Ewaldi brothers

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Monument of St. Ewalde on the Aplerbeck market square
Painting from the Ewaldi reliquary in the Church of St. Kunibert in Cologne around 1400

The two holy brothers Ewaldi (also: Ewalde ; Ewaldi is the Latin plural), born in Northumbria ( England ), were missionaries in Westphalia and martyrs . They came from the British Isles and contributed to the Christianization of northern Germany in the 7th century.

According to the hair color, one speaks of the black and the white Ewald . Both lived in Ireland for many years and studied at Irish universities . The two Ewalde are often referred to as brothers. It remains open, however, whether they were brothers in faith or physical brothers. Franz Flaskamp also opened up the possibility that it could have been cousins.

Your missionary work at the end of the 7th century should be seen in connection with the broader Anglo-Saxon mission in Germany. They were mainly active on the right bank of the Rhine, as previously Willibrord with the Frisians , Lebuin with the Saxons and Suitbert an der Lippe. A generation later, this work was continued through the work of Boniface in Hesse and Thuringia.

The Ewalde themselves were active in the Saxon area bordering the Franconian Empire , in particular on Hellweg , on the Lippe and in the Münsterland . Her martyrdom is described in the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum by the Anglo-Saxon Benedictine monk and historian Beda Venerabilis , who already called her the white and black Ewald. Beda does not name the location of the martyrdom, but based on local traditions it is assumed that this took place in Aplerbeck (now a district of Dortmund ). Exact dating is difficult, usually on October 3rd between 691 and 693. St. Tillmann von Solignac is said to have carried out her funeral .

The Carthusian monk Werner Rolevinck , in his book De laude antiquae Saxoniae nunc Westfaliae dictae ( To the praise of Westphalia, the old Sachsenland ) , published in 1478, brought the work of the Ewaldi brothers in connection with his birthplace Laer in Münsterland . However, there is no further evidence that the two saints were actually ever in Laer. In Laer, the Ewaldibach is named after the two missionaries. The formerly independent parishes of St. Bartholomew Laer and St. Mary Holthausen were 2008 new church Sts. Brothers Ewaldi Laer merged.

The relics of the two Ewalde were transferred to Cologne by Pippin the Middle . They were buried in the church of St. Clemens (today St. Kunibert) in the north of the city of Cologne. Archbishop Anno II raised them in 1074 to honor the altars. Her shrine was lost during the secularization . The current shrine was built in the 19th century. In the dioceses of Essen , Cologne , Münster and Paderborn , the holy Ewalde are venerated on October 3rd.

As part of the new conception of the sculpture program of the Cologne town hall tower in the 1980s, the white and black Ewald were immortalized as figures by Hans-Otto Lohrengel and Klaus Balke on the fourth floor on the south side of the tower.

literature

Web links

Commons : Ewald (martyr)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Westfälische Lebensbilder , Vol. I: Dr. Franz Flaskamp, ​​Münster, 1930.
  2. ^ Beda Venerabilis: Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, V, 10 [1] .
  3. ↑ Aplerbeck: Siegfried Niehaus, 1977, p. 71
  4. ^ Toni Diederich: Ewald . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 3 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1995.
  5. ↑ Read e.g. B. in Werner Rolevinck: On the praise of old Saxony, now called Westphalia , second part; in the original text after the 1st edition (approx. 1478) with German translation, edited by Ludwig Troß, available online at Paderborn University Library, 2013
  6. ↑ Münstersche Zeitung of April 17, 2008: For him, the Westphalian was almost an apostle ( Memento of the original from May 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Karl Langer on the life and work of Rolevinck @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.muensterschezeitung.de
  7. ↑ Diocese of Münster, district dean of Steinfurt: The hl. Brothers Ewaldi ( Memento of October 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (archived website at archive.today )
  8. ↑ stadt-koeln.de: Sculptures on the fourth floor , accessed on January 15, 2015