San Pancrazio

San Pancrazio is a titular church in Rome.

History

The origins of the Minor Basilica dates back to the 6th century. It is located in the Monte Verde near the park of Villa Doria Pamphili, 1 km outside the Porta Aurelia, now Porta San Pancrazio.

Here was located in the vicinity of the ancient Via Aurelia, a burial ground and sprawling catacombs, in which about 303-305 AD, according to tradition, the young Pancras had been buried after he dropped the persecution of Diocletian to the victim and at the site of today's church had been beheaded. These catacombs are from the right aisle of the church accessible today. His cult is attested already in the 5th century after the Martyrology Hieronymianum ( 431-450 ). In it is the 12.5. listed as the feast day of Pankratius. Pope Symmachus ( 498-514 ) built on the alleged grave a church in the form of a basilica and some outbuildings to supply the pilgrims. In the Liber Pontificalis even a bath is mentioned. According to later descriptions - as Gregory of Tours ( 540-595 ) - the grave of the saint was at ground level in front of the apse of the church.

Pope Honorius I ( 625-638 ) rebuilt the church. The altar area was increased, so that the contemporary taste the grave was following now directly under the altar. Via stairs came the pilgrims to a ring crypt, which gave access to the grave. This 55 meters long church is obtained after some modifications of the 15th and 17th century to today. In the following centuries it was extended by various popes and further raised in 1517 by Leo X. to the titular church. Cardinal Ludovico de Torres in 1606 to the great innovators of the Church. To him the present baroque interior goes back, with the canopy over the high altar and the wooden coffered ceiling, which is in the middle Pankratius with sword and palm. In the 17th century the church was handed over to the Carmelites.

1966 is the most important relic returned to the Church, the head of Pancras, which had been kept in the Lateran Basilica since 850. The body is together with other relics in a sarcophagus of porphyry under the high altar, the main, however, comes in a silver reliquary in the form of a bust, which stands on the site of the suspected place of martyrdom in the right aisle. In a baroque relief of his beheading is appropriate. Of the original Little has received, such as ancient capitals, which were reused as spolia in the church. The current Cardinal Cañizares Llovera Antonio priest. His predecessors were, inter alia, Pope Paul IV (15 January - 24 September 1537 ) and Pope Clement VIII ( 1585-1592 ).

Cardinal Title

The Cardinal called " San Pancrazio fuori le mura " was from Pope Leo X. on July 6, 1517, a few days after he increased the number of Cardinals strong on July 1, built. During two years (February 28, 1550 to December 4, 1551 ) was Pope Julius III. the title with the title of San Clemente united before the two were separated again.