Sts. Crispin and Crispinian

Who they were

Crispin and Crispinian were brothers, made Roman nobles by tradition, who evangelized at Soissons in Gaul the practical way. They set up as shoemakers, worked the trade honestly by day and preached by night, and charged the poor only what the poor could offer, which the accounts say was often nothing. The legend that angels supplied them leather when the till ran dry is the guild's own affectionate addition and should be told as that.

They were martyred in the Diocletianic era around 286 and became the shoemakers' patrons across all of Europe, with every medieval cobblers' guild keeping 25 October. The date acquired a second life when Shakespeare set Agincourt on it and gave English the phrase Saint Crispin's Day, so that the feast of two brothers who undercharged the poor is now shorthand for the few who stand anyway.

Why people turn to Sts. Crispin and Crispinian

Shoemakers, cobblers and leatherworkers, with St. Bartholomew. And by honest extension everyone whose trade is their ministry: the barber who listens, the mechanic who does not invent problems, with St. Homobonus and St. Zita.

How to ask their intercession

Over the workbench, for the brothers' pricing: what the customer can actually bear, honestly reckoned, and no more.