Saints Crispin and Crispinian

According to tradition, Crispin and Crispinian were brothers, Christians of a Roman family, who went to Gaul in the third century to preach the Gospel. They settled in Soissons, in present-day France, where they preached by day and worked as shoemakers by night, taking no payment from the poor, so that their work itself became a witness to the love of Christ.

Their preaching brought many to the faith. During the persecution under the Emperor Maximian, around the year 285, they were arrested and brought before the governor Rictiovarus. After being tortured, they were beheaded. A basilica was built over their tomb in Soissons in the sixth century, and their cult spread widely across Europe. Details of their story come from later accounts, but they have been venerated since early times and appear in the Roman Martyrology on October 25.

For centuries shoemakers' and leatherworkers' guilds celebrated their feast with processions and banquets. In England, the Battle of Agincourt was fought on October 25, 1415, and Shakespeare made "Saint Crispin's Day" famous in King Henry V.

In Soissons and in parts of Italy and Spain, shoemakers and cobblers still honor them on their day.