The Lily of Éire

Eamonn Lynskey explores the legend and legacy of St Dymphna

Dymphna is an Irish saint whose early history is as short on hard evidence as was Philomena’s but who has kept her status.

Fascinated by what he had read about the ancient city of Troy, the young Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890) declared to his father that, if such a great city had once existed, then its vast walls must still remain hidden under the dust of ages. His father disagreed. The consensus of the time generally regarded Troy as a place Homer had invented in order to spin his great yarn of the Greek war involving the abduction of the beautiful Helen. Years later, Heinrich unearthed the treasures of Homer’s fabled city near the modern Turkish town of Hissarlik. The science of archaeology had shown that an ancient tradition, long considered merely legendary, had firm roots in history. So it is that traditional accounts of events veiled in the mists of antiquity should not be too readily dismissed.

On the other hand, it is true that many legends and apocryphal accounts have been exposed as fanciful. When Pope John XXIII in 1961 set in motion the work of assessing the validity of sainthoods conferred by the early Church some revered names were found wanting in the hard evidence necessary for canonization. Some like Saint Philomena – a ‘virgin martyr’ long supposed to have resisted the advances of the Emperor Diocletian – did not survive close scrutiny. Her ‘demotion’ caused distress for many Catholics at the time due to her popularity as a devotional figure. Witness the wide use of her name in baptisms.

Dymphna is an Irish saint whose early history is as short on hard evidence as was Philomena’s but who has kept her status. Devotion to her is of early date and a church is consecrated in her name in the town of Geel in Belgium. An Irish saint venerated in Belgium? Was she one of those holy people like Gallus and Columbanus who journeyed from Ireland to spread God’s word again in a benighted Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire?

No. Dymphna did indeed journey to Europe, but her motivation was very different from the founders of the great monasteries of Bobbio and Luxeuil. Her story was first set down in 1247 in an investigation by a canon of the Church of St. Aubert at Cambray, France, commissioned by the Bishop of Cambray. The writer admits that the details he gives of Dympna’s life cannot be shown to be historically accurate but are recorded according to the oral traditions which he collected. These accounts tell that she lived in Ireland about the beginning of the seventh century and was the daughter of a Viking King who had married an Irish woman who she was was a devout Christian. She had her daughter Dymphna secretly baptised at the age of 14. The mother died shortly afterwards, to the inconsolable grief of her husband. His mental state began to be seriously disturbed and, unable to find a woman as beautiful as his late wife, he began to desire his daughter who resembled her remarkably. To escape him she fled to the continent, accompanied by her confessor Father Gerebernus, and took refuge in the town of Geel in Belgium. Eventually she was discovered by her father’s agents and when he came to recover her, Father Gerebernus was put to death and Dymphna, when she refused to return to Ireland, was beheaded by her father.

These traditional accounts rely on an accumulation of oral sources; no ‘hard evidence’ has ever come to light about the saint. The ecclesiastical historian Johann Peter Kirsch (1861-1941) wrote that the narrative of Dymphna ‘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 legend’.

If matters had rested there, Dymphna may well have suffered the fate of Philomena for lack of saintly credentials. However, it seems that, from the time that the 1247 account was written – and indeed long before that – her fame as a source of healing, particularly of mental disorders, had spread. A church was built in Geel in 1349 to house her remains and

The ecclesiastical historian Johann Peter Kirsch (1861-1941) wrote that the narrative of Dymphna ‘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 legend’. those of Father Gerebernus. The remains were said to have been found in the cave in which their bodies had originally been concealed. By 1480, so many pilgrims were coming from all over Europe seeking treatment for mental disorders that the church had to build an annex to provide accommodation for them. When the flood of pilgrims continued to increase, the local townspeople began to offer accommodation in their houses. When the church burnt down during the late fifteenth century a second church was raised in 1532 on the site in where it still stands today, reputedly above the location where Dymphna’s body was originally buried.

It is with the building of these churches that the story of Dymphna emerges from the mists of legend into documented history. Her association with cures of mental disorder is probably due to her being seen as a victim of her father’s mental disturbance as a consequence of his beloved wife’s death and which caused the insanity that led him to desire his daughter. Certainly, from earliest times, her reputation as a source of cure and comfort for people suffering from mental problems grew apace and consequently pilgrimages to her church in Geel grew likewise. Thus began a tradition of caring for those with mental disorders that has endured for over 700 years.

In an article entitled ‘Lessons to be learned from the oldest community psychiatric service in the world: Geel in Belgium’ (available on the internet), the American clinical psychologist Henck Van Bilsen writes that “the Geel model does not rely on large amounts of rules and regulations and staff do not need to administratively demonstrate that these rules are followed. In the Geel model, people, patients and carers are allowed to ‘be’ and discover their mutual road to understanding and recovery.” The church continued the guardianship of the Geel project until 1852 when the work was taken over by the state and placed under medical direction. With the provision of extra facilities in other locations, patient numbers have reduced to about 250 boarders today from a peak of about 4000 in the 1930s. Host families receive a stipend from the Belgian Government.

