CRISPIN AND CRISPINIAN, two saints whose festival, as marked in the calendar, is on the 25th of October. According to the tradition they were brothers, born at Rome, whence they travelled in company with St Denis to Soissons, in France, towards the close of the 3d century, to propagate the Christian religion; and that they might not be chargeable to others for their maintenance, they exercised at night the trade of shoemakers, while preaching during the day. The shoes they made were sold at a low price to the poor, an angel miraculously furnishing the leather. According to another version of the story, the saints stole the leather so as to enable them to benefit the poor. When it was known that they were Christians, the governor of the town, after subjecting them to cruel tortures, ordered them to be beheaded. The date of their martyrdom is usually given as 287, though the Roman legend gives 300. They are regarded as the tutelary saints of shoemakers.