This is the forth part of a series. You can find part one here. As I read various accounts of the history of Geel, I kept believing I would find some new piece of the story and it would all fall into place and I would understand why there was an adult foster care program in Geel.
This was the first time I bemoaned my lack of a classical education. I felt like if only I knew classic literature, the history of the Catholic church, and more European history this would all make sense.
Instead, it just kept getting weirder. Dympna, the daughter of a Pagan Irish chieftain, but herself secretly a Christian, was forced to fly her country in order to escape the guilty love of her unnatural parent. She settled at Gheel, a village in the present Province of Brabant, and devoted herself to works of charity. Her father pursued her and murdered both the Saint and the old priest who had advised and accompanied her. At her shrine lunatics and those possessed by devils were often miraculously cured ; and in art she is frequently represented as dragging away a devil.
She is the Patron Saint of the insane ; and Gheel to-day is famous for asylums for lunatics, which are among the best managed establishments of the sort. Dympa is a sixth century Saint ; but exact dates are not ascertainable. The name Dymphna means poetess or little deer. Dymphna was baptized in secret by her Christian mother before her mother died. The priest who suggests she flees and accompanies her is always named, while the king is usually not.
Dymphna and the priest and whoever is traveling with them first land at Antwerp. Just about every version has her being tracked down because of her Irish coins. They usually blame a female innkeeper in Westerlo, the town next door. She was beheaded by her father.
