St. Dymphna

St. Dymphna is venerated as an Irish virgin and martyr of the seventh century, though her story comes from a much later medieval account and its details cannot be historically verified. According to this tradition, she was the daughter of a pagan Irish chieftain and a devout Christian mother; consecrating her own virginity to Christ, she fled her homeland when her father, deranged by grief after his wife's death, conceived an unnatural desire to marry his own daughter.

The legend relates that she took refuge at Geel in what is now Belgium, together with the priest St. Gerebernus, but her father pursued her, and when she still refused him, he struck off her head in a rage. Because her passion was bound up with her father's madness, she came to be invoked as the patroness of those who suffer mental and emotional illness, and Geel became a renowned center of compassionate care for the mentally ill. She is celebrated on 15 May.