ANACLETO (CLETO), POPE, saint. — According to the papal list preserved for us by St. Irenaeus (Adv. haer., III, 3: PG 7, 849), A. succeeded Linus, the immediate successor of Peter. The list transmitted by Eusebius of Caesarea (Hist. eccl., III, 13; V, 6) likewise presents the same succession of names. These two writers represent the most ancient and authoritative tradition. The name of A. (Ἀνέγκλητος) was abbreviated to Cleto (Κλέτος) in some ancient lists: indeed, we find it written in this form in St. Epiphanius, Rufinus of Aquileia, and other later Latin documents. Probably a copy of the ancient list containing the name Cleto was corrected by the addition of A. in the margin, beside Cleto. Subsequently, a copyist inserted both names into the body of the list, either inadvertently or out of excessive scrupulousness. Hence 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. eccl., III, 15) places his death in the twelfth year of Domitian’s reign and assigns twelve years to the duration of his episcopate, which may therefore be placed approximately between the years 79 and 91. The Liber Pontificalis says that he was of Greek origin, born in Athens and patre Antiocho, and adds that, in gratitude toward St. Peter, he had a monument (memoria) built over the apostle’s tomb. The letters attributed to him by Pseudo-Isidore (PG 2, 789 ff.; PL 130, 59 ff.) are apocryphal.
The Roman Martyrology treats them as two persons, assigning the feast of Cleto to 26 April and that of A. to 13 July, and making both of them martyrs.