Patron Saint of Mental Illness
St. Dymphna, feast day 15 May
St. Dymphna is the patron saint of mental illness, including depression and anxiety, with her feast on 15 May. St. Benedict Joseph Labre is also invoked, particularly for those who are homeless and mentally ill. AngelGuard publishes the history behind the patronage.
Quick facts
Why St. Dymphna?
Dymphna’s patronage rests on what her shrine produced rather than on anything recorded about her own mind. She was, by tradition, killed at Geel in Belgium by a father whose reason had collapsed after his wife’s death. Geel then became a pilgrimage destination for the mentally ill, and the townspeople began doing something almost no one else in Europe was doing: taking sufferers into their homes as boarders rather than confining them. The practice began in the medieval period, continued for roughly seven centuries, and still partly operates today under a formal programme. That is an unusually concrete thing for a patronage to be attached to. Most patronages rest on a detail of a saint’s biography. This one rests on a town that changed how it treated a whole class of people because of her. St. Benedict Joseph Labre is the other saint often invoked here. He spent his life wandering between shrines, was widely regarded as mad in his own lifetime, and is a natural intercessor for those who are both unwell and unhoused.
How to ask their intercession
Be specific, and pray for the person as they are rather than for the version of them you want back. If you are supporting someone, tell them you are praying; the knowing does its own work against isolation. Treatment continues alongside, always. In crisis, contact your local emergency number or a crisis line rather than waiting.