Rose and I are off to Paris for a short break in a few weeks’ time, an easier trip these days since the Eurostar train now departs from St Pancras station.
And this led me to wonder who this Pancras chap actually was? Well, the story goes that he was beheaded by the Romans at the age of 14 for refusing to make a sacrifice to the Roman gods. Pictures like this one show a rather mature 14-year-old, I think, and the story has been embellished over the centuries, with later versions having him thrown to the wild beasts in the arena. But none the less, he lost his head, and various other bits of him are supposed, eventually, to have made their way to England, which is why we have various things named after him, like a railway… errm… terminal.
I was amused by the line in the Wikipedia article that said:
Pancras is normally invoked against cramp, false witness, headache, and perjury.
Why cramp, I wonder?
That he found a cure for headaches, though, that I can believe.
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