Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria
Clement from Les vrais pourtraits et vies des hommes illustres grecz, latins et payens (1584) by André Thévet
Church Father, Theologian
Born	c. 150 Athens
Died	c. 215 Jerusalem
Venerated in	Oriental Orthodox Church Eastern Catholic Churches Anglican Communion
Canonized	Pre-congregation
Feast	23 November (Oriental Orthodoxy) 4 December (Eastern Catholicism, Anglicanism) 5 December (Episcopal Church, Anglicanism)
Controversy	Regarded as a heretic by Photius.
Catholic cult suppressed	1586 by Pope Sixtus V

Titus Flavius Clemens (Greek: Κλήμης ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς; c. 150 – c. 215), known as Clement of Alexandria to distinguish him from the earlier Clement of Rome, was a Christian theologian who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. A convert to Christianity, he was an educated man who was familiar with classical Greek philosophy and literature. As his three major works demonstrate, Clement was influenced by Hellenistic philosophy to a greater extent than any other Christian thinker of his time, and in particular by Plato and the Stoics. His secret works, which exist only in fragments, suggest that he was also familiar with pre-Christian Jewish esotericism and Gnosticism. In one of his works he argued that Greek philosophy had its origin among non-Greeks, claiming that both Plato and Pythagoras were taught by Egyptian scholars. Among his pupils were Origen and Alexander of Jerusalem.

Clement is usually regarded as a Church Father. He is venerated as a saint in Coptic Christianity, Ethiopian Christianity and Anglicanism. He was previously revered in the Roman Catholic Church, but his name was removed from the Roman Martyrology in 1586 by Pope Sixtus V on the advice of Baronius.