ANACLETUS (CLETUS), POPE, saint.
According to the papal list preserved by St. Irenaeus (Adv. haer., III, 3: PG 7, 849), A. succeeded Linus, the immediate successor of Peter. The list given by Eusebius of Caesarea (Hist. ecc., III, 13; V, 6) also presents the same sequence of names. These two writers represent the most ancient and authoritative tradition. The name of A. ('Ανέκλητος) in some ancient lists was abbreviated to Cleto (Κλήτος): indeed, we find it written thus by St. Epiphanius, Rufinus of Aquileia, and in other later Latin documents. Probably an ancient copy of the list containing the name Cleto was corrected by the addition of A. in the margin beside Cleto. Subsequently, a copyist inserted both names, either through inadvertence or excessive scrupulosity, into the body of the list. From this derives the distinction between two popes, Cleto and A., which we find in the Liberian Catalogue and the Liber Pontificalis.
The chronology of his pontificate is uncertain. Eusebius of Caesarea (Hist. ecc., III, 15) places his death in the twelfth year of the reign of Domitian and fixes the duration of his episcopate at twelve years, which may therefore be placed approximately between the years 79-91. The Liber Pontificalis states that he was of Greek origin, born in Athens, and the son of Antiochus, and adds that in gratitude to St. Peter he built a monument (memoria) over the apostle’s tomb. The letters attributed to him by Pseudo-Isidore (PG 2, 789 ff.; PL 130, 59 ff.) are spurious.
The Roman Martyrology treats them as two distinct persons, assigning the feast of Cleto to 26 April and that of A. to 13 July, both as martyrs.