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”
We need all the help of Dymphna that we can get, especially in this day and age. Curiously enough, as a child I sent away for a St. Dymphna medal and wore it for a few years. Not that I was mentally ill, but who knows?
So, Dymphna for the win!
Dymphna - This one is for you Margie,RIP
This one wasn’t hard. I am allergic to cats, and have empathy toward the mentally ill (which is most people in some way or another). My vote goes to Dymphna.
cats are bad so I went with Dymphna
I am torn ! St. Dymphna’s story is very moving and inspirational. I had never heard of her before. Yet, as a major league cat lover, I can’t help being drawn to Gertrude. It was brave of her and her mother to buck traditional roles. Will have to ponder and read the other comments for guidance.
Hate to say it, but there is nothing really inspiring about either of these stories. I am surprised however that a holywell it not spring up on the very site of Dymphna's beheading. I wish either of these saints were Welsh - it would make casting my vote so much easier.
I voted for Gertrude because she actually worked with people and opened her monastery to them. I saw nothing in her write up about cats- only mice. Perhaps that 's why she is holding a cat. Dymphna died at 15 having done not much but refusing to submit to incest- it's the townspeople of Geel who have cared for the mentally ill. As to how she had time and resources to build a hostel for the mentally ill between the age of 14 and 15...? Not many details on either.
Well they both lived in Belgium, and since I lived there for a while, I like to go with Belgians if it is a toss up. Today though it is definitely Dymphna.
Dymphna. I'm allergic to cats.
Interesting that Dyphna became the patron of the mentally ill, when it seems to me it was trauma that crafted her response, and turned out her demise. Nervous disorder, indeed. (I still love cats.)
I voted for Dymphna because I was inspired by how much she inspired a legacy of hospitality in Geel. One if my favorite things about Lent Madness is that it challenges us to keep the saints' missions alive, not just their memories.
Dymphna, in honor of my grandmother. The Lord knows the details.
This was a tough contest today!
EpiscoRat had to go with cats and mice, so definitely Gertrude. But more importantly, she was all about welcoming anyone who showed up--an example we would do well to follow.
Issues of mental illness and sexual predation are so widespread and so misunderstood, never mind so hard to talk about in “polite society.” But one in four girls, and one in six boys, are sexually abused before they reach 18. That’s a lot of us. Such abuse happens in even the “best” families. And of course mental illness and neurological disorders are no respecters of class, race, gender, or anything else. I had never heard of Dymphna, but she got my vote today...and I do love cats.
St Dymphna. All the way. Although, I do love the story of St Gertrude being patron to souls in purgatory. But as patron to people with mental illnesses and neurological disorders, there is no way I can go past St Dymphna.
Besides, when I was a child I tried to convince my parents to let me change my name to Dymphna.
Where are people getting information about Gertrude and cats? Thanks.
The internet was my source, not always reliable. Go to catster.com, but beware it is a dot com site and as such is possibly not all that accurate. Dot com sites always have an axe to grind. Com is short for commercial.
Ways
I'm thinking of naming my next cat Dymphana - a kindlier sound than Wolfstan.
I voted for Gertrude, but it was a really tough choice. I wanted to vote for both of these inspiring ladies. I voted for Gertrude because she actually showed the hospitality and care that Dymphna inspired but didn't live long enough to put much into practice, poor kid.
Question: why a cat and not a mouse?
Beheaded at 15! Fled at 14! Her moments before her father beheaded her must have been horrid. She was probably sexually and physically abused and as a very young child. Hail to the town that did not forget her. Dymphna gets my vote.
Dymphna, for the sake of someone I love.
I recall seeing a film, many years ago, when I first began work at a psychiatric center. At the time, the concept of the group home was brand new in the US. The film began with the story of Dymphna. What the writer forgot to mention was that when the father finally caught up with Dymphna in Gheel, he demanded she be his wife, and killed her, but in that moment, the miracle was that her overwhelming love for her father even in death overcame his demonic possession and he was cured. His cure was the first of a series of people who were cured of mental illness. I understand that Geel continues to be a center of a lively family care or group home resource for the treatment of people with mental illness. We took this concept and developed a system of providing treatment in a home environment. Providers can receive financial compensation for their efforts, but the essence of the positive effects of the system lies in making each recipient a member of a family or group. I have had the privilege of seeing up close and personal the love of the care givers for those entrusted to them. People can thrive in such a setting. We discovered what the good people of Gheel have known for a long time: that by far most of the mentally ill are in need of care not because they pose a danger to others, but that they are not able to care for themselves. A gentle caregiver can guide them in keeping up with the activities of daily life we all take for granted.
It seems likely that there probably was actually a Dymphna at some time, but in any case, Geel is very real.
The city has a modern psychiatric clinic, and continues to care for many people with mental illness in family homes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymphna
On doing some casual investigation of Gertrude of Nivelles, I discover that she too is a patron saint of the mentally ill. She is not so much the patron saint of cats as of those who are overwhelmed by rats, it would seem.
I am glad that there are more than one saint for the mentally disturbed and the very very nervous.
A Prayer to St. Gertrude, Patron Saint of Cats
St. Gertrude of Nivelles, ask you I pray
Safeguard my kitties this and each day.
Defend them from those who might wish them harm.
Keep them at home safe from danger and storm.
Instill in me wisdom to care for them well.
Pray, fill me with strength never to yell.
And Gertrude, a last thing I beseech from thee,
Protect my sofa from claws and my carpets from pee.
Amen.
Thank you for this fun poem. Now I know the pee tape will show up in Lent Madness.
Why is Gertrude called Patron of cats if she is oftened pictured mice?
I am all in for Dymphna, as I understand her struggles all too well. Mental health is a fragile thing, and a patron saint with their welfare in mind is much needed, as is the example set in Geel for others to be tolerate and empathetic with those who suffer so. Thanks for all those who supported her, though Gettrude has much to recommend her, also. Dymphna, I stand with you!
I just noticed that for the image credits it says, "Gertrude: Icon painted by Marice Sariola.".
An icon?
Painted?
Correction: Icons are written. That's why it is called iconography.
How do I know this? I belong to the cathedral parish that is home to the Trinity Iconography Institute one of the few such organizations teaching the writing of icons in the Anglican Communion.
People make much of this in the Episcopal Church, but I'm not sure the idea that icons are "written" rather than "painted" is particularly normative in much of the Christian world.
I voted for Gertrude, in spite of her hair shirt, etc, but she was so hospitable to all in the monastery. She must not have got much sleep though.
We crazy people need all the help we can get.