St. Clement belonged to the closest assistants of the Solun Brothers, Constantine and Methodius (Naum, Angelarius, Sava, Laurentius, Gorazd). He was often called Clement Bulgarian, Ohrid, Macedonian or simply Slavic due to his origin or places where he was active. Together with the Solun brothers he probably participated in the Byzantine mission sent to Kzazars. In the town of Chersoneses, Constantine found the relics of one of the first popes – St. Clement. As an honour to him he may had received this name and used it all his life. He also took the journey to Venice and Rome with Constantine and Methodius where he was ordained to be a priest. In Great Moravia he dedicated his time to teaching and pastoral work which we know very little of.
After the death of Archbishop Methodius and after persecution of his followers he belonged to the group that decided to go along the Danube toward Belgrade and they were accepted by the Bulgarian emperor Boris-Michael (in 886). After a short time spent in Pliska the Emperor sent Constantine and his brothers into the present-day Macedonia. There in the town of Ohrid he founded the monastery and built two or three churches. He was working hard on the mission work among that-time Slavs and he was teaching the domestic clergy. After seven years of work he managed to teach and educate 3,500 students. The new Bulgarian emperor Simeon ordained Clement to be the bishop. He became the first Slavic bishop in Bulgaria. He later resigned and was dedicated to literary work. He was considered by many to be the author of Constantine and Methodius biographies, or at least one of them. He had written them while still in Great Moravia. There is no unified opinion about whether Clement may be considered to be the author of the new – simplified Slavic script– Cyrillic alphabet. In the Ohrid literary centre they used to stick to Glagolitic alphabet – script of their teacher Constantine for a long time. He dies either on July 17 or 27, 916.
Prof. Matúš Kučera