Crispin
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| Crispin and Crispinian | |
|---|---|
 Martyrdom of SS. Crispin and Crépinien - From a window in the Hôpital des Quinze-Vingts (Fifteenth Century). |
|
| Born | ? |
| Died | c. 286 in Rome |
| Venerated in | No longer |
| Major shrine | Soissons |
| Feast | was October 25 |
| Attributes | Shoe |
| Patronage | cobblers; glove makers; lace makers; lace workers; leather workers; saddle makers; saddlers; shoemakers; tanners; weavers |
Crispin and Crispinian were once the Catholic patron saints of cobblers, tanners, and leather workers. Born to a noble Roman family in the 3rd century AD, Saints Crispin and Crispinian, twin brothers, fled persecution for their faith, winding up in Soissons, where they preached Christianity to the Gauls and made shoes by night. Their success attracted the ire of Rictus Varus, the governor of Belgic Gaul, who had them tortured and beheaded c. 286. In the 6th century, a church was built in their honour at Soissons.
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[edit] Status as saints
The feast day of Saints Crispin and Crispinian is October 25. However, these saints were removed from the liturgical calendar (but not declared to no longer be saints) during the Catholic Church's Vatican II reforms. The feast remains as a 'Black Letter Saints' Day' in the Kalendar of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer (1662) and a 'commemoration' in Common Worship (2000).
The reasoning used by Vatican II for this decision was that there was insufficient evidence that Saints Crispin and Crispinian actually existed. Indeed, their role as shoemakers, their relationship as twins, and the timing of their holiday are suggestive of the possibility that they could have represented a local Celtic deity (Lugus-Mercurius) which had been made into a saint as a result of syncretism.
[edit] The St Crispin's Day Speech
Crispin is perhaps best known for lending his name to the famous speech given by the eponymous king in Shakespeare's Henry V before the Battle of Agincourt (which occurred on 25 October 1415, though the speech was not written until 1599). In the speech, Crispinian's name is spelled Crispian, perhaps reflecting London pronunciation in Shakespeare's time. (The speech itself lent one of its more famous lines to the title of a book by Stephen E. Ambrose about World War Two, and the subsequent HBO World War II mini-series Band of Brothers.)
The full text of the speech is:
King Henry V:
- What's he that wishes so?
- My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin:
- If we are mark'd to die, we are enough
- To do our country loss; and if to live,
- The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
- God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
- By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
- Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
- It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
- Such outward things dwell not in my desires:
- But if it be a sin to covet honour,
- I am the most offending soul alive.
- No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England:
- God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
- As one man more, methinks, would share from me
- For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
- Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
- That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
- Let him depart; his passport shall be made
- And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
- We would not die in that man's company
- That fears his fellowship to die with us.
- This day is called the feast of Crispian:
- He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
- Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
- And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
- He that shall live this day, and see old age,
- Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
- And say "To-morrow is Saint Crispian":
- Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars
- And say "These wounds I had on Crispin's day."
- Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
- But he'll remember with advantages
- What feats he did that day: then shall our names,
- Familiar in his mouth as household words
- Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
- Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
- Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
- This story shall the good man teach his son;
- And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
- From this day to the ending of the world,
- But we in it shall be remember'd;
- We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
- For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
- Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
- This day shall gentle his condition:
- And gentlemen in England now a-bed
- Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
- And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
- That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day. (IV, iii)
[edit] Trivia
The English town of Northampton had an annual street fair named for St. Crispin.
