Saint Dymphna

Dympna was the daughter of a king or prince of Britain: perhaps one should understand by this name the successor of a chief of the Angles or Saxons, who came to invade this island in the 5th and 6th centuries. Her father was a pagan; her mother, of whom the acts say only this one word, was a Christian like her daughter. A holy pri est named Géréberne Priest and confessor of Saint Dymphna, martyred with her. Gerebernus, who lived in the vicinity of their dwelling, had baptized them both and sustained them in the practice of religion. From an early age, the young Dympna gave the greatest promise, and her virtue, which developed within her with the years, already announced that she would know how to show great courage when the occasion arose. She was gentle, modest, full of restraint and purity, and sought to please only God and the authors of her days in all things. Dympna lost her mother at a still early age, and this loss, already so sad for her heart, became for her the occasion of a great and painful temptation.

Indeed, her father, whom the death of his wife had filled with deep sorrow, having subsequently formed the plan to remarry, ordered his officers to find him a person whose features could remind him of the one who had been so dear to him. After long and useless searches in the region, they came to find him, and through an inconceivable forgetting of all modesty, they advised him to marry his daughter Dympna, whose features bore a striking resemblance to her mother.

Despite the horror that nature inspires for such alliances, the corruption and coarseness of these peoples did not always repel them: thus, one is only half-astonished to see the barbarian king accept the proposal of his officers. The young virgin shuddered at these words, and despite all the entreaties and promises made to her, she declared that she would never consent to it. As her refusals only irritated her father's desires, she asked for forty days to reflect. The king consented, not doubting that, once this interval had elapsed, she would yield to his solicitations; but the pious Dympna had a very different thought in her heart.

She immediately visited the holy priest Gerebernus, who continued to guide her in virtue and the practice of her duties: there, she explained to this venerable old man the critical situation in which she was being placed. Gerebernus, beside himself upon hearing her speak thus, raised his eyes to heaven and beseeched the Lord to make known His will in such a pressing danger. God heard this fervent prayer of His servant and declared to him that the plan conceived by the young virgin must be carried out as soon as possible, and that she must flee to a foreign land where she could serve Him without obstacle. From that moment, Dympna made, with extreme precautions, all the preparations for her departure: she won over a servant of her father and his wife, who promised to accompany her with the holy priest Gerebernus. Everything being arranged, they took advantage of a favorable moment and set out to sea, abandoning themselves in the midst of the waves to the Providence that had inspired this resolution in them. It did not abandon them; after a happy crossing, they landed not far from the mouths of the Scheldt, near the places where the city of Antwerp is found today. Having immediately begun to look for a retreat where they could rest from Gheel Site of the martyrdom and principal center of the cult of Saint Dymphna. their fatigues, they stopped at Gheel. This country was then sparsely inhabited: one saw almost everywhere only brushwood or woods, in the midst of which they enco untered a sm saint Martin Dedication of the church where the body of Saint Firmin was found. all church dedicated to Saint Martin. This place seemed suitable to them: they stopped there, and it is there that, from that moment, the holy priest Gerebernus celebrated the divine mysteries. At some distan Zemmale Location of the dwelling of Saint Dympna near Gheel. ce, they built, in the place called Zemmale, a small dwelling, where they lived for the space of three months in prayers, fasts, and the practice of all virtues.

However, Dympna's father was soon informed of his daughter's hasty flight, and he was filled with grief: he immediately sent men in all directions to try to find out where she had hidden herself; he himself, accompanied by a large number of armed men, set out in pursuit, and, embarking on his ships, he arrived at the mouths of the Scheldt where some clues seemed to give him hope of finding the fugitive. He then ordered some of his men to disperse throughout the country, as they had previously done in Brittany, and to inquire everywhere if his daughter had appeared in the region. Some of them, having arrived in a village called Westerloo, quite close to Zemmale, spent the nig ht in an Westerloo Village where the king finds the trail of his daughter. inn, then in the morning, at the moment of leaving, they paid the host who had served them. The latter, upon receiving silver coins from their hands, looked at them with attention and observed that they were exactly similar to other coins he possessed: this reflection struck the envoys, who asked him from whom he could have received a foreign coin like that. It is, said the host, from a young girl from Brittany who leads a solitary and retired life not far from here, and who buys with these coins the things necessary for life. These words only increased the suspicions of the king's officers: they questioned him again about the appearance of this person, her age and her features; the host answered these questions as well; he added that she was accompanied by a venerable old man, a priest, and several other people; that, moreover, if they wished, he could lead them in a short time to the place where she lived. The envoys accepted this proposal with joy, and having accompanied their guide, they arrived in a deserted, uncultivated, wild place, where, in the midst of other people, they caught sight of Dympna, whom they knew very well. Immediately they hastened to come and announce this news to the king, who set out on the road with the people of his retinue, and went to the indicated place. Arrived near his daughter, he addressed her in turn with flattering words, reproaches, and promises. "What were you thinking, in fleeing your father thus, and how could you abandon his palace to come and live in this dreadful solitude? Do you not know what place is destined for you in my kingdom? Could the words of a decrepit and weak old man have troubled your mind to the point of making you lose sight of the honors that await you with me?"

