Those Protestant-types among us will likely not remember any significance about this day in relation to the aforementioned saints, two shoemaker brothers named Crispin and Crispian; that is unless the Protestant-type in question has ever seen Shakespeare's Henry V and heard the rousing "St.Crispin's Day speech" given by King Henry to his vastly-outnumbered men just prior to the Battle of Agincourt.
What a speech! I remember reading and hearing it when I was in Yancy's class at TJC, some 19 years back. I actually hear the words in my head as they were read then, and still feel the crescendo in Kenneth Branagh's delivery when he gets to the "We few, we happy few" lines. There is nothing in my real life that I can point to in any way that is similar to some amazing victory at Agincourt, but this speech still energizes me. I think that's why I wanted to try to teach English in the first place--it is not English or Writing that I wanted to pass on, but the experience that reading great writing gives.
This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say, 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say, 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words,
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be rememberèd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England, now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day. (4.3.43)
