아일랜드계인지 브리턴인지 아니면 아모리켄인지 확실치 않다고 한다.
그러나 아일랜드 사람임이 확실하다고 본다.
그녀는 어머니가 죽자 아버지의 근친상간 문제를 피하기 위하여 집을 뛰쳐나갔다.
벨기에 안트베르펜(Antwerpen)으로 갔는데, 이때 두 명의 동료들이 함께 갔다고 한다.
딤프나는 부친에 의하여 참수되었다고 전해온다.
그녀의 무덤에서 기도하면 간질병자와 정신이상자들이 치유된다는 수많은 치유기적들이 기록되어 있다.
그녀는 간질병과 정신병으로 고생하는 사람들의 수호성인이다.
DYMPHNA
Also known as
Dympna; Dimpna
Memorial
15 May
Profile
Daughter of a pagan Irish chieftain named Damon, and a beautiful devoted Christian woman whose name has not come down to us. Her mother died when Dymphna was a teenager. Her father searched the Western world for a woman to replace his wife, but none could. Returning home, he saw that his daughter was as beautiful as her mother, and maddened by grief, he made advances on her. She fought him off, then fled to Belgium with Saint Gerebernus, an elderly priest and family friend.
Dymphna's father searched for them, and his search led to Belgium. There an innkeeper refused to accept his money, knowing it was difficult to exchange. This told Damon that his daughter was close - it would be unusual for a village innkeeper to know a lot about foreign currency, and his knowledge indicated that had recently seen it. The king concentrated his search in the area. When he found them in Gheel, he beheaded Gerebernus, and demanded that Dymphna surrender to him. She refused, and he killed her in a rage.
The site where she died is known for its miraculous healings of the insane and possessed. There is now a well-known institution on the site, and her relics are reported to cure insanity and epilepsy.
Readings
Lord, our God, you graciously chose Saint Dymphna as patroness of those afflicted with mental and nervous disorders. She is thus an inspiration and a symbol of charity to the thousands who ask her intercession.
Please grant, Lord, through the prayers of this pure youthful martyr, relief and consolation to all suffering such trials, and especially those for whom we pray. (Here mention those for whom you wish to pray).
We beg you, Lord, to hear the prayers of Saint Dymphna on our behalf. Grant all those for whom we pray patience in their sufferings and resignation to your divine will. Please fill them with hope, and grant them the relief and cure they so much desire.
We ask this through Christ our Lord who suffered agony in the garden. Amen
St. Dymphna
Feastday: May 15
Patron of those suffering for nervous and mental affictions
St. Dymphna
Dymphna was fourteen when her mother died. Damon is said to have been afflicted with a mental illness, brought on by his grief. He sent messengers throughout his town and other lands to find some woman of noble birth, resembling his wife, who would be willing to marry him. When none could be found, his evil advisers told him to marry his own daughter. Dymphna fled from her castle together with St. Gerebran, her confessor and two other friends. Damon found them in Belgium. He gave orders that the priest's head be cut off. Then Damon tried to persuade his daughter to return to Ireland with him. When she refused, he drew his sword and struck off her head. She was then only fifteen years of age. Dymphna received the crown of martyrdom in defense of her purity about the year 620. She is the patron of those suffering from nervous and mental afflictions. Many miracles have taken place at her shrine, built on the spot where she was buried in Gheel, Belgium.
Prayer: Hear us, O God, Our Saviour, as we honor St. Dymphna, patron of those afflicted with mental and emotional illness. Help us to be inspired by her example and comforted by her merciful help. Amen.
Dympna of Gheel VM (RM)
(also known as Dymphna, Dympne)
Died c. 650. Variations of the legend of Saint Dympna are to be found in the folklore of many European countries. In fact, it is a classic example of a folktale adapted as the life-story of a saint. In the early 13th century, the bones of an unknown man and woman were discovered at Gheel near Antwerp, Belgium. The name Dympna was found on a brick with the two ancient, marble coffins and may have been taken as a variation on the name Saint Damhnait (Damhnade).
