My guesses are that you've never heard of Saint Dymphna. I hadn't heard of her either until I did some research, and what I found astounded me. I am so excited to share her story and her legacy with you.
Dymphna lived in the 7th century in Ireland. She was born the only child of a pagan king. She was regarded as a beautiful young woman, much like her mother. Her mother passed away suddenly, and this left the king riddled with grief. He began to slide into insanity due to the weight of his mourning over his wife. The king's court advised him to remarry, hoping that the new bride would help him regain a sense of clarity of mind. The king agreed to the plan, but only on one condition. A bride must be found of the same likeness as his deceased wife. If the new bride didn't remind him of his first wife, he would not remarry.
The search began. The court scoured the kingdom for a new bride, but none could be found who could compare in beauty to the deceased queen. That's when the king's court suggested the unimaginable. They realized that Dymphna, the king's only child, resembled her mother. Since she was the only one to be found to resemble the deceased queen, the court suggested to the king that he marry his child.
I'm sure at this point your jaws are hanging open. You may be thinking such things as: "How could someone even suggest such a thing? Surely the king saw that this was insanity!" I wish I could tell you that he did indeed see the horror of the suggestion. However, because the king had slid so far into insanity, he found the suggestion to be a good one. The king went to Dymphna telling her of the plan, and as you might suspect, she was horrified. She begged her father to see reason, but he refused.
Dymphna knew that to save herself from the mad king she must flee the country. She left Ireland and settled secretly in a town in Belgium named Geel. She lived here quietly, serving the townsfolk and showing hospitality.
It's here that I wish I could end Dymphna's story with the old adage that she lived "happily ever after." But there is no such luck in Dymphna's story. The mad king sent spies out from his realm searching for Dymphna. The spies eventually found her in Geel and reported back to the king. The king travelled to Geel, setting out to convince Dymphna to marry him. He found her, and proposed marriage once again to his child. Dymphna stood firm in her convictions and her resolve to do the right thing, and again she refused the offer of the king. This enraged him, and his madness overtook him. In a fit of rage, the king beheaded Dymphna in the streets of Geel. She was 15 years old.
Dymphna's remains were discovered some seven centuries later in Geel and a church was built there in her honor. Soon after the church was built, it became a popular pilgrimage site as people began to experience miraculous healings from ailments such as epilepsy and mental disorders.
By the year 1480, the town of Geel had built a hospice onto the side of the church. This hospice stood to accommodate the growing amount of pilgrims coming to the area to be healed. But soon, even the hospice was too small for the number of pilgrims flooding into Geel. Most of these pilgrims were seeking healing for themselves or their family members who experienced mental illness.
Eventually, families who had come to seek healing realized that there was no space for them to stay with their loved ones experiencing mental illness. And so, families started returning home, leaving their uncured loved ones behind in Geel.
That's when the amazing began to happen. The local townspeople noticed that those experiencing mental illness were being left behind and that the hospice was not large enough to accommodate them. So, locals started taking in the mentally disabled pilgrims to their own homes. Often in those times, as happens even today, mentally ill persons were outcasts of society. Rather than identifying them as "less-than" or even as "Other", the people of Geel began referring to the pilgrims they took in as "guests" or "boarders."
And so the practice of taking in boarders spread throughout the town. At the program's peak in 1930, about 4,000 boarders resided in Geel. This number equated a quarter of the town's population. The Boarder Program is still in effect today in Geel. Boarders stay with families for years. Sometimes when hosts die or grow too old to care for their ill guests, boarders continue living with the original caretaker's children.
I think we have a lot to learn from the legacy of Saint Dymphna and the town of Geel. We are all torn by life. Whether our "torn-ness" comes from diagnosed mental illness or even intermittent bouts of anxiety and/or depression or any number or issues that life throws our way, we all have experienced some suffering. The wonderful thing about the example Dymphna leaves us through the town of Geel is that when we are torn, we don't have to be town apart. We can be torn, but rather than being torn apart - being torn away and isolated in our suffering - we can be torn together. We can come together as the body of Christ. We can support one another, carry each other's burdens together, and help do what we can to help each other stand strong.
I encourage you this week, if you are someone who isn't experiencing suffering in life in the moment, try to find someone for whom you can show care. Be a "host" like those in Geel to someone who needs your kindness or hospitality.
And if you are feeling torn by life right now, I encourage you that when someone comes along wanting to be by your side through this journey to not push them away. It's so easy to try to be torn apart from the body of Christ - to hide in the shame of suffering. But that's not what God wants for us. God knows we'll be torn by this life, but God has given us brothers and sisters to help us in the journey. Lean into that truth this week, and every week after.