Source: Partial public-domain source packet for St. Dymphna and Geel. Main source: Johann Peter Kirsch, "St. Dymphna," The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 5 (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909), transcribed at New Advent. This packet is not Pierre of Cambrai's complete thirteenth-century Vita; no safe public-domain English translation of the Vita was attached.
Coverage: Partial. Historical notice of Pierre of Cambrai, legend summary, Catholic Encyclopedia's warning about the legend, and the Geel colony note.

St. Dymphna

The earliest historical account of the veneration of St. Dymphna dates from the middle of the thirteenth century.

Under Bishop Guy I of Cambrai (1238-47), Pierre, a canon of the church of Saint Aubert at Cambrai, wrote a "Vita" of the saint, from which we learn that she had been venerated for many years in a church at Gheel (province of Antwerp, Belgium), which was devoted to her.

The author expressly states that he has drawn his biography from oral tradition.

This narrative is without any historical foundation, being merely a variation of the story of the king who wanted to marry his own daughter, a motif which appears frequently in popular legends.

From time immemorial, the saint was invoked as patroness against insanity.

As a result, there has long been a colony for lunatics at Gheel; even now there are sometimes as many as fifteen hundred whose relatives invoke St. Dymphna for their cure.

The insane are treated in a peculiar manner; it is only in the beginning that they are placed in an institution for observation; later they are given shelter in the homes of the inhabitants, take part in their agricultural labours, and are treated very kindly.