St. Crispin's Day

Sadly, a 15 yr-old boy in Barrie ON named Brandon Crisp has been missing for over a week (since Thanksgiving Monday, Oct 13) after an argument with his parents over excessive Xbox use and online playing of Call of Duty 4. In this article from the National Post, "experts" indicate that any obsessive compulsive behaviour should be a red flag to parents about "possible deeper emotional turmoil within their kids lives".

Still another media outlet (CTV) interviewed an expert who said that parents underestimate the degree of social interaction such games involve. In many cases, children derive a high degree of personal identity from the fantasy world of the game and the other participants they meet online. In some cases they can avoid uncomfortable social circumstances because of their online skills and in this way their online "memes" - with whom they may have a huge amount of interactions with - become an important part of their social network.

To help in the search, a number of community volunteers have begun looking for the boy. Microsoft Canada (who produces the Xbox) has contributed to a reward for tips that lead to Brandon being found. They also maybe able to provide information about some of Brandon's online gamer friends. A growing concern is that he may have been aided in his runaway or possibly abducted by a fellow online gamer.

October 25 was before Vatican II1 known as Saint Crispin's Day and was the feast day of the twin Christian Saints Crispin and Crispinian (also known as Crispinus and Crispianus, though this spelling has fallen out of favour), twins who were martyred circa A.D. 286.

I know it primarily for the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, dramatised by William Shakespeare in Henry V, with his famous battle-rousing speech, but is was also the day of other famous battles: the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Pacific theater in 1944, the Battle of Balaklava (Charge of the Light Brigade 1854) during the Crimean War.

[Update: 2008NOV10 The body of this young boy was found by hunters about 8-10 km from his bike at the base of a tree. It is thought that he suffered critical injuries when he fell from it. A sad story to be sure and the couple and two older sisters are doubtless wracked with guilt and grief over this tragic turn of events. I do feel for them.]

Footnotes:

1) Vatican II was the twentieth century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It opened under Pope John XXIII in 1962 and closed under Pope Paul VI in 1965. These saints were removed from the liturgical calendar (but not declared to no longer be saints) during the subsequent reforms. The feast remains as a 'Black Letter Saints' Day' in the Calendar of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer (1662) and a 'commemoration' in Common Worship (2000).

The reasoning used by Vatican II for this decision was that there was insufficient evidence that Saints Crispin and Crispinian actually existed. Indeed, their role as shoemakers, their relationship as twins, and the timing of their holiday are suggestive of the possibility that they could have represented a local Celtic deity (Lug-Mercury) which had been made into a saint as a result of syncretism.