Here is a blog post that I posted elsewhere. Thought I'd post it here.
Today Oct 25th, is the Feast of St. Crispin. Sadly, Vatican 2 decided there was not enough evidence for their existence and so they were removed from their calendar. Nevertheless, it is the most famous of unknown feast days, and should be a great deal more famous due to the battles that have taken place in history. We should never forget our veterans and they heroic inspiration they provide us. St Crispin and Crispinian (Crispian) were brothers martyred bringing the Good News that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Soissons. They preached during the day and were shoemakers by night. Thus they are the patron saints of cordwainers, cobblers, leatherworkers, tanners, etc.

What's most interesting about this feast day is that several major historical battles took place on St. Crispin's Day: Agincourt, the Charge of the Light Brigade, and the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944. The first two have wonderful pieces of literature written about them. That we are in wartime still bodes ill for us as a nation and as citizens of the world. That we still mistreat and hobble the hopes of our veterans is even more shameless. Still, today is St. Crispin's Day. Here's is the St. Crispin's Day speech in its entirety: http://poetry.about.com/library/week...espearewar.htm

and the video with the slightly abridged speech as acted by Kenneth Branagh in Henry V: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-yZNMWFqvM

One hundred and fifty odd years ago, the Charge of the Light Brigade took place on this day and was immortalized by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. If any of you don't know the history of this battle, it was a bloody, heroic one like Agincourt or Thermopylae You can read it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cha..._Brigade_(poem)

Sadly, then as now, we seem to have trouble assisting our veterans who fight wars on our behalf, and whose patriotism is unyielding and unquestionable. Here is Rudyard Kipling's addendum to Tennyson's poem explaining the plight of veterans. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Las..._Light_Brigade

Alas, one boggles as to why St's Crispin and Crispinian haven't been made saints of veterans considering how many tragic wars have been fought on this day.

We ARE but warriors for the working day and today, Monday is the feast of St. Crispin. Live your Monday! Attack your Monday! While our loved ones are overseas fighting, you are on your own battlefield and Monday evening, reflecting in your pub of choice, drink a pint in memory of those who have fallen, and another for those who still serve.. and one last pint for those martyrs who first fell, creating St. Crispin's Day

Today, fight on, pray hard and live boldly so that you too may strip your sleeves and bare your scars that you earned on St. Crispin's Day.