_St. Pancras_ (Vol. iii., p. 285.).--In Breviar. Rom. sub die XII Maii, is
the following brief notice of this youthful saint, whose martyrdom was also
commemorated (Sir H. Nicolas' _Chron. of Hist._) on April 3 and July 21:
"Pancratius, in Phrygia nobili genere natus, puer quatordecim annorum
Roman venit Diocletiano et Maximiano Imperatoribus: ubi a Pontifice
Romano baptizatus, et in fide christiana eruditus, ob eamdem paulo post
comprehensus, cum diis sacrificare constanter renuisset, virili
fortitudine datis cervicibus, illustrem martyrii coronam consecutus
est; cujus corpus Octavilla matrona noctu sustulit, et unguentis
delibutum via Aurelia sepelivit."
Amongst the reliques in the church of St. John of Laterane, in the "the
glorious mother-city of Rome," Onuphrius (de VII. Urbis Ecclesiis) and
Serranus (de Ecclesiis Urbis Rom.), as quoted by Wm. Crashaw (temp. James
I.), enumerate:
"Item. caput Zachariae Prophetae, et caput Sancti Pancratii de quo
sanguis emanavit ad tres dies quum Ecclesia Lateranensis combusta
fuit."