Saint Pancras, Martyr

Pancras was a boy martyr of Rome, buried on the Via Aurelia, where a church stood over his tomb by the early 6th century. According to his late Acts, he was an orphan from Phrygia brought to Rome by his uncle, and was beheaded at the age of fourteen in the persecution of Diocletian, about 304.

His cult spread widely: Pope Gregory the Great sent relics of him to England, and Augustine of Canterbury dedicated one of the first churches there to him. In the Middle Ages oaths were sworn at his tomb, because people believed that whoever swore falsely there would be punished at once. Pancras Station in London takes its name from a church of his.