæsars, Acilius Glabrio and Flavius Clemens, together fell by the Sword of Martyrdom.
Anacletus adorned the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles, and provided a burial-place for the other Pontiffs.
Following his example, the distinguished families of Rome opened galleries for subterranean Cemeteries, all along the roads leading to the Imperial City.
There rest innumerable Soldiers of Christ, victorious by their blood; and there, too, sleep in peace, with the anchor of salvation beside them, the most illustrious names of Earth.
Anacletus, an Athenian by birth, governed The Church in the days of Emperor Trajan.
He decreed that a Bishop should be Consecrated by no fewer than three Bishops; that Clerics should be publicly admitted to Holy Orders, by their own Bishop; and that at Mass all should communicate after the Consecration.
He adorned the tomb of Blessed Peter, and set aside a place for the burial of the Pontiffs. He held two Ordinations in the month of December, and made five Priests, three Deacons, and six Bishops.
He sat in Saint Peter’s Chair nine years, three months, and ten days, was Crowned with Martyrdom and buried in the Vatican.
Glorious Pontiff !!! Thy memory is so closely linked with that of Peter that many reckon thee, under a somewhat different name, among the three august persons raised by the Prince of the Apostles to the highest Rank in the hierarchy.
Nevertheless, in distinguishing thee from Cletus, who appeared in the Sacred Cycle in the month of April, we are justified by the authority of the Holy Liturgy, which appoints thee a separate Feast,and by the constant testimony of Rome, itself, which knows better than any the names and the history of its Pontiffs.
Happy are thou in being thus, as it were, lost to sight among the foundations whereon rest for ever the strength and beauty of The Church !!!
Give us all a special love for the particular positions assigned to us in the Sacred building.
Receive the grateful homage of all the living stones who are chosen to form the eternal temple, and who will all lean upon thee for evermore.
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