EWALD, SS.

Two Anglo-Saxon missionaries; d. northwestern Germany, Oct. 3 c. 690. According to bede (Histoire ecclesiastique 5.10) there were two brothers, priests of the English nation bearing the same name, Ewald, who were differentiated by the color of their hair, one called Black Ewald and the other White (Fair) Ewald. Both lived for a time in Ireland and wished to dedicate their lives to the conversion of the Saxons. They arrived in the area somewhat north of the lower regions of the Lippe River and tried to establish contact with the Saxon leaders, but their efforts were thwarted by the local pagans who felled White Ewald with one blow of the sword and tortured Black Ewald before slaying him. According to Bede's account the martyrs' bodies were thrown into the Rhine River but were miraculously recovered by their companions. In the time of Pepin (d. 714) the martyrs' relics were brought to Cologne and placed in the church of St. Clement, now renamed St. Cunibert.

Feast: Oct. 3.

Bibliography: Acta Sanctorum Oct. 2:180–207. a. m.. zimmermann, Kalendarium Benedictinum: Die Heiligen und Seligen des Benediktinerorderns und seiner Zweige, 4 v. (Metten 1933–38) 3:127, 129–130. a. schÜtte, Handbuch der deutschen Heiligen (Cologne 1941) 120. w. levison, England and the Continent in the Eighth Century (Oxford 1946) 58. e. hegel, Kirchliche Vergangenheit in Bistum Essen (Essen 1960) 13–14, 29. a. franzen, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques (Paris 1912) 16:221–223.

[h. dressler]