Christian Pure

Find a saint

Type a first name, a need or a date. You get the saint at once, with their feast days in the Western and Orthodox calendars and the sources we checked.

Dymphna kneeling to be baptised by the priest Gerebernus, a panel of her legend painted by Goswin van der Weyden in 1503 to 1505

Saint Dymphna

Her shrine at Gheel began the town’s care of the sick of mind in its own homes

Patron of
the mentally ill
Western calendar
30 May, long kept on 15 May
Orthodox calendar
Not kept

Dymphna was venerated for many years at Gheel, in the province of Antwerp, before anyone wrote her life, and the story told there, of an Irish king's daughter who fled her pagan father with the priest Gerebernus and was beheaded by him at Gheel, is legend rather than history. What is certain is that from time immemorial the sick of mind were brought to her shrine, and a long tradition grew up at Gheel of taking them into the homes of the townspeople, where they shared the work of the fields and were treated very kindly. Her feast was long kept on 15 May, and she is still invoked for all who suffer in mind.

Sources

Email me this saint

We'll send this page, with the feast days, so you have it when you need it.

What is a saint’s feast day?

It is the day each year when the Church remembers a saint in its prayers, and for most saints it is the day they died and went home to God. Many saints here have two dates, because the Western and Orthodox Churches keep their own calendars, and some Orthodox churches still count by the old Julian calendar, which runs thirteen days behind ours.

What is a patron saint?

A patron saint is one we ask to pray for us in a particular place, work or need, as many ask Anthony of Padua for help when something is lost, and as Ireland looks to Patrick. A few patronages were declared by a pope, and most grew from long custom. A card says “Patron of” only where a source we checked names one.

A saint I’m looking for is missing. Can you add it?

Yes. Try the name another way first, or the saint’s feast day, because some saints are better known by a title. If they are still not here, send us the name through our contact page, and we will add the saint once we have checked their life and feast days in sources we trust.

Why did you choose these saints and not others?

We began with the saints people search for most, by name, by need and by date, along with the apostles and the saints Orthodox Christians look for. Then we made sure every day of the year has at least one saint. That gives 378 so far, and we keep adding the saints readers ask for.

Every saint here, by feast day