May 12: Saint Pancras Martyr

Christ’s Athlete

 "Pancrazio" was the name of a sport practiced in the Olympics of ancient Greece. The athletes had to compete in a cross between boxing and hand-to-hand wrestling, with no holds barred. Only biting and blinding were prohibited.

Transposing a physical battle into a spiritual one against evil, a 15-year-old boy with the name Pancras fought and won much more than the laurel crown awarded to the winners  of the sport. Pancras was awarded the crown of martyrdom for the battle he fought.

Pancras was born into a rich pagan family of Roman origin towards the end of the year 289 in Sinnada, a town in Phrygia (now Turkey). His mother died giving birth to him while his father died eight years later. Orphaned with a rich inheritance, his uncle Dionysus took care of him and they later moved to Rome and settled in a villa on Monte Celio. Having come into contact with the Christian community, they converted and became catechumens.

Soon the boy received Baptism and the Eucharist. Unfortunately, in 303 the emperor Diocletian unleashed a violent persecution against Christians, who would be forced to offer sacrifices to the pagan gods if they wanted  to save themselves.

Even the young Pancrazio was intimidated to sacrifice as proof of his loyalty to the emperor. Despite the threats, the boy never renounced his faith. During the interrogation, he did not hesitate to accept death rather than abandon Christ. He was thus condemned to beheading and taken to the Via Aurelia where he was executed on May 12, 304.

A Roman matron named Ottavilla recovered his body and placed it in a new tomb in the Catacombs. Later, Pope Symmachus built a Basilica in his honor, which  Honorius I modified to make the altar coincide precisely with the location of the young martyr’s tomb.