Evaldo el Moreno and Evaldo el Rubio (+695)

Biography

We know these two brothers from the testimony of Bede the Venerable, their compatriot and contemporary. According to him, it had become customary to designate them by the color of their hair. They loved each other very much and never separated. Together they became monks in Ireland; together they followed Saint Vilibrord when he undertook the conversion of Friesland; Together they abandoned him shortly after to go, on their own, to bring the Gospel to the Saxons. The notables of these tribes feared that their chief would convert to Christianity and force them to embrace this new religion with the danger that their gods would take revenge on them for having abandoned them. They seized the missionaries, killed them and threw them into the river. Their bodies were collected by a Christian named Timon who buried them in Anlerbek, Westphalia, so the inhabitants of that region, already converted to Christianity, took them as their patrons.