Crispin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about Christian saint. For crime writer, see Edmund Crispin.
See also: Crispin of Viterbo, Capuchin Franciscan Blessed
Saints Crispin and Crispinian
Martyrdom of SS. Crispin and Crispinian by Aert van den Bossche
Saint Crispin
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 are the Christian 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

[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 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.

Martyrdom of SS. Crispin and Crépinien - From a window in the Hôpital des Quinze-Vingts (Fifteenth Century)
Martyrdom of SS. Crispin and Crépinien - From a window in the Hôpital des Quinze-Vingts (Fifteenth Century)

[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.[1]

The full text of the speech is:

King Henry V:

What's he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmorland. No, my fair cousin:
If we are marked to die, we are enow
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 ernes 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 presently 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-tiptoe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall see this day and live t'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 remembered.
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 remembered;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today 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 abed
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

 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.
  • 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 Conquerors Expansion, the one-part mission "Agincourt" features a narration of selections from the speech.
  • A portion of the play 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 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.

[edit] Well known Crispins

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

  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.)