blessed clement of osimo

Blessed Clement of Osimo was a contemporary of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino and shared Saint Nicholas’ love of the poor.

Clement, called of Osimo, Italy, his birthplace, or called of Sant’ Elpidio, where he became an Augustinian, was prior provincial of the Province of the Marches in 1269. It is likely that he already belonged to the Congregation of Hermits of Brettino when this group joined with several others to form the Grand Union in 1256. This was the region of the Augustinian Order which produced Saint Nicholas of Tolentino.

On Pentecost Sunday, 1271, Clement was elected the Augustinian Order’s third prior general. During his term of office he visited many houses of the Augustinian Order, not only in Italy but also in France, and participated in the Second Council of Lyons in 1274. At the general chapter held that same year he resigned from office. In 1284, however, he was once again elected prior general and continued as such until his death. It was at the chapter of 1284 that Clement was given the task of overseeing a revision of the Augustinian Order’s Constitutions or book of laws. In this task he relied upon the assistance of Blessed Augustine of Tarano, with whom his name has been associated ever since. The results of their combined efforts were the Constitutions of Regensburg (Ratisbon), which guided the Augustinian Order in its legislation until the Council of Trent.

Clement was a great promoter of studies in the Augustinian Order, and did much to foster a spirit of unity and universality among the still newly united congregations. He was described by the Augustinian, Henry of Friemar, as “a man of admirable clemency, piety, prudence, and holiness of life through whom God worked many miracles in the chapter of Ratisbon, at which I was present.”

Clement died at Orvieto on 8 April 1291. The fame of his sanctity and the extraordinary numbers of people who came to pay their respects caused Pope Nicholas IV to order that his body remain unburied for several weeks.

Originally preserved in the church of Saint Augustine in Orvieto, his remains were transferred to the church of Saint Augustine in Rome at the beginning of the nineteenth century. On 4 May 1970 they were solemnly placed in the chapel of the Augustinian General Curia in Rome.

The Augustinian Family celebrates his feast on 19 May together with Blessed Augustine of Tarano.