Healing Prayer to St. Dymphna

Patroness of the Mind

According to tradition, Dymphna was a seventh-century Irish princess, daughter of a pagan chieftain and a devout Christian mother. After her mother's death, her father — driven mad by grief — sought to marry Dymphna herself, who fled to the Continent with her confessor, Father Gerebernus, and settled near the town of Geel, in present-day Belgium. Her father eventually tracked her down there; when she refused him, he had her beheaded. She was about fifteen years old. As with many accounts from this era, the precise historical details come down through oral tradition rather than contemporary documentation and vary somewhat between sources — but the devotion built around her has been continuous and well-attested for centuries.

Miracles of healing from mental illness were reported at her tomb from very early on, and by the 13th century Geel had become a pilgrimage site for those suffering from what was then broadly called "madness." A distinctive local practice grew up around this: families of the afflicted would board them with host families in the town while they sought healing, a custom that evolved over centuries into Geel's still-functioning system of community-based foster care for people with mental illness — believed to be the oldest continuously operating program of its kind in the world. St. Dymphna is the patroness of those suffering from mental illness, nervous disorders, anxiety, and epilepsy, as well as of victims of incest and abuse.

Prayer to St. Dymphna

Good Saint Dymphna, great wonder-worker in every affliction of mind and body, I humbly implore your powerful intercession with Jesus through Mary, the Health of the Sick, in my present need.

(Mention your request here.)

Saint Dymphna, martyr of purity, patroness of those who suffer with nervous and mental afflictions, beloved child of Jesus and Mary, pray to Them for me and obtain my request.

Helper

1. This prayer can be prayed for yourself or on behalf of someone else — many people pray it naming a family member or friend struggling with anxiety, depression, or another mental or nervous affliction.
2. St. Dymphna's feast day is May 15. Many who have a devotion to her pray this prayer as part of a regular routine, not only in moments of crisis — much as one would look after physical health regularly rather than only when sick.
3. Praying for a saint's intercession complements medical and therapeutic care for mental illness — it is not a substitute for it.