medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
The railway station is named for the former civil parish in which it was built. That parish in turn took its name from the ecclesiastical parish of St Pancras whose homonymous church (now St Pancras Old Church) though greatly rebuilt seems to be originally of the later eleventh century. As far as one can tell, this church has always considered its titular to be Pancras of Rome.
There seems to have been an ancient (i.e. pre-Conquest) church of a St. Pancras in London and the assumption is that the aforementioned church replaced it. Ancient dedications in England to a St. Pancras are usually thought to honor Pancras of Rome (12. May), whose cult was favored by St. Augustine of Canterbury. The evidence for that view is summarized in the third paragraph here: <http://archive.catholicherald.co.uk/article/8th-may-2009/18/saint-of-the-week>. While it is true that some saints venerated in late antique Campania were also venerated in Anglo-Saxon England (these are thought to have come in with the mission of Sts. Hadrian of Nisida and Theodore of Tarsus) and that the only Pancras in the earlier ninth-century Marble Calendar of Naples is at 8. July and thus will be Pancras of Taormina, it's not clear that Pancras of Taormina was venerated either in Campania or in England as early as the late sixth and seventh centuries. One straw in the wind here is the very early eighth-century so-called Calendar of St. Willibrord (Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 10837), written in an insular hand at the Anglo-Saxon missionary establishment at Echternach: its only Pancras is at 12. May and thus will be Pancras of Rome. On the other hand, Francis Bond, _Dedications & Patron Saints of English Churches_ (London, 1914), asserts in a chart on p. 326 that there were ten ancient dedications in England to Pancras of Taormina (whose feast day he gives as 3. April, though it is not clear whether this is really from early calendars or instead from the pre-2001 Roman Martyrology). Using the index to this book I have not been able to locate any discussion in support of that assertion.
Best,
John Dillon
On 07/08/12, Genevra Kornbluth wrote:
> Out of curiosity, is St. Pancras of Taormina the namesake of St. Pancras station in London?
> Genevra
>
> On 7/8/2012 2:50 AM, John Dillon wrote:
> >medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> >
> >Herewith a link to last year's post (including Sts. Aquila and Prisca; St. Pancras of Taormina; St. Glyceria; St. Disibod; St. Kilian of Würzburg; St. Hadrian III, pope; Bl. Eugenius III, pope):
> >http://tinyurl.com/6ucjo9t
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