Crispin, the patron saint of shoemakers, of noble birth, who with his brother had to flee from persecution in Rome to Gaul, where they settled at Soissons; preached to the people and supported themselves by shoemaking; they finally suffered martyrdom in 287. Festival, Oct. 25.

CRISPIN. A shoemaker: from a romance, wherein a prince
of that name is said to have exercised the art and mystery
of a shoemaker, thence called the gentle craft: or rather
from the saints Crispinus and Crispianus, who according
to the legend, were brethren born at Rome, from whence
they travelled to Soissons in France, about the year 303,
to propagate the Christian religion; but, because they
would not be chargeable to others for their maintenance,
they exercised the trade of shoemakers: the governor of
the town discovering them to be Christians, ordered them
to be beheaded, about the year 303; from which time they
have been the tutelar saints of the shoemakers.