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==Life==
The early life of St. Clement is largely unknown. According to his hagiography by [[Theophylact of Ochrid]], Clement was born in southwestern part of the [[w:Bulgarian_Empire|Bulgarian Empire]], in the region then known as [[w:Kutmichevitsa|Kutmichevitsa]]<ref>The entry of the Slavs into Christendom: an introduction to the medieval history of the Slavs, A. P. Vlasto, CUP Archive, 1970, ISBN 0-521-07459-2, p. 169.</ref>. He was a member of the group of missionary [[priest]]s that included [[Naum of Preslav|Naum]], Sava, Gorazd, and Angelar who supported the [[Cyril and Methodius|Apostles to the Slavs]] evangelizing in middle Europe. Having rejected German missionaries from the Western Church who required the use of Latin as the liturgical language, Prince [[Rastislav of Moravia|Rastislav of Great Moravia]] requested Constantinople to send missionaries who could preach the Word of [[God]] in the Slavonic language. Arriving in Moravia as [[asceticism|ascetics]] led by Cyril and Methodius, Clement and his fellow missionaries evangelized the Slavic tribes in the Slavonic language, using the Glagolitic alphabet devised by Cyril.
Thus, language became the center of the conflict with the Frankish and German rulers and [[clergy]] as the Germans used Latin. With their liturgy denigrated as a "heretical Slavic Liturgy", Cyril and Methodius, accompanied by Clement, twice had to defend their liturgy before the Pope of Rome, first before Pope [[Adrian II of Rome|Adrian II]] and, again, before Pope [[John VIII of Rome|John VIII]] in 880, both who authorized its use.