Given the poor treatment meted out to the mentally disturbed before the arrival of modern psychiatric understanding – in medieval times it was believed that abnormal behaviours were caused by demonic possession – this early recognition at Geel of a charitable way of treating the mentally disturbed is remarkable. It took a long time for modern ‘institutional care’ to catch up with the humane practices adopted by Dymphna’s followers.

By the sixteenth century her legend had become so much a part of Europe’s Christian heritage that in 1515 an altarpiece was commissioned from the Flemish painter Goswin van der Weyden (1455-1543) by the Norbertine religious order for their Tongerlo Abbey Seven Scenes from the Life and Veneration of Saint Dymphna is a work of seven panels (one now missing) depicting the life of the saint from her baptism to her eventual death and burial in Geel. The altarpiece itself has had a chequered history since its creation, including being hidden away during the Napoleonic wars and then passing through various hands until bought at Sotheby’s auction house in 2001 by the Belgian logistics service company The Phoebus Foundation, based in Antwerp. This company has amassed a fine collection of artworks from the Flanders area and regularly exhibits. As mentioned, one panel of the altarpiece has not survived but the rest are at present being restored at the Foundation’s conservation studio. Other famous Flemish masters who have pictured her legend include Godfried Maes (1688) and Gerard Seghers (1650).

The similarities in the accounts given of the origins of Philomena and Dymphna are striking. There is the refusal to suffer sexual assault, a common theme in Catholic martyrology, as for example in the case of Saint Maria Goretti (1890-1902). There is also a similarity in the story of the finding of burial: a stone found near Philomena’s remains with a name carved on it and, in Dymphna’s case, what was said to be a brick bearing two lines of letters read as DYMPNA. But Philomena lost her place in the Canon and Dymphna kept hers despite these similarities, probably because the Curia had to take into account the international reach of Dymphna’s legend and the good works (miracles being reputed to be among them) done in her name.

When exactly Dymphna became known as ‘The Lily of Éire’ is not clear, but obviously the choice of the lily, traditionally the symbol of purity and innocence, refers to her willingness to die rather than be defiled. And whatever about the uncertainties of her origins, the power of her name has continued its presence into modern times.

There is the St. Dymphna's Special School in Ballina, County Mayo in Ireland. In the United States there is a National Shrine of Saint Dymphna at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Massillon, Ohio and other institutions bearing her name in other countries. On a humbler note, there is a holy well dedicated to Dymphna in the Irish village of Kildalkey, Co. Meath, attesting to an old tradition that she spent a night in Kildalkey Abbey during her flight from her disturbed father.

And there matters must rest until future archaeological discoveries may do for St Dymphna what they did for Troy. Until then, questions will remain about her origins. But whatever doubts persist about her story, there is little doubt that for centuries much good has been done in her name.

The holy well dedicated to Dymphna in the village of Kildalkey, Co. Meath, attesting to an old tradition that she spent a night in Kildalkey Abbey during her flight from her disturbed father. 56 Senior Times January - February 2022 l www.seniortimes.ie

Pat Keenan on happenings in and around the capital

Dublin Bay: A unique UNESCO Biosphere Reserve

Dublin is only capital city in the world that contains a UNESCO recognised biosphere reserve. In 1981 they officially declared the North Bull Island as an important habitat for plants and wildlife. UNESCO accepts that the whole Dublin Bay area should be protected for its ecological value and that even include the communities that live and work in the Dublin Port and Docks.

Bull Wall Bridge. Photo - Peter Gerken

The North Bull Island has such a wide range of natural habitats, sand dunes, beaches areas, intertidal mudflats and marshes, both salt and freshwater. At any time up to 27,000 birds are present, many are migratory, making the Island internationally importance. Commonly there are Brent Geese, Bar-tailed Godwits, Curlews, Dunlins, Grey Plovers, Knots, Redshanks, Oyster Catchers, Shellduck, Shovelers and and Widgeon. Flora and fauna too, salt marsh and dune vegetation, fresh water marsh wild flowers, orchids and Alnus glutinosa. But it is not just an ecological asset, it's a huge recreation amenity affecting all who live and visit - especially for children and their education. Dublin Bay has no less than seven links golf courses and an almost limitless range water based sports and activities.

Interesting to realise that this whole area would not exist but for the building of two walls, the North Bull Wall extending from the estuary of the River Tolka and the earlier-constructed Great South Wall from the tip of the Poolbeg peninsula. These projects dating from the 17th and 18th centuries were efforts to end silting at the mouths of three rivers, Dodder, Liffey and Poddle. Part of the problem was that the Liffey tended to widen southwards and occupied areas into where Pearse Street is today and beyond.

This area was part of the estate owned by Sir John Rogerson. He began to reclaim and fill-in lands along south side of the then much wider Liffey, effectively he straightened the river and establishing what is now Sir John Rogerson's Quay.

Registered Charity 20013554