Today October 25

Today is the fun feast of Saints Crispin and Crispinian, martyrs (date unknown). Though they were shoemakers (and patrons of same), brothers, laymen, preachers, and martyrs in Soissons, France, during the reign of Maximian, they are best known in England as the subjects of a stirring speech by Henry V in Shakespeare's play of the the same name:

act iv, scene 3:

This day is called the feast of Crispian
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian,
He that shall see this day, and live old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors,
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,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered.
The 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.
. . .

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 St. Crispin's day.


Wow. Amen. They don't write speeches like THAT anymore!

These noble brothers preached in Gaul. They preached all day, then cobbled all night, taking as their model the apostle Paul. They converted many to the Faith, both by word and by example. A complaint was lodged against them; they were taken before the magistrate Rictiovarus, who sentenced them to be boiled in oil. They, like the three men in the fiery furnace of old, were unharmed. Rictiovarus, it is said, took his own life in despair.

The Emperor himself ordered them beheaded. They were buried there in Soissons. Later their relics were taken to Rome and reside in the church of St. Lawrence.
The citizens of county Kent in England honor them, especially in the port town of Faversham. There is an altar there in their memory. . . . And the Bard honors it too: "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers . . ." Saints Crispin and Crispinian, pray for us.