Ewald the Black and Ewald the Fair
This day commemorates the deaths of two English missionaries to the pagan Saxons in 695, both named Ewald and distinguished by their complexions. The Germanic invaders of Britain had been Christianized by this time but many of their cousins on the mainland had clung to their old polytheism, prompting the English church to embark on evangelistic missions.
The Ewalds reached what is now Westphalia where they were murdered by Saxons who feared the spread of the Christian religion. Miracles followed their deaths, including the remarkable flotation of their bodies 40 miles — upstream — to where they were recovered by their companions. They were treated as martyrs and their relics were venerated for centuries, some in Cologne and some in Münster until they were destroyed by radical Anabaptists in 1535.