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See also: Crispin of Viterbo, Capuchin Franciscan Blessed

Saints Crispin and Crispinian
Martyrdom of SS. Crispin and Crispinian by Aert van den Bossche
Born	3rd century,
Died	286, Rome
Venerated in	Roman Catholicism Eastern Orthodoxy
Major shrine	Soissons
Feast	October 25
Attributes	depicted holding shoes
Saints Portal

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. Crispian and Crispinian are also associated with the town of Faversham in Kent. In early 2007 the parish church of St Mary of Charity dedicated an altar to Crispin and Crispinian in the South aisle of the church.

The supposed tombs of the saints are in Rome in the church of San Lorenzo in Panisperna.

Contents 1 Status as saints 2 The St. Crispin's Day Speech 3 Trivia 4 Well known Crispins 5 See also 6 Further reading 7 External links 8 Footnotes

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 calendar 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 the 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.

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.^[1]

The full text of the speech is:

King Henry V:

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• The English town of Northampton had an annual street fair named for St. Crispin.
• There is a public house named 'The Crispin' near Ascot Berkshire
• There is a public house named 'The Crispin' in Harwell Oxfordshire
• An edited version of the speech was recited by 'Mr. Fabian' (played by Billy Zane) in the 1993 movie Tombstone.
• In Age of Empires II: The Conqueror's Expansion, the one-part mission "Agincourt" features a narration of selections from the speech.

• A portion of the poem by Shakespeare, Henry V, was quoted during a segment of the movie, Renaissance man, (staring Danny Devito, Mark Walberg, Morris Chestnut & Gregory Hines.) In which actor, Lillo Brancato (PVT. Donnie Benitez) during a rain storm when he was told to quote Shakespeare while do doing training , By drill Sergeant Cass (Gregory Hines), to antagonize the main character Bill Rago, (Danny Devito) after he came to give some info to Sergeant Cass so one of the students, in Rago’s class. Gets the honor put upon his fathers’ heroic act during Vietnam War.

Sir Crispin Tickell, UK diplomat

Crispin Freeman, USA voice actor

Crispin Glover, USA actor, director, writer, musician

Crispin Lancaster, UK Town Planner

Edmund Crispin, UK 1921-1978 Novelist

Doctor Philip Crispin, Lecturer of Drama at the University of Hull

Crispin Bonham Carter, English actor

• Saint Crispin's Day
• St Crispin Street Fair
• St Crispin's School
• St Crispin's Hospital
• Order of the Knights of St. Crispin
• St. Crispins's Camp, Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma

• St. Crispin's Day Speech from Henry V
• St. Crispin and St. Crispinian in Faversham, Kent

• Catholic Encyclopedia

1. ^ The speech by Shakespeare's by Henry V 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.)