25/10/2025
Happy St.Crispin’s day! ✝️👞
Today is the feast of Ss. Crispin and Crispinian, two brothers from Kent who travelled to Rome to be ordained and were sent as missionaries to Soissons in Gaul. They had many years preaching in an environment free from persecution. They used this time well to preach openly in the streets, and through these methods they called most of the city to the Christian faith.
Even when they were missionaries, they kept their trade as shoemakers. For many of the people of Soissons, their hard work and generosity in their industry was their main witness. Of all the missionaries sent from Rome to Gaul at that time, Crispin and Crispinian made the most progress because of all the virtues they could demonstrate through the humble but diligent work they took on.
As their witness began to threaten the pagan priesthood, a Christ-hating governor was appointed to curb their conversions. This man was Rictius Varus and he appears in many other saints' lives. He tortured the brothers and tried to have them killed by throwing them into an icy lake with millstones around their neck, but they would not die. Having shown that the Emperor had no power over the saints, the brothers prayed that they would be martyred to receive their crowns in Heaven. They were beheaded the next year.
ℭ𝔬𝔩𝔩𝔢𝔠𝔱
O Lord God, whose Martyrs Crispin and Crispinian laboured with their own hands and suffered all things that the Gospel might not be hindered: Grant us grace that both in deed and endurance we may be workers together with thee and thy Saints for the everlasting kingdom of thy Son; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. ᴀᴍᴇɴ.
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