[MR] Wikipedia: St. Crispin's Day

Garth Groff and Sally Sanford mallardlodge1000 at gmail.com
Thu Oct 25 02:57:06 PDT 2018


Noble Friends,

Today, the 25th of October, is the anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt
in 1415, the most lop-sided English victory over the French during the
entire Hundred Years War. I've commented upon this battle and Shakespeare's
"Band of Brothers" speech in the past, so I will let that lie fallow for
now.

Rather, let us turn to the Feast Day of Saints Crispin and Crispinian,
which The Bard has King Henry V mention in the famous speech (the king
might not have really said anything like this, but it is great theatre).
These were two Roman-era martyrs who were topped by Emperor Diocletian in
285 or 286.

There are at least two versions of the story. The first puts them in Gaul.
They fled the Emperor's persecution and went undercover as shoemakers,
while preaching and converting. They came to the notice of the local
governor who arrested the brothers (said to be twins). Apparently he turned
them over to Diocletian who had the pair beheaded.

The other story has them as Romano-British from Canterbury. They learned
their shoemaker trade and carried on their evangelism at Faversham. How
they came to be in Diocletian's clutches is not well explained by this
version of their story, but the outcome was the same.

The pair were popular saints during the middle ages, and were/are
considered the patrons of cobblers and other leather workers. Somehow lace
makers and weavers also got into their portfolio. Their feast day was
removed from the official calendar by the Second Vatican Council, but their
are still listed in the official catalog of martyrs, and are venerated by
Roman Catholic, Anglican and the Orthodox churches.

More about Crispian and Crispianian can be found at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispin_and_Crispinian and also at
http://catholicsaints.info/saint-crispin/ . The latter site is duplicated
for Crispinian.

In the side-bar to the Wikipedia article the Saints' major shrine is listed
as Soissons, France. They were originally commemorated in the 6th c
basilica there. This apparently was replaced by the current cathedral
building in the 12th c. I was unable to find any mention of their shrine
being included in the current building:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soissons_Cathedral .

Faversham Parish Church still maintains an altar to the two saints:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faversham_Parish_Church .

I was unaware that a song to Crispin and Crispinain is sung by the
shoemakers in the third act of Wagner's Die Meistersinger. My German is all
but forgotten and was never good enough to do more than order a glass of
riesling.

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆


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