FEAST OF SS CRISPIN AND CRISPINIAN 25th OCTOBER

FEAST OF SS CRISPIN AND CRISPINIAN + BLACKBERRY COBBLER

25th OCTOBER

It is fitting that this day is both the feast of Sts Crispin and Crispian and the day upon which the Forty Martyrs of the English reformation were canonised in a common feast day.

Crispin and Crispian were twin Romans who settled in France in the early Church and were martyred for their refusal to submit to pressure by the ruling powers to venerate idols. Because of this, they were tortured to death. They were shoemakers and cobblers and, consequently, are the patron saints of cobblers. Their story was well-known in the Middle Ages and they were popularly venerated – very likely as a result of the guilds.

In both France and England, it was the custom for a Mass to be celebrated for cobblers and shoemakers on this day, followed by a huge banquet. Katherine Burton provides:

“Afterwards they burned torches on the sand, probably as substitutes for the altar lights provided by the shoemakers’ guilds in pre-reformation times for their chantry chapel.*”; See Katherine Burton and Helmut Ripperger, Feast Day Cookbook, (Catholic Authors Press, 1951, at pp. 127-128. *

On this feast day it is appropriate to consider Shakespeare’s speech of Henry V, before the battle of Agincourt, fought on this day in 1415:

“He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,

Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d,

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, ‘Tomorrow is Saint Crispian’:

Then he will strip his sleeves and show his scars,

And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.

……

And Crispin, Crispian shall ne’er go by,

From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remember’d,-

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he, today 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 accurs’d they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap while any speaks

That fought with us upon St Crispin’s day.”

Katherine Burton provides us with a recipe for Fruit Cobbler, (p. 128), but I have set out a recipe for Blackberry Cobbler from the charming collection of Louisiana recipes of her childhood by Marcelle Bienvenu, entitled, “Who’s your Mama, Are you Catholic, and Can you make a Roux?” (Arcadia House, 2006):

BLACKBERRY COBBLER

[serves 8]

3 cups blackberries

2 cups sugar (or use discretion as to the amount of sugar you prefer)

1 cup flour

1 egg

120 grams melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Place the berries in a 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Sprinkle with 1 cup of the sugar.

Combine the flour, the remaining cup of sugar, the egg, melted butter, vanilla, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Stir to blend.

Spoon the mixture over the berries and bake until the pastry sets and is golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes.

*Chantry chapels were chapels dedicated to praying for the souls in purgatory. They doubled as schools for the local poorer children. They were abolished and destroyed under Henry VIII.