Patron Saint of Depression
St. Dymphna, feast day 15 May
St. Dymphna is the saint most commonly invoked for depression, alongside anxiety and mental illness generally, with her feast on 15 May. AngelGuard publishes her story, and states plainly that the Church treats depression as an illness to be treated rather than a spiritual failure.
Quick facts
Why St. Dymphna?
Dymphna is invoked for depression as part of a wider patronage over illness of the mind, which rests on the seven-century tradition of care at her shrine in Geel rather than on anything recorded about her own state. What is worth saying on a page about depression specifically is what the Church does not teach. It does not teach that depression is a lack of faith. It does not teach that a Christian who is well should not be sad, nor that sadness that will not lift is a sign of a soul in trouble. Saints who prayed daily for decades wrote at length about long stretches of darkness and kept going, and the tradition treats those accounts as ordinary rather than scandalous. What the Church does say is that the person is not alone in it, and that the condition is a condition. Depression is treated, and treatment is not a lesser path than prayer. If a devotion to Dymphna helps you keep going while you get well, that is exactly what a patronage is for. If it is being used instead of getting help, it has been turned into something the Church never intended.
How to ask their intercession
Keep it short and keep it regular, because depression makes long prayer nearly impossible and then punishes you for not managing it. A single sentence at a fixed time is a complete prayer. Ask someone else to pray for you on the days you cannot. And if you are thinking about harming yourself, contact your local emergency number or a crisis line today rather than tomorrow.