St. Dymphna
My first reaction to her was utter revulsion.
Her life was nasty , brutish, and short.
Her life story , if presented frankly and unsentimentally would make a great and terrible horror movie , deserving of an X -rating , NOT on account of any sexual content. The story is that bad.
One of the 50 or so reasons I converted to Catholicism was because the Church saw fit to make her the patron saint of … the author of her destruction. Such an institution is either a shocking example of evil, or a shocking example of integrity.
She is the patron saint of the mentally ill. It’s hard to imagine a demographic more stigmatized. Murderers , rapists, and drug dealers get more respect — unless they get labelled crazy .
She is an Irish saint. My ethnicity is Celtic , both sides.
But the scene of her martyrdom , and her primary shrine, is in Belgium.
Like her, I’m an accidental / involuntary expatriate.
She was Martyred when she was 14 or 15, so she’s the eternal 14 or 15 year old girl. I’m an old man.
So I’m cast in the worst possible light, or at least humiliated, every time the subject of the " D " in my signature comes up.
And that was the idea.
I’m apparently one of those ever-dwindling number of archaic dinosaurs who thinks being cast in the worst possible light and humiliated is good for you.
I cannot think , right off hand , of any reasons I had for converting to Christianity that I , or most other people ( ? ) , would describe with words like, "faith " or " belief " .
Rather ; Dry , dull, cynical, skeptical reasons , more akin to the thought or sentiment that goes into accounting , or growing corn.
But Saint Dymphna was martyred during the Dark Ages , so there is scarce any proof of her existence except the bare assertion that she did exist, and the fact that the shrine in Belgium has existed for quite a while.
So, my belief that she does exist , and even knows my name , is shear, unadulterated, faith.
By the way, not least, I think she’s a quirky, whimsical, wonderful person , if the vague feelings in my big toe signify anything. .