Catholic Ragemonkey

MORE ON ST. DYMPHNA
I found this, as one of many links, which tells a little something about St. Dymphna. One interesting note about St. Gerebanus, the priest who fled with St. Dymphna (along with the court jester and his wife), this article says that the bones of St. Gerebanus was "transferred" to Xanten. That's a rather kind description of what happened; the town folks of Xanten wanted to add to their relics in their church so one night they "invaded" Gheel and stole the bodies of both St. Dymphna and St. Gerebanus. The people of Gheel went in quick pursuit, engaged them in battle, got the body of St. Dymphna back, and according to Fr. Lovasik's book, had a literal tug-of-war over the body of St. Gerebanus, with the people of Gheel getting his head while the people of Xanten made off with the rest of him. Thanks to one of our readers for finding the website for US National Shrine to St. Dymphna.

OK, all this sounds rather macabre, but given the fact today that most people will walk into a church without the slightest acknowledgment of the real presence of Jesus in the Tabernacle, such devotion to relics of the saints, while extreme, does point out something of what has been lost.