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The legend of St Dympna is common
in the folklore of many European countries, Dympna is said to have
been the daughter of a pagan Irish king, possibly from County Monaghan,
her mother is reputed to have been a Christian princess who died
when Dympna was young. As Dympna grew into a young woman, her uncanny
resemblance to her dead mother aroused an incestuous passion in
her father.
Dympna fled the country accompanied
by her priest Saint Gerebernus, they traveled by ship to Antwerp
and from thence to a oratory dedicated to St Martin, this was located
near the present day town of Gheel some 25 miles from Antwerp, there
they lived until discovered several months later.
Dympna's father had followed
her to Antwerp and eventually traced her to Gheel, he tried to persuade
her to return, when she refused he ordered that she and Gerebernus
be killed, the kings men killed Gerebernus and those accompanying
him, but hesitated to kill Dympna, it is said to have been the king
himself who struck the fatal blow severing her head, the bodies
were left where they lay, being buried later possibly by monks from
the oratory.
In the early 13th century the
body's of an unknown man and woman were discovered at Gheel, the
name Dympna was found on a brick near the two marble coffins. The
story generated great interest at the time, her grave came to be
associated with cures for mental illness, eventually she began to
be regarded as the patroness of the mentally ill.
The legacy left by Dympna can
be seen today in Gheel in the form of a modern sanatorium for the
mentally ill, said to be one of the best in the world. It was one
of the first to treat mental illness by helping the patients to
live normal lives, by arranging for them to live with farmers and
other members of the community, assisting them in their day to day
activities.
Dympna's body now rests in a
silver reliquary in a church named in her honour, three other churched
in Belgium have alters dedicated to the woman who was centuries
ahead in her thinking on the treatment of mental illness. |