Dympna is said to have been the daughter of a pagan Irish (from Monaghan?), British, or Amorican king and a Christian princess who died when she was very young, but who had baptized her daughter. As Dympna grew into a young woman, her uncanny resemblance to her dead mother aroused an incestuous passion in her father.
On the advice of her confessor, Saint Gerebernus, Dympna fled from home. Accompanied by Gerebernus and attended by the court jester and his wife, she took a ship to Antwerp. She then travelled through wild forest country until she reached a small oratory dedicated to Saint Martin on the site of the present-day town of Gheel (25 miles from Antwerp). The group settled there to live as hermits and during the several months before they were found, Dympna gained a reputation for holiness because of her devotion to the poor and suffering.
Dympna's father had pursued her to Antwerp, and he sent spies who found them by tracing their use of foreign coins. The king tried to persuade her to return, but when she refused, the king ordered that she and Gerebernus be killed. The king's men killed the priest and their companions but hesitated to kill Dympna. The king himself struck off her head with his sword. The bodies were left on the ground. They were buried by angelic or human hands on the site where they had perished.
The whole story gripped the imagination of the entire countryside especially because, according to tradition, lunatics were cured at her grave. Great interest in her cultus was renewed and spread when the translation of the relics of Dympna was followed by the cures of a number of epileptics, lunatics, and persons under evil influences who had visited the shrine. Thus, in the 13th century, a bishop of Cambrai, faced with the growing veneration of Dympna and increasing interest in mental illness, arranged for her biography to be written by a man named Pierre who collected the oral tradition. Ever since, she has been regarded as the patroness of the mentally ill.
Under her patronage, the inhabitants of Gheel have been known for the care they have given to those with mental illnesses. By the close of the 13th century, an infirmary was built. Today the town possesses a first-class sanatorium, one of the largest and most efficient colonies for the mentally ill in the world. It was one of the first to initiate a program through which patients live normal and useful lives in the homes of farmers or local residents, whom they assist in their labor and whose family life they share. The strength of Dympna's cultus is evidenced by this compassionate work of the people of Gheel for the mentally ill at a time when they were universally neglected or treated with hostility.
The body of Dympna is preserved in a silver reliquary in the church bearing her name. Only the head of Gerebernus rests there, the remains have been removed to Sonsbeck in the diocese of Muenster. Three churches in Belgium have altars dedicated to her (Attwater, Benedictines, D'Arcy, Delaney, Farmer, Kenney, Montague, O'Hanlon, White).
From Stories of the Saints
by Kate Bolin In art, Saint Dympna is a crowned maiden with a sword and the devil on a chain. Sometimes she may be shown (1) kneeling before her confessor, Saint Gerebernus, (2) kneeling at Mass while her father murders the priest Gerebernus (Roeder), (3) praying in a cloud surrounded by a group of lunatics bound with golden chains, or (4) being beheaded by the king (White). The more common image now seen of Saint Dympna (shown here and in a larger size), clearly illustrates that she is a virgin (lily) and Irish (note the shamrock on the book). For an interesting image that has larger cultural implications, see La Cadena--El Hogar.
Dympna is invoked against insanity, mental illness of all types, asylums for the mentally ill, nurses of the mentally ill, sleepwalking, epilepsy, and demoniac possession (Roeder). A lovely set of nine prayers to Saint Dymphna are worth studying.
Her feast day is kept in Ireland and Gheel. In the United States, her cultus centers on her shrine in Massillon, Ohio, which is next to one of the most modern hospitals in the world. The Franciscan Mission Associates in America conduct a world-wide correspondence in her name to fund their activities for the poor and suffering, especially in Central America (Montague).
Saint Dympna or Dimpna
Virgin, martyr, died Gheel, Belgium, 7th century. According to legend she fled from Ireland to Gheel with the priest Gerebernus, to escape the unholy desire of her own father, a pagan king of Ireland. The latter, however, discovered their whereabouts and put them to death. She is invoked against insanity, and as a result of the miraculous cures effected, through her intercession, a colony for lunatics has grown up at Gheel. Relics at Gheel. Feast, 15 May.
New Catholic Dictionary
