St Pancras. One day lad, this church and train station will all be yours.
If you are looking for pure historical fact, read no further ! – many of the events described below have been disputed by historians. But let’s not spoil a good story for the sake of the truth.
When the Roman occupation began in 43AD, the site now occupied by St Pancras Old Church was sacred to the pagan Britons because of its wells, which were said to have medicinal qualities. When Christianity arrived, such sites were taken over, so that their spiritual associations became associated with the new religion.
It has been claimed that St Old Pancras Church is the oldest in London, having been founded in 314 to commemorate the death of the child martyr Pancratius in Rome in 303 A.D. Another story claims that the church was founded by St Helen, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, when he declared Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman Emperor. We don’t know if Christian worship continued on the site after the arrival of the pagan Anglo-Saxons from 410AD onwards.
To understand the next phase we need a little international history.
According to legend, in 595 AD Pope Gregory visited the market in Rome, where he saw slaves on sale. He was struck by the beauty of their blue eyes and their golden hair shining in the Italian sun, and asked where they came from. The merchant replied that they were from Britain, and were Angles. In a flash of papal wit Gregory replied “Not Angles, but angels”. On hearing that they were pagans, he decided to send a Roman prior, Augustine, to go to Britain and convert the heathens who lived there.
In fact, the truth seems to have been a little less glamorous. The Pope was anxious about the growing influence of the Celtic Christian church in Britain. The King of Kent , Ethelbert, had married (or was persuaded to marry for political reasons) Bertha, daughter of the King of Paris. She was a Christian and was allowed to keep her faith. Kent therefore made an excellent base for Gregory’s plan to return Britain to the authority of Rome.
Augustine certainly had a great effect, since some 10 000 Kentish pagans are said to have been converted on Christmas Day, 597. Whether this was due to spiritual enlightment or pressure from Ethelbert is not known. The religion spread, and the missionary Mellitus is credited with creating the first version of St Paul’s Cathedral (a small wooden building) in 604AD. So it is possible that our local church was refounded at this time. It is said that Gregory gave Augustine relics of St Pancras to take to England, and that the first church consecrated by Augustine at Canterbury was dedicated to the saint.
Pancratius was the son of Roman citizens and was born about 289AD in Phrygia. His mother died during childbirth, and his father died when Pancras was eight years old, so the boy went with his uncle to live in Rome. They converted to Christianity, and Pancras became a passionate believer.
During the persecution of Christians in 303 AD, he defied an order ordered by the authorities to perform a sacrifice to the old pagan gods. It is said that the Emperor Diocletian was impressed with the boy’s refusal, and tried in vain to persuade him but finally Pancras was decapitated on the Via Aurelia, on May 12, 303 AD. According to another story, Pancras was put into an arena with a panther, which refused to attack the boy until Pancras gave it permission!
Don’t try this today. At one time you could go for a dip in the Fleet just opposite St Pancras church.
Afterwards Ottavilla, a Roman matron, recovered the body and buried it in the Catacombs of Rome. Pancras’ head was placed in the reliquary that still exists today in the Basilica of San Pancrazio.
The festival of St. Pancras is held in the Roman Catholic Church on 12 May. In art, St. Pancras is always represented as a boy, with a sword in one hand and a palm-branch in the other. He is a patron saint of children.
Pancras can be appealed to in cases of false witness, perjury, cramp, and when you have a headache. So instead buying aspirin, you can always ask St Pancras for relief.