Pancras

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Depiction of St. Pankratius in the parish church of St. Pankratius (Degmarn)
Depiction in the Church of
St. Pankratius (Körbecke) with Turks at his feet after the victory over the Turks in the Second Turkish Siege of Vienna

St. Pancras (* around 290 in Phrygia , † around 304 in Rome ) was a Roman martyr of the early Christian Church. The name comes from the Greek and means the one who rules everything . Until well into the 19th century it was also referred to as Pankraz in German .

Life

Pankratius was the son of a wealthy Phrygian from the Synnada area and, according to legend, was brought to his uncle in Rome as a 14-year-old orphan . There he was soon beheaded for his faith under the rule of Diocletian .

particularities

It is mentioned in the chronograph as early as 354. Around 500 the Roman bishop Symmachus built a basilica in his honor on the Via Aurelia . His veneration was widespread across Europe. He is one of the five ice saints .

Remembrance day

Pawn rule

The peasant rule corresponding to the feast day of the Ice Saints is:

  • If it freezes on Pancratius, a lot will be ruined in the garden.
  • If Saint Pankratius is beautiful, one will see good wine.

presentation

Coat of arms of St. Pankraz (Upper Austria)
The saint in the coat of arms of the city of Iserlohn
and in the coat of arms of Belecke

Pankratius is often depicted in elegant clothes or knight armor with sword, martyr's crown and palm, sometimes it is an attribute of saints .

Worship, places and names associated with Pancratius

Around 500, Pope Symmachus built the Basilica of San Pancrazio on Via Aurelia in his honor .

Places, churches and people are named after the saint - often in the short form Pankraz . This includes St. Pankraz in Upper Austria , in whose coat of arms the silver sword points to him. Other places are the Prague district of Pankrác and St. Pankraz in Salzburg with the church of St. Pankraz am Haunsberg , St. Pankraz in South Tyrol, the St. Pankratius church in Ohnastetten and several San Pancrazio in Italy, as well as the pilgrimage destination Pankratiuskirchenpp St. Pankraz (Karlstein ) . In Belecke there is a coat of arms and a church . A complete overview can be found under Pankratiuskirche . In London , the district of St. Pancras is named after him, and after him the station St Pancras , one of the main railway stations in the city, from which trains to Paris depart.

In the Vosges in France there are the localities Mailleroncourt-Saint-Pancras , Betoncourt-Saint-Pancras and Dampvalley-Saint-Pancras .

In the abbot town of Wil (canton St. Gallen, Switzerland) are the remains of the third city saint, St. Pankratius, in the St. Nicholas Church.

The Benedictine Pankraz Stollenmayer (1889–1980) chose the saint's name as the religious name , as did the Salvatorian Pankratius Pfeiffer (1872–1945), the angel of Rome. The Swiss politician Pankraz Freitag (1952-2013) had Pankraz as his first name.

See also

Web links

Commons : St. Pancras  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Pankratius  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pancras. Kathpedia. The Free Catholic Encyclopedia