A case, containing a fragment of bone, purported to belong to St Clement who was ordained by St Peter and was Pope in the early years of the Christian Church, has been presented to the cathedral in a formal ceremony. It fell to James Rubin, owner of Enviro Waste, to hand the relic over to Archbishop George Stack, representing the Catholic Church in England and Wales. In February last year Mr Rubin spotted the unusual-looking object on a desk in the company's warehouse in Leyton, east London, where staff had been sorting waste to see what could be recycled or refurbished. It says 'EX OSS ST CLEMENTIS' and that's what gave me the idea that it was from the bone of a saint." The waste disposal firm is now appealing for suggestions from the public for a more suitable final resting place for a saint than a bin. However, he is said to have been martyred around the year 100 – just short of his own centenary – by the Roman emperor Trajan, by being tied to an anchor and thrown into the sea off the Crimea: his fate made him a patron saint of mariners.
– St. Clement was said to have been put to death by being tied to a boat anchor and drowned. Just shy of 2,000 years later, what's believed to be a piece of one of his bones has been presented to Westminster Cathedral. The path from there to here is filled with legend, crime, and a Google search. Clement, one of the Catholic Church's first popes, was killed on the orders of the Roman emperor Trajan around AD99, and his watery death led to him becoming a patron saint of mariners, reports the Guardian. The BBC reports something miraculous was said to have followed: The sea receded, revealing his bones, a fragment of which reportedly came to be kept in a wax-sealed case that shows the words "EX OSS S. CLEMENTIS PM." It was recently stolen from the car of the unnamed person who owned it and ended up in London's trash. It might have stayed there were it not for Enviro Waste owner James Rubin, whose staff set aside the case while pulling items that could be recycled or refurbished from the waste it collected. A Google search of those Latin words led Rubin to believe it was a saint's bone, and he blogged about the find, asking for advice on what to do. Some 650 suggestions later, he settled on giving it to Westminster Cathedral, and the owner, who also emerged, agreed to hand it over on permanent loan. A ceremony was held to transfer the relic on Tuesday. (A thief stole what was left of a saint's brain.)