May 15, 2024 Beth Hlabse ’11
Program Director, Fiat Program on Faith and Mental Health,
McGrath Institute for Church Life
Friends, today is the feast day of St. Dymphna, the patron saint of those with mental illness. For a long time, I felt uncomfortable with St. Dymphna’s story. She died a horrific death at the hands of her father, who suffered from mental illness. Born into a royal family in Ireland in the 600s and baptized secretly, Dymphna lost her mother at age 14. Her grieving father experienced a mental breakdown and sought to marry Dymphna. Her refusal resulted in her martyrdom.
Learning about the graces that followed St. Dympha’s death eventually won me over to this saint’s story. And she’s taught me so much about how we’re called to live out our communion as the Body of Christ—the communion expressed in today’s gospel—in how we care for one another.
Dymphna was buried in the village of Geel, Belgium. After her passing, many miracles occurred there—attributed to Dymphna’s intercession—and Geel became a popular pilgrimage site for those with mental illness. Following her canonization in 1247, the pilgrims continued to grow in number, so much so that the town’s inns could not hold them, and the townspeople began to open their homes to travelers with mental illness. Some pilgrims remained in these welcoming homes and thus began a centuries-old tradition of “foster families” taking in strangers with mental illness. Today, there are more than 200 families in Geel who care for roughly 500 residents with chronic mental illness. Referred to as the “oldest therapeutic community,” Geel’s townspeople are said to “care, not cure.”
As we pray with the words of Our Lord, “that they may be one just as we are one,” I ponder how we might follow in Geel's example, opening our hearts and our homes (or at least our kitchen tables) to those among us who are suffering—whether a neighbor grieving the loss of her spouse, the friend who has been in and out of rehab, or the family member with whom we need reconciliation. St. Dymphna, pray for us.