Crazy about Dymphna

The Story of a Girl who Drove a Medieval City Mad


Sven Van Dorst, Stephan Kemperdick, Till-Holger Borchert a.o.

Around 1505 Goossen Van der Weyden, Rogier’s grandson, painted a monumental altarpiece depicting the various phases of Saint Dymphna’s insane life.

This Irish princess, who fled her incestuous father in the sixth century, was beheaded in the Kempen village of Geel. On account of her tragic end and uncompromising chastity, the princess was venerated from t...