The basilica was built by
Pope Symmachus (498–514), on the place where the body of the young martyr Saint
Pancras of Rome, or Pancratius, had been buried,
Via Aurelia miliario secundo ('on the Via Aurelia at the second milestone'). The church was originally placed by him under the care of the clergy of the Church of S. Crisogono. Due to their neglect of the site, Pope Gregory I (590–604) handed it over to the members of the newly founded
Benedictine Order after the
Lombards sacked their monastery of
Montecassino in 580. In the seventh century Pope Honorius I (625–638) built a larger church for the increasing numbers of pilgrims; he placed the relics of the saint beneath the high altar, with a window of access from a semi-circular corridor that led behind and below the altar. In the 17th century, it was given to the
Discalced Carmelites, who completely remodeled it. The church underwent further rebuilding in the 19th century, having been heavily damaged during the French attack on the incipient
Roman Republic in 1849; but it retains its plain brick facade of the late 15th century, with the arms of
Pope Innocent VIII. Below the church there are huge
catacombs, the
Catacomb of San Pancrazio or
di Ottavilla. Entrance is next to the small
Museo di S. Pancrazio with fragments of sculpture and pagan and early Christian inscriptions. ==Cardinal-Priests of San Pancrazio==