Madness and cats. These are among the factors you will be deciding upon as you cast today's vote between Dymphna, the patron saint of madness, and Gertrude of Nivelles, the patron saint of cats. But of course the lives of saintly souls are more than the various aspects of life we've appended to them over the years. Which is why people read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the Lent Madness write-ups before deciding which saint resonates with them on a particular day. That's the joy embedded in the process.
Yesterday, Katharina von Bora defeated Wulfstan 55% to 45% to advance to the Saintly Sixteen. All is not lost for Wulfstan, however. Apparently many Lent Madness voters will be naming their next cats after him.
Dymphna
Dymphna lived in the seventh century and was the daughter of a pagan Irish king and his Christian wife. Her story was passed down for centuries via oral tradition and first written down in the thirteenth century.
At fourteen years old, Dymphna dedicated herself to Christ and took a vow of chastity. Her father, grieving the death of his beautiful wife, began to desire to take Dymphna as his wife. Dymphna fled to Belgium and took refuge in the town of Geel, where she carried out good deeds and acts of mercy until her father tracked her down. He traveled to Geel and tried to force Dymphna to return with him to Ireland, but she resisted. Furious, her father drew his sword and beheaded his fifteen-year-old daughter.
Dymphna’s inspiring legacy has formed the town of Geel into a place of miraculous compassion. In the middle ages, pilgrims traveled from all over Europe to visit the church named in her memory and to seek treatment for the mentally ill. When the church ran out of room to house pilgrims, townspeople opened their own homes. This tradition of care has endured in Geel for more than seven hundred years. Pilgrims and patients are still invited into residents’ homes as boarders and welcomed as valued members of the community. At its peak in the 1930s, Geel’s citizens hosted more than 4,000 boarders.
Saint Dymphna’s feast day is celebrated May 15. She is traditionally shown as a regal princess holding a sword. In modern versions, the sword symbolizes her martyrdom, but in the older statues and stained glass images, she is pricking the neck of a demon with her sword, symbollically slaying the demons of mental disorders.
Saint Dymphna is the patron saint of the mentally ill and those suffering with neurological disorders as well as those who treat such disorders. She is also the patron saint of victims of incest.
Collect for Dymphna
Loving God, who chose Dymphna as patroness of those afflicted with mental and nervous disorders, grant comfort and healing to all who suffer from mental illness and courage and compassion to all those who minister to the mentally ill. May your church take inspiration from her good example, so that like Dymphna and the people of Geel we may open our hearts and lives to those in need, in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Gertrude of Nivelles
Gertrude was born around 626 to two faithful Christians who were also powerful political figures in western Europe. She lived with her family at the royal court. As the daughter of a nobleman, Gertrude was a highly prized potential wife.
Gertrude, however, had other ideas about her life. At a royal feast, the king asked young Gertrude if she would like to marry the son of a duke to secure her family’s good fortune and power. Gertrude is reported to have angrily replied that she would not marry the son of a duke—or any man—but would only be wed to Christ the Lord.
When her father died a decade later, her mother Ida (or Itta) founded and built a double monastery (where men and women served together) in Nivelles in modern-day Belgium. Wealthy widows of the time often established monasteries to protect their children, especially unwed daughters, and their familial lands from seizure should the political powers change. Ida also tonsured her daughter; this act of shaving the head marked Gertrude for religious life and helped stop the constant flow of persistent suitors vying for her hand in marriage—and control of her great fortune and power.
Upon her mother’s death, Gertrude became abbess of the monastery at Nivelles. Under her leadership, the monastery became known as a safe harbor for all travelers. She welcomed pilgrims, monastics, and missionaries as well as their teachings and traditions, inviting guests to teach those in the monastery new chants and to tell stories of Christianity from other lands.
Gertrude remained singularly dedicated to Christ throughout her life. She spent hours devoted to prayer, especially for those who had died. She wore a hairshirt, a shirt made of rough fabric with a layer of animal hair and used for self-mortification. She was buried in her hairshirt and a discarded veil when she died at age 33.
She is often pictured with mice, and gold and silver mice were left as offerings at her shrine in Germany as late as the nineteenth century. Mice often represented souls in purgatory, and Gertrude prayed fervently for those who had died. Legend holds that the souls of those who have died in the Lord spend their first night in heaven with Gertrude as their hostess.
Collect for Gertrude of Nivelles
Gracious God, lover of souls, we give you thanks for Gertrude who singularly dedicated her life to welcoming the traveler and praying for those who have died: Grant that we too may seek to entertain angels unaware and to pray for those who have entered eternal rest, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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306 comments on “Dymphna vs. Gertrude of Nivelles”
Have to go with the Patron Saint of the mentally ill and those with neurologic disorders. Mental illness is something that desperately needs attention, even today....the "demons of mental illness" still need to be proverbially "slain".
Voted-- in honor of all those who grapple daily with neuro disorders.
Dymphna for me. She must have been an astounding person to have so strongly inspired the town where she had only a year for doing good works before her father murdered her. What a legacy!
Also, the cats connection with Gertrude is just plain specious.
Love your avatar!
Thanks! I'm a big fan of foxes and wolves.
The story of Dymphna is way to sad, especially if imagined as real. Now Gertrude, is such a cheerful beginning of the day, as well as an interesting historical tip on retaining property and wealth in the eventuality of widowhood. A prayer for sad Dymphna and a vote for Gertrude. All the best from California!
God, and most of my friends, know I love cats. But I have to vote for Dymphna for her dedication to the mentally ill.
I am touched by both women's lives but as a woman who works for social justice and the chronically mentally ill homeless population I am voting for Dymphna.
Having a young child with Epilepsy, I appreciate the prayers and companionship of Dymphna!
