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Camillus House News
Our Saints are Mindful of Our Needs
March 19, 2009
by Dr. Paul R. Ahr
Persons who we would identify as suffering from a physical or mental illness have long relied on the charity of family, friends and strangers and the intercession of Saints to make their way peacefully through the world. Two Catholic Saints have been recognized for their dedication to the needs of persons who are physically or mentally ill.
Patroness of persons with a mental illness
By the 7th Century A.D., most of Ireland had been converted to Christianity, although some pagan sects continued, and inter-marriage was not uncommon. Dymphna was the child of such a union, the daughter of Damon, a petty king or chieftain and a Christian woman of noble heritage. Mother and daughter were renowned for their physical beauty and devout Christianity.
When Dymphna was a teenager, her mother died, and she and her father were inconsolable in their grief. To assuage his grief, Damon sent forth his courtiers to find a woman who matched his beloved wife in beauty and grace. Upon their return, his agents admitted that only Dymphna was as beautiful and kind as his late wife and that he should marry his daughter. Taking their advice, Damon set out to convince 15-year old Dymphna to participate in this dark plan. She resisted, and ultimately fled with her priest counselor, Father Gerebran to the Continent. Damon pursued them to the town of Gheel, Belgium where Damon confronted them. He beheaded Saint Gerebran on the spot, and when Dymphna rebuffed his offer of marriage, he also killed her in a rage.
The bodies of the Dymphna and her confessor were buried by the local people, and eventually a shrine to St. Dymphna was built there. Gradually, persons with serious mental illnesses were brought by the families or traveled by themselves to pray at that shrine. Many experienced miraculous recoveries from their illnesses, and the reputation of the shrine and its healing powers spread far and wide. Eventually, there were so many pilgrims to the site that local families in this rural farming community began to provide room and board to those pilgrims who did not enjoy a speedy miraculous cure in exchange for help around the farm. Many mental health professionals credit the personal and tender care provided to persons with a mental illness by generations of Gheel families with accelerating their return to a normal life. The first American application of the Gheel foster family care program was begun 40 years ago in rural New Haven, Missouri with similar beneficial results. The Gheel approach has since been replicated throughout the United States and the world, and the personal and tender care offered in our Courtyard is modeled on the kindness still offered by the citizens of Gheel.
March 8th is a special day.
João Cidade was born in Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal on March 8, 1495. As a young man, João worked as a shepherd, and later served as a soldier under Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. As an adult, he is said to have had a vision of the Infant Jesus, Who gave him the name John of God and directed him to go to Granada. There he experienced a major spiritual conversion while listening to a sermon by St. John of Ávila, the man who would later become his spiritual mentor.
He distributed all his possession to the poor of the city, and went through Granada publicly calling on God for mercy and forgiveness of his sins. The townsfolk thought him to be mad, and he was confined to the local madhouse. He recovered after a visit from his spiritual mentor, and subsequently dedicated himself to the care and treatment of the poorest and neediest of his fellow citizens. He rented a small house where he cared for the sick, begging supplies at night and caring for his charges during the day. In time, he attracted a small band of companions who formed the nucleus of the Order of Hospitallers, now better known as the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God, who care for the sick in countries around the world. Brother Mathias, BGC, the founder of Camillus House and of the Congregation of the Little Brothers of the Good Shepherd began his life as a Religious as a Brother in the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God and served with distinction in the Hospitaller’s ministries in Europe, Canada and the United States.
St. John of God died on March 8, 1550 – his 55th birthday – mere weeks before the birth of the man with whom he shares the distinction of being named the Patron Saint of the sick and of nurses: St. Camillus de Lellis.