The venerable priest Gerebernus, who was present when the king spoke thus, could not help but speak up: "O king," he said to him, "how could passion have so perverted your thoughts? How can you conceive of plans so contrary to your glory and to the virtue of your daughter? Are you unaware that purity is the most precious of all treasures, that it gives wisdom to the young, and holiness to the old? Cease to hold such language, unworthy of you, do not solicit your daughter further; she persists and will always persist in her generous purpose." Then, turning to Dympna, he exhorted her again not to listen to the criminal proposals that had been made to her.

Full of fury upon hearing this speech, the king had the venerable Gerebernus seized by his men, who overwhelmed him with insults and blows; and seeing that he continued to protest aloud against such violence, he gave a sign, and the soldiers struck him down lifeless. After further entreaties which provoked new and more energetic refusals from Dympna, the king became irritated, threatened, and declared to his daughter that if she did not renounce following the foolish thoughts suggested to her by that miserable old man, who had just paid for his audacity and insolence with his head, she would herself feel the effects of his anger. "My Father," replied Dympna, "do not hope to obtain my consent; I will never give it."

At these words, the furious king commanded his men to kill her; but they dared not obey such an order given in anger. Seeing their hesitation, he seized his sword himself, and, with a single blow, he struck off the head of his daughter, who fell at his feet bathed in her blood. The body of Dympna and that of the venerable Gerebernus remained for a few days exposed to animals and birds of prey, which respected them; then, pious inhabitants of the land laid them in the earth. Later, because of the miracles that were performed in that place, the clergy and the people sought the remains of the two martyrs, and found them enclosed in two tombs of an extremely white stone: which appeared all the more astonishing as all the stones in that country are black. Perhaps God wished to manifest in this way how pleasing to Him had been the sacrifice of these two martyrs of chastity.

Since then, a great number of extraordinary healings took place at the tomb of the two Saints. People flocked there from all sides to implore their protection. It was then that the inha bitants of Xantes Xantes sur le Rhin City on the Rhine whose inhabitants attempted to remove the relics. on the Rhine sought to seize these relics, in order to keep them in the midst of their city; but having been surprised at the moment they had just taken them, they were forced to return them. The principal inhabitants of Gheel then thought of enlarging the church in which the tomb was enclosed, and of placing the relics of Saint Dympna in a more beautiful reliquary. A very rich one was prepared, and into it the Bishop of Cambrai transferred these venerable remains.

The precise time of Saint Dympna's death is not known. Authors vary on the year, which may be placed towards the middle of the second part of the 6th century. As for the day, the Utrecht manuscript, which recounts the life of the saint, sets it on May 30; but it is on the 15th that her feast is celebrated.

The village of Gheel grew significantly through the cult and miracles of Saint Dympna. Later, one finds there a barony, a hospital, and a church which was erected into a collegiate church.

Saint Dympna is depicted holding a chained demon; this is because she is renowned for the deliverance of the possessed and the healing of madness and epilepsy; for what was considered possession among the ancients is regarded as madness or epilepsy among the moderns. In this capacity, an asylum for the mentally ill wa s established in maison d'aliénés Institution famous for the care of the mentally ill under the patronage of the saint. Gheel under her patronage, as famous in Belgium as Bicêtre is in our country: this institution has existed from time immemorial.

If we are asked why Saint Dympna is invoked for the possessed, the mentally ill, or the epileptic, we easily find the motive for this patronage in the senseless act of her father who, to his plan of incest, added murder: by a connection easy to conceive, it naturally occurred to the people to invoke against madness the one who had been a victim of her father's fury and dementia.

We have borrowed this Life from the Lives of the Saints of Cambrai and Arras, by Abbé Destombes. M. l'abbé Destombes Author of the Life of the Saints of Cambrai and Arras.