Phoebe and Tabitha are insisting that Gertrude is not their patron. We voted for Dymphna because of her short, but dedicated life. After all, cats have 9 lives.
Not getting how Gertrude became the patron saint of cats?
Thanks for the explanation, Michelle. My vote is for Gertrude as I am indeed a 'crazy cat lady' and have a little statue and prayer of her.
Officially, according to Rome she isn't. Scroll up to https://www.lentmadness.org/2018/02/dymphna-vs-gertrude-of-nivelles/#comment-58254 and read how recent that cat appeared in that icon.
I voted for Dymphna for the mental illness association.
Having majored in Religious Studies with an emphasis on comparative religions, I will be content if Gertrude wins.
I voted fro Saint Dymphna because her short life had such an impact on Geel that they are still serving the mentally ill and neuro-divergent as they would Christ in the tradition of Matthew 25 over 1,200 years later. What a lasting impact that has helped generations of people.
And I'm a cat person, but as explained by another commentator, that cat didn't get written into Saint Gertrude's icon until after 1980. 1980!
Tough choice today between 2 ladies I'd never heard of.
Saddened by Dymphna's relationship w/her father, but I'm gtting
on the cat bandwagon w/Gertrude.
I voted for Dymphna for the sake of those living with mental illness and those who care for them.
This has to be the least inspiring vote of the year. Surely neither of these women will make it through to the finals. I thought about not voting, but after observing what can happen when enough people in modern america choose to do that I took a stand for Saint Dymphna. Care for the mentally disabled has to be more worthy than (pardon me) cats.
Gotta love a good hair shirt story (I'm itchy just thinking about it!), but I have to go with the courage and example of Dymphna and the people of Geel. I have both mental illness and neurological conditions in my family.
I may be splitting hairs here, but I'm being as honest as I can: As a hospital chaplain, I served in the geriatric psych unit (as well as pediatrics and other units over the years). I am grateful to the people of Dymphna's town for their welcome and care for those who are mentally ill. I am also very much impressed by Gertrude's welcome and interest in the varying beliefs and ways of prayer and service to God of those who visited her monastery. This openness illustrates the radical hospitality she practiced. But as Gertrude had the longer life on earth, with greater opportunity to act on her calling, she gets my vote. (I also hope to learn more about the cat connection as we go along.)
Long-time voter, first-time commenter. I was torn on today's choices. I love cats, but it was when I read that Dymphna is the patron saint of victims of incest, I knew I had to cast my vote for her.
Went with Dymphna today, but still cant figure out WHY she is the patron of those with mental health issues...
I couldn’t find a coherent explanation out there in Wikiland, but here are three conjectures, not mutually exclusive;
Dymphna’s father became mentally ill following her mother’s death, which seems to be part of the tradition.
According to one tradition, when at Geel she built a hospice for the relief of the poor and [generically] sick.
After her death, and for whatever reason, her church became a focus for pilgrimages by the mentally ill, and the unique
tradition of caring for them through hospitality developed from the general tradition of hospitality to pilgrims.
In my capacity of word-nerd I’ll add that hostels, hotels, hospitals and hospices originally all the same thing, described by one word. Pilgrims came and were accommodated; some got sick and were cared for; and some of those wasted away and died.
In Siena, opposite the cathedral steps, the Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala was one such institution. Starting as a hostel for cathedral pilgrims at least as early as the 11th Century, it evolved to become the city’s general hospital and remained so until a modern hospital was built outside the city in the 1980s.
In 1984, when my wife was a patient in the new institution, I had to go to the business office, still in the original location, to settle the bill and found that the building continued to house clinical patients. The nephrology ward, with beds, wandering ambulatory patients wheeling their IVs, and hurrying doctors and nurses, was a long gothic chamber with frescoed ceilings and a big window at the far end. The hospital is now an interesting museum; if you go, you’ll see the ward just as it was minus the beds and activity.
I was going for the cats but then I read the history of Dymphna which resonates even more. Question. Why cats. Never explained or did I miss it somewhere?
Becky posted an illuminating explanation at 8:26 this morning.
According to which the cat tradition dates all the way back to the 1980s.
Dymphna, for two reasons: I get to vote for the patron of those who suffer from mental illness, and against cats! Is there a saint associated with dogs in the running this year?
Every yesr we are given an opportunity to submit the names of saints we would like to see on the bracket. I submitted Constance (from antiquity) and learned about a modern day Constance I had never even heard about prior to Lent Madness.
I think Dymphna has to be the patron saint of abused women and children. She gets my vote even if my grandmother was named Gertrude.
Voting for Dymphna today, and holding before God those with mental illness and anxiety, and our beleaguered mental health services who do admirable work despite desperate underfunding.
My cat voted before I had chance. Gertrude is pictured as patron saint of cats. Don't know where the mice came in.
Cat women generate weirdness in my mind. Strong women who defy predators generate admiration. Dymphna all the way!
Lent Madness is about holy frivolity. I voted for Dymphna because of the dearth of vowels in her name!
Dymphna's legacy
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/07/01/484083305/for-centuries-a-small-town-has-embraced-strangers-with-mental-illness
Having family members who have long struggled with depression, I am touched to know now who is their patron saint!
This was a tough call and I would be satisfied with either one as a winner. I did, however, go with Dymphna because she was Irish, as am I, and more so because of the continuing influence she had centuries ago in a small town in a country not her own. In 2018 we also should honor those who in their own way acted out the #metoo message.
Cats are fine and hospitality is outstanding but mental illness is shoveled under the rug. Here is
Something that happened and a town that opens it hearts, minds and homes to it. Little could be
more important
As a Pastoral Counselor for nearly 40 years I have to go with Dymphna.
Must go with Dymphna, mental illness and incest, so sadly relevant today