Feast Day: May 30

Patron of:

• against sleepwalking
• against epilepsy
• against insanity
• against mental disorders
• against mental illness
• epileptics
• family happiness
• incest victims
• loss of parents
• martyrs
• mental asylums
• mental health caregivers
• mental health professionals
• mental hospitals
• mentally ill people
• nervous disorders
• neurological disorders
• possessed people
• princesses
• psychiatrists
• rape victims
• runaways
• sleepwalkers
• therapists

Dymphna was the daughter of a Christian woman and a pagan Irish Chieftan named Damon.When her mother died, her father searched for a woman to replace her. Finding none, he returned home and saw that his daughter was as beautiful as her mother. He made advances on Dymphna but she fought him off and fled to Belgium with an elderly priest named Gerebernus. Her father followed them to Gheel, Belgium and slew the priest. He demanded that Dymphna return with him but when she refused he flew into a rage and killed her as well.

The site where she died is known for its miraculous healings of the insane and possessed.