Ewald le blanc et Ewald le noir

Who they were

The two Ewalds were priests from Northumbria who shared a name and were told apart as Ewald the Black and Ewald the Fair, from the colour of their hair. After years of study in Ireland they went about 690 as missionaries to the pagan Old Saxons, in what is now Westphalia.

The Saxons, seeing them pray the Office and say Mass, feared they would convert their chief, and killed them about 695: Ewald the Fair quickly by the sword, Ewald the Black after torture. Their bodies were thrown into the Rhine, found and buried, and later enshrined at Cologne. They are patrons of Westphalia and are named in the Roman Martyrology on 3 October.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: they have been honoured as saints since before the Church's formal processes began.

Why that counted as sanctity

Two English missionary priests martyred together among the pagan Saxons.