The Story of Saint Dymphna
and
The Miracles of Geel
Can democracy actually cure mental illness? That sounds about as effective as Ivermectin and bleach to cure Covid. ..
But hold on!
The following story is adapted from the Visit Geel website:
Dymphna, believed to be a 7th‑century Irish princess of the kingdom of Oriel, fled Ireland with her confessor Gerebernus to escape her widowed father, King Damon, who had descended into madness and insisted on marrying her, thinking she resembled her mother.
They fled to Belgium and took refuge near Geel, but the king pursued them. When Dymphna refused his incestuous demand, he ordered Gerebernus’s execution and then beheaded Dymphna, who was around 15 years old. The local townspeople buried them in a nearby cave.Miracles of healing—particularly for mental illness—were reported at the site. In the 13th century Dymphna was canonized as the patron saint of the mentally ill.Starting in the 13th century, pilgrims suffering from mental illness traveled to Geel seeking miraculous cures at Dymphna’s shrine. When the church’s accommodations filled up, townspeople opened their homes, beginning a tradition of family-based foster care (Visit Geel).
Mental health professionals worldwide now study Geel’s model for its humane outcomes—lower hospitalization rates, less medication, and deeper social inclusion for those with chronic psychiatric conditions.
This form of community care persisted and evolved into what is now The Geel Model: boarders (not called patients) live with host families, participate in daily routines, and integrate fully into community life—a practice seen as the oldest psychiatric community care program in Europe.
At its peak before World War II, nearly 4,000 boarders lived in Geel. Today, about 200–300 remain as the system faces demographic and societal changes—with declining participation by newer generations.
A family in Geel with their “boarder” who has been living with them for 40 years.
Discussion
In the 1970s, interest was growing in alternatives to psychiatric hospitals; therapeutic communities and group homes were being created and studied. During that period, I was involved in workplace reforms that promoted participatory management as a way to improve quality of work life and organizational effectiveness. I was introduced to a psychoanalytic approach to group behavior– widely applied in industrial settings abroad, but which, brought to the United States, was confined to mental health settings.
Although I was not a psychotherapist, through my experience with the dynamics of organizational change I saw that these methods could be applied to understanding workplace issues and I started training at The Washington School of Psychiatry in what is often called the Tavistock approach. I was eventually awarded a grant to complete the training program as a consultant at the Tavistock Institute in London where I learned more about the Geel Model and other modes of community-based treatment.
Back home in New York, I met the well-known sociologist Leo Srole, who was exploring importing a modified version of the Geel model to the United States. We discussed Geel at some length; the following is my recollection of our earthly explanation of the miracls attributed to St. Dymphna.
Geel was located on a barren, wind-swept moor in northern Belgium. In the 7th century it must have been a rugged life for farmers who ground out a meager living exposed to the raw wind coming down from the North Sea.
The corpses of Dymphna and her confessor had been stowed in a cave for protection. The story of the young woman who resisted her father’s madness spread and grew into a legend. People started to take their relatives to pray to the remains of Dymphna who, because she defied madness, might be able to stave it off in others.
But where to stay in this inhospitable countryside? There were no lodging facilities. This was a period when psychotic people were not treated as patients but as possessed by evil forces who could be violent; they were often bound in chains and leather straps.
Eventually local farmers took in the ill pilgrims who, in this hard life, had to help with chores and live as members of the family. Off came the chains and straps!
But it was not just the work. By helping out they were treated as family members in a new family freed from dysfunctional and even molesting relatives. A family that had accepted them by choice, not by accident of birth. Tolerance allowed them to learn how to calm sudden eruptions and outbursts; even young children knew how to relate to their boarders.
Over centuries, a culture of care thrived within Geel and evidence of cures emerged.
The resulting social capital had allowed the community itself to become a facilitating environment. It evolved through citizen particip;nation and without governmental or institutional management — a seed of democracyu. And that is why this story is on this website.