Beocca

Who they were

Beocca was abbot of Chertsey when, about 870, the Danes came up the Thames and massacred him, a priest called Hethor and a number of monks, perhaps as many as ninety.

Butler says they are counted as martyrs because the Danes showed particular ferocity towards those they saw as representatives of Christianity.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.

Why that counted as sanctity

An abbot of Chertsey killed by the Danes, honoured as a martyr.