Short Hagiography of Saint Clement of Ohrid – Father Gavril Galev
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Saint Clement is one of the Holy Seven Apostles who preached among the Slavic peoples and enlightened them through the baptismal font and the word of truth.
Saint Clement was born in Eastern Macedonia. It is mentioned about him that from a young age he observed the virtues of St. Methodius, who at that time was the head, archon, of the Slavic Principality, which covered the territories north of Thessaloniki to the Bregalnica region. Some believe that his birthplace is today’s village Gorno Lipovik near Radovish. Later St. Methodius left the worldly service and became a monk in the monastery of Olympus in Greece and when he was called to preach the Gospel in Moravia and Pannonia together with His younger brother Constantine – Cyril, St. Clement was invited to join them along with Nahum, Sava, Gorazd, and Angelarius. St. Clement was called because of his high secular education, general knowledge of the secular sciences, and because he was well spoken.
Before they left, St. Cyril and St. Methodius created the Slavic Glagolitic alphabet, they translated the Gospel and the most necessary books needed for Church services. In the meantime, a so-called trilingual heresy emerged which erroneously taught that the Gospel should be preached only in Greek, Latin and Hebrew because only those three languages were written on the sign of the Cross of Christ, which is an absolute heresy and contrary to the words of Christ: Go and teach all nations (languages) and baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Likewise are St. Paul’s words: “I want to say five understandable words rather than 10000 incomprehensible …” Due to this heresy they had to appear before the Pope, who was Orthodox at the time, and present their belief (faith) and teaching.
When they arrived there, St. Cyril, who was still called Constantine at that time, because he loved St. Hieromartyr Clement the Pope of Rome very much, he wished to find his holy relics. They sailed to the island of Kherson, where St. Clement of Rome was drowned by pagans. They did not know exactly where the relics were, but the Holy Spirit guided them, and when they arrived at the place by the sea where the holy relics were, the holy relics of this God-pleasing man appeared in great light. They took them and transferred them to Rome where they were greeted with great honours. Pope Adrian welcomed them, listened to them and made sure that they were not doing anything contrary to the Gospel and that their faith was corrected and based on the faith of the Holy Apostles. He honoured, blessed, and supported (encouraged) them for the mission. Then Constantine became seriously ill and was tonsured a monk in the scheme with the name Cyril, and for the needs of the mission the Pope ordained their students also. St. Clement was ordained a hieromonk. Soon St. Cyril peacefully fell asleep in the Lord. His relics were laid in the church of St. Clement of Rome, and the rest of them went to Moravia and Pannonia with the blessing of the Pope. At the beginning they were greeted with honour and joy and they successfully carried out their mission, but later, after the change of government and under strong pressure from the German clergy who represented the heresy of the “filiokve”, the false teaching that the Holy Spirit comes not only from the Father but also from the Son, a heresy still kept by Roman Catholics, everything had changed and their persecution begun. After the repose of St. Methodius, St. Gorazd, whom St. Methodius chose as his successor, remained in Moravia, and the others returned back. In the meantime, in the Balkans, from where they departed on that mission, great changes took place both politically and spiritually. The Bulgarian Empire rose as a great power, and St. Photius, under whose spiritual guidance and blessing they went on a mission, was removed from the patriarchal throne. It is said that they reached Belgrade, the last city on the border of the Bulgarian Empire, and they sent a message in order to see how the new emperor would react. However, the Holy Tsar Boris – Michael, who at that time accepted the Christian faith, and he and his whole kingdom got baptised through the bath of the rebirth, being a versatile person with great vision, when he heard about them he rejoiced and was honoured to have such holy people by his side in his kingdom and with pleasure received and hosted them and kept them near him in Preslav – the Bulgarian capital at that time. In 886 he kept St. Nahum with him, and sent the others to the other territories of his kingdom. St. Clement as the most capable was sent to the region of Kutmicevica with capitals Devol and Ohrid. At that time they were at the end of the periphery of his kingdom so that from there St. Clement as a supporting pillar keeps the Orthodox faith.
In Kutmicevica, a region that stretched into today’s Western Macedonia near Ohrid and south-eastern Albania, St. Clement was sent on a mission and there he established a great enlightening activity and a large literary academy, the first Slavic university through which more than 3500 educated personnel graduated and become bishops and priests mainly in Macedonia, Albania and Bulgaria …
After seven years of enlightening activity, the new Tsar of Bulgaria Simeon appointed St. Clemente as Episcope of Dremvichko – Velichki. At the council in Preslav (893) St. Clement was elected as “the first Slavic Episcope” of Drembica and Belica. In his place as administrator was appointed St. Nahum. It is not specified exactly where St. Clement’s new Diocese was but if we take into account the written documents, the Dikanaz document from the 9th century where St. Clement is mentioned as Episcope of Tiberiopolis – today’s Diocese of Strumica, based in Vodocha through which passes the river Vodochnica, previously called river Bela is associated with Belica or the Diocese of Belica. In his biography it is said that he loved his monastery (St. Panteleimon) very much and often visited it, and when he would get there he felt very tired from the long journey and there are some other facts that clearly confirm our view on the location of his diocese.
