Venerable Ymar of Reculver

Venerable-Martyr Ymar of Reculver was an Anglo-Saxon monk of the monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Reculver in Kent, England, who was killed by pagan Danish invaders around the year 830, during the great wave of Viking raids on the coasts of Britain. No Life of the saint survives, and nothing further is known of his ascetic labors; the sources preserve only the brief record of his martyrdom at the hands of the Danes. Local tradition holds that shortly before the monastery at Reculver fell into ruin, the saint wished to be buried in the church of St. John the Baptist in nearby Margate, and his relics were translated there sometime before 1407; an ancient stone coffin lid preserved in that church is traditionally identified as his. Some accounts suggest the very name "Margate" derives from his. Despite the scarcity of surviving information, St. Ymar is venerated as a venerable-martyr of the pre-schism Western Church, one who suffered for fidelity to Christ amid the pagan raids upon the English lands.