[2] They began their mission labours about 690 at the ancient Saxons country, now part of Westphalia, and covered by the dioceses of Münster, Osnabrück, and Paderborn.

The scene of their labours was the country of the ancient Saxons, now part of Westphalia, and covered by the dioceses of Münster, Osnabrück, and Paderborn.

Bede remarks that "the old Saxons have no king, but they are governed by several ealdormen [satrapas] who during war cast lots for leadership, but who in time of peace are equal in power" (Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, V, 10).

[2] The pagan Saxons, witnessing these activities of the Christian priests and missionaries, began to suspect that the Ewalds planned to convert their over-lord, destroy their temples and supplant their religion.

[2] Christian sources describe various miracles after the priests' deaths, including their martyred bodies being miraculously carried against the stream for the space of forty miles to the place in which the companions of the Ewalds were residing.

Moreover, one of the martyrs appeared in vision to the monk Tilmon (a companion of the Ewalds), and told him where the bodies would be found: "that the spot would be there where he should see a pillar of light reaching from earth to heaven".

[2] Pepin, Duke of Austrasia, having heard of the wonders that had occurred, caused the bodies to be buried in Cologne, where they were solemnly enshrined in the collegiate church of St. Kunibert.

[1] Druten, in the east of the Netherlands, has a church dedicated to the Ewalds, with statues for the two made in the studio Atelier Cuypers-Stoltzenberg, owned by Pierre Cuypers and F.