Welcome to St Pancras

Honoured in Lewes for centuries, St Pancras has been one of Rome's own favourite saints ever since he was martyred there in 304 during the Diocletian persecution. Christain Roman soldiers adopted the youthful saint as a patron. Little else is known about him. He may have been the patron of Pope St Gregory the Great's Engilsh mission, led by St Augustine. He dedicated his first English Church to St Pancras in Canterbury in 597.

Lewes quickly became the third most significant Pancras site in England, after Canterbury and London. In the 1070s, a Saxon Church, St Pancras. This was the nucleus of the important Cluniac Priory of St Pancras, which was dissolved in 1573.

When the 1829 Catholic Emancipation Act allowed catholics to worship openly, Mass was said at 10 Priory Crescent, overlooking the ruins. So when a church was built in 1870 St Pancras was the obvious choice for patron. The Feast of St Pancras is on the 12th of May.

The Priest's house was built at the same time as the church of 1870 and two cottages on the corner of Irelands Lane, on the site of the present forecourt, were used as a parish school. These buildings and their furnishings were all paid for by the parents of the first parish priest Fr Hubert Wood. Mrs Wood also made serveral fine vestments, some of which are still in use today.

In 1930 St Pancras Catholic Primary School was built in De Montfort Road, allowing redevelopment in Irelands Lane. At that time the first church was in a poor state of repair and had to be pulled down. The present church, built in1939, was designed by Edward Walters and cost £7500. The stained Glass windows in the nave and chancel are from the first church and there is also a commemorative tablet to be found in the Lady Chapel.

St Pancras' Parish continues to thrive, with a new Millennium stained glass window which was paid for by the Parishioners, allowing them to become part of this building's great history.

The Church is open during the day for Prayer

Fr Richard Biggerstaff

+44(0)1273 473309

Heavenly Father, Lord and Ruler of all, You called and prepared Pancras to witness your sovereignty, even to the extent of undergoing torture and laying down his life rather than deny that You alone are God.

Grant us always to honour You above all, remaining to the end of our lives faithful followers of your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who lives with You and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever

Amen