Messingham, Florilegium (1624), by Peter of Cambrai — translated from the Latin.

¹ When a thousand years had been completed since the Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord — which had long before been foretold by the Prophets — the Christian religion was already flourishing in every region of the earth, sown abroad by the Apostles. There was then in Ireland a pagan king who, though he served superstitious and vain worships of idols in contempt of God, nevertheless surpassed others in the glory of his wealth and the vigour of his worldly power, and appeared more glorious than all.

² His wife, moreover, was of a most illustrious family, and the King loved her with a vehement affection, since in the form of her flesh she was of so great beauty that her pleasing looks drew the eyes of beholders to her. These two begot a daughter very like her mother in beauty of grace, and named her Dymphna — that, from the foreshowing of her name, she might afterwards prove worthy of God.

³ While she was nobly brought up in her father’s house and passing the years of girlhood — despising the wanton allurements of courtiers and jesters, and all that the royal station is accustomed to seek after — she secretly received Baptism, and devoted herself with her whole heart and body to serve Christ for ever.

⁴ Meanwhile her mother the Queen died; and the King, labouring under a flood of grief, at length, on the advice of his counsellors, sent envoys through every province of his realm and the neighbouring nations, to seek a maiden or young girl of seemly beauty, and like the dead queen, who might be joined in marriage to so great a king, and to bring her back to him with honour. The knights, most skilled in manners and in eloquence, set out on their journey; and travelling through the regions and cities, they saw the faces of many noble maidens.

⁵ But when, tarrying long, they had passed through very many regions and nowhere found what they sought, they returned to the King. Entering the palace and greeting him, they began to say: “O most excellent King, that which your Imperial Majesty longed for we have been unable to find; but if it please you — see your daughter Dymphna, most comely, and so like her mother that the dead queen seems to live again in her image; take her happily to yourself in marriage.” Why say more? They had scarcely spoken this detestable word when at once the Devil — who wished to draw the holy virgin back to idolatry — inflamed the King with the torches of unlawful love and lust; and from that time the King began lightly to dally with the girl, to sound out the tone of her words, and to promise her all the glory of the world if she would consent to his marriage.

⁶ Hearing this, Christ’s virgin answered that she would never do it, “for it is not just,” she said, “nor lawful — no, it is a thing of abomination and error — that a daughter should defile her father’s bed.” When he pressed the more urgently with entreaties, she refused the more firmly; until at last the enraged King said that, willing or unwilling, she must comply. Then she, as though she would obey, asked for a delay of forty days as a precaution; meanwhile she asked that ornaments and the other things belonging to a maiden’s beauty should be given her, as though she wished to appear the more gloriously to her father.

⁷ The King, hearing this, was made glad, and ordered that everything the virgin had requested should be procured with all magnificence. Meanwhile the virgin, commending herself to Christ by constant prayer that she might escape her father’s lust, resolved to leave her country. There was at that time in Ireland a priest of extraordinary holiness and learning named Gerebern, who, in secret, in that land of pagans, was converting to the Lord those whom he could; and he had been the confessor of the departed Queen who worshipped Christ, and likewise of her daughter the holy Dymphna — for he had baptised Dymphna herself long before, and had taught her both the Catholic faith and holy Scripture, and from him the dead Queen and Dymphna her daughter used to receive the sacrament of the Eucharist.

⁸ The Blessed Virgin, sending for him secretly, told him tearfully how her father had resolved to plunge her into the pit of horrible corruption. Then the holy man counselled the virgin to flee into foreign parts, and, poor in spirit, to follow the poor Christ. Why say more? When she found an opportunity for a safe flight, the holy virgin — joined by holy Gerebern, and by her father’s jester with his wife, so that under the guise of jesters they might set out the more secretly — began their intended journey; and coming to the harbour, she embarked on the sea, and with favouring winds put in at a certain fortress which is called Antwerp, in the diocese of Cambrai; and there, tarrying a little while, they sought a place where they might serve the Lord more secretly, for a mind devoted to Christ could not bear the clamours of the world. From there through the lonely woods they came to a village to which the name of Gheel had been given of old, and there found a place suitable for a solitary life; for going round the village on a certain day they found a single church dedicated in honour of the blessed bishop Martin, in which the holy body of the virgin Dymphna now rests. And not far from that church, in a place called Zammel, they chose to build themselves a dwelling, in which they might render to God, by the sweetness of contemplation, the service He required. Rooting up the trees and thorns, therefore, they built themselves a fitting habitation, in which, abiding for three months in continual fastings and prayers, they led a life in some measure angelic. And in the aforementioned church of blessed Martin, the holy priest Gerebern used to celebrate Mass. For at that time the village of Gheel was but sparsely inhabited, there being in it only fifteen dwellings, and it was surrounded by a dense forest for about six miles.

⁹ Meanwhile the King, the virgin’s father, who had been joyfully awaiting his daughter’s wedding, hearing of her flight, was troubled — and the whole court with her. And with rent garments, after lamentation and grief for many days, the King resolved to seek his daughter himself with a band of soldiers. Seeking her through cities and the solitudes of mountains, when they could not find her he took ship, and came as far as the fortress which they call Antwerp, with his numerous retinue. And when he disembarked from the ship there was a great concourse of people moved to see the king. Tarrying there, he sent envoys through the neighbouring provinces, in case he might hear some rumour of his daughter. And so, as the envoys passed through various places, certain of them came to a country village named Westerlo, and lodged there; and when in the morning the man paid the host’s charges with certain coins, the host, looking at them, said: “I have coins very like these, whose value I wholly do not know.” And when asked of him from whom he had received such money — he himself not knowing why he asked — he answered that a foreign virgin, most comely of body, dwelling nearby in the wilderness, who had come there from Ireland, having with her a venerable, very aged priest and a jester with his wife, sent him coins of that kind for the buying of food. And when they asked to be led there, they recognised at once the holy daughter among the strangers from far away; and returning at once to Antwerp, they reported with joy what they had heard to the king. Then the king, reviving in spirit, set out with his men on the journey to the place where the most holy virgin lived.

¹⁰ And when he had found her and greeted her sweetly, the king, beholding the virgin’s face of surpassing beauty, was kindled with the fire of lust. He began to address her most suavely, saying: “O my only daughter Dymphna, my love and my desire and my delight — what has moved you to such stubbornness, that, despising your royal dignity, you dwell among foreign peoples, and have left the land of your birth, and, forgetful of filial affection, have forsaken your father the king, and cleave to that old, decrepit priest rather than to your father, and obey his commands in everything? Why will you be heiress of the kingdom of Ireland after your father? You have despised the royal hall. Therefore be persuaded at least by our counsel, and return with us to Ireland; for if you yield assent to your father’s affections, you shall be compared in the royal diadem, and shall hold the primacy over all the princely matrons and virgins of my realm. Moreover, in the meantime, I shall command a temple to be built for you of the whitest marbles, and in it I shall order an image in your likeness to be made of gold and precious stones, to be adored by all.”

¹¹ When the virgin wished to answer this, the most blessed Gerebern, answering first, rebuked the King for his hard cruelty, crying out against him as most wicked and abominable — that he wished to violate his own daughter, a thing vile even for