Crispin and Crispinian (d. c.285), martyrs. They were probably of Roman origin, although the centre of their cult, due to translation of their relics, was at Soissons from the 6th century or earlier. Only one writing of poor quality claims that they died there, but it was popularly believed that they were of local origin. French hagiographers made them noble Romans and brothers who preached in Gaul and exercised their trade of shoemaking so as to avoid living from the alms of the faithful. Their shrine was later rebuilt by Eloi.
An unlikely English tradition claimed that they fled to Faversham during the persecutions and plied their trade at a house on the site of the Swan Inn in Preston Street, visited by English and foreign pilgrims as late as the 17th century. An altar in their honour is in Faversham parish church. This tradition makes more intelligible Shakespeare's sixfold mention of them in Henry V's famous speech on the eve of Agincourt (Henry V iv. iii), fought on their feast day. Crispin and Crispinian are the patrons of cobblers, shoemakers, and leather-workers. Feast: 25 October.
Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.
- AA.SS. Oct. XI (1864), 495–540
- H. Delehaye, Étude sur le légendier romain (1936), pp. 126–35
- B.L.S., x. 181–2
- M. I. Allen, ‘The metrical Passio SS. Crispini of Crispiniani and Henry of Avranches’, Anal. Boll., cviii (1990), 357–86
The Oxford Dictionary of Saints. Copyright © David Hugh Farmer 1978, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2003, 2004. All rights reserved.
