Crispin

Crispin and Crispinian, two brothers born at Rome in the third century A.D. They embraced Christianity, and to avoid the persecutions under Diocletian, fled into Gaul, where they accompanied St. Denis to Soissons. They preached by day, and made shoes by night, the leather being supplied, according to one account, by an angel, according to another by theft. They were beheaded, it is said, in 287, and October 25th is kept as their day, being the anniversary also of the battles of Agincourt and Balaklava. They are the patrons of shoemakers.