In the new Diocese St. Clement worked hard in the enlightenment of his God-given flock, he knew how to go down to the level of each one of them and give them his help. As a Priest and Episcope, he worked tirelessly for 30 years (886-916) in preaching and spreading the redeeming (salvific) Christian faith among the newly arrived Slavic peoples in the Balkans. During the day he taught children and youth, and at night he prayed and wrote: he translated books from Greek into Slavonic, composed sermons and spiritual teachings for his clergy and people. He built churches and monasteries. And with prayer he performed many miracles, helping the people.
He taught the villagers how to ennoble their wild trees by grafting on them tame ones and showing that even from the wild, people, pagans, if they are grafted on a tame Olive Tree, the Orthodox Christian faith, i.e. the Church can become tame and receive the grace of the Holy Spirit, the Lord. From that period the anecdote remained when St. Clement was asked what tree he wanted to plant, the one that grows fast and lasts short or the one that grows and ages slowly and he chose the second one.
Strumica has been a Christian city since early Christianity. In Strumica became famous St. 15 Tiberiopolitans holy martyrs during whose time in Stumica and the Strumica district there was no one left who was not a Christian. St. Clement loved and respected them very much. He also restored their monastery, making it a five-domed cruciform church.
For St. Clement is thought to have invented the Cyrillic alphabet, which is not true. Namely, Tsar Simeon wanted to adapt the Glagolitic alphabet to the Greek alphabet, first he asked St. Clement as their most prominent student, but St. Clement rejected it because of the great respect and love he had for his spiritual Fathers and teachers. He did not consider himself more worthy than his teachers that their work was imperfect and now he should change and improve it and that is why he refused, and Emperor Simeon appointed Konstantin Preslavski later Bishop of Bregalnica, therefore since that time in the Bregalnica and Preslav literary school, The Cyrillic alphabet quickly replaced the Glagolitic, but in the Ohrid and Strumica literary schools, the Glagolitic alphabet remained until the middle of the 12th century.
Towards the end of his life, he asked the emperor to be relieved of his Episcopal rank and to retreat into the silence of his beloved tranquillity and peacefully to welcome his resettlement from earth to the heavens, but emperor Simeon felt that there was no one more worthy to replace him on the Episcopal throne while he is alive and so St. Clement continued his labour. He completed the translation of the Pentecostarion, the last necessary book from the entire Liturgical cycle, and on July 26 / August 8, 916, he reposed peacefully in the Lord in Ohrid. In accordance to his vow, he was buried in the cell of “his” monastery church “St. Pantaleimon »(Plaoshnik) which in 1515 was turned into a mosque. His remains were transferred to the Ohrid church of “St. Bogorodica (Birth-Giver-of-God) Peribleptos”, which was renamed afterwards to “St. Clement’ ».
The Government of the Republic of Macedonia, knowing the significance of St. Clement’s Monastery and his University «St. Pantaleimon (St. Pantaleon)», in 2002 they cleared the area of the already ruined mosque and built on the old church foundations the newly built church and returned the relics of the Saint to their original place. Shortly after his death, Episcope Clement was canonised.
In addition to ecclesiastical and pedagogical activities, especially enlightening teachings, Clement also developed a rich literary activity. He is the author of many instructive and praiseworthy words (sermons) such as the praise/commend of Cyril the Philosopher, the praise of the prophet Zacharias and St. John the Baptist, for St. Cyril and Methodius, St. John the Baptist, St. Archangel Michael and Gabriel. However, in his work prevail the instructive words (sermons) that refer to the general Christian saints: St. George, St. Thomas, St. Anthony, then words dedicated to Bogorodica and words dedicated to the events of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was discovered that when St. Clement translated the church liturgical books added his own works and edited them. Many of his sermons because of the similarity with the greatest ecclesiastical preacher St. John Chrysostom, later, the copyists signed him as St. John Chrysostom, but today, analysing them according to the style, literary expression and modernity, it is assumed that they are in fact works of St. Clement of Ohrid.
St. Clement, according to his life and work, shows that he is one of the greatest saints of Orthodoxy and a saint who should unite all Orthodox Christians. Saint who loves us all and who prayed for all of us equally on earth while he was alive, and now even more in the Kingdom of God before the throne of the Most-Holy and One in Essence, Indivisible Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Through his holy prayers, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Amen.
Fr. Gavril Galev
Abbot of the monastery “St. Clement of Ohrid”,
Kinglake, Melbourne, Australia
08 – 12 – 2012 @23:13
