But we in it shall be remembered-
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 accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.”
The above statement is made by King Henry V in William Shakespeare's 1599 play Henry V. He gives this speech before the Battle of Agincourt which took place on St. Crispin's Day- Oct. 25- in 1415. Saints Crispin and Crispinian were Christian missionary brothers who were martyred on October 25, 285. After they were canonised, that date became their feast day in the Christian calendar. The unlikely win of Henry's vastly outnumbered force at the Battle of Agincourt- and Shakespeare's writing of it- has made the day a lot more well known than most Catholic feast days.