Saint Dymphna a saint for our times

Saint Dymphna, a 7th century Irish saint, took refuge in Geel among the Flemish. The glass shows an Irish harp, a crown (she was daughter of a kingling), and the sword he beheaded her. She is the patroness, primarily, of mental illness; but also: anxiety, depression, stress, mental and neurological  conditions. Beyond that, she is also a patroness, of runaways, and survivors of incest and sexual assault. One would think she would be better known considering her scope of patronage, and how all those ills  are so serious, and widespread among us.

The first church dedicated to her is in G(h)eel, i read that the first in the United States was in Massillon Ohio. Geel has been known since, at least, the 13th century for the successful treatment of mental illness. In a practice that is still considered too radical, and revolutionary; patients stay in town with a unrelated family, and return to hospital at night. For it was in Geel she went to hide from the incestuous attentions of her father.

A chapel and shrine to St. Dymphna was built on the grounds of  Massillon State Hospital, and was dedicated on her feast day (May 15th) 1938. Catholic Order of Foresters paid for the building. In 1892, the hospital opened as Eastern Ohio Mental Asylum, and was the first state hospital in the United States. Its name has been changed three times, it is now called Heartland Behavioral Health Center. When it was built, the hospital had many employees and over three thousand patients. The patients dwindled to well under two hundred. The chapel was closed in November 2012, and the shrine moved to St. Mary's in Massillon. I heard that, the chapel burned. Some of the religious items, and sacred art went to St. Mary's. The fotos above are from a three panel window, now part of a light box in the baptistery room of St. Mary's.

Very early in the afternoon of August 4th, 2015 a fire began by an electrical outlet in the baptistery of St. Mary Massillon. The statue of Dymphna became charcoal. The baptismal fount had a granite base, temperatures of 2900°F melted some of the stone. Black soot coated the rest of the church. Months of scaffolding was needed to clean the ceiling, and walls, and then to paint them. Mass was then held on Christmas Eve of 2016.

The present church was built in 1876 in Gothic Revival, as a German parish. The stone tracery of a rose window has a star. The nave windows are newer, and are dalles de verre, and i did not get good fotos of them.

The front of the church has statues of Mary and Child, Peter, and Paul. This is Peter above. That is not a crown, but spikes to deter pigeons.

The parish has a graveyard in the back.

lost and found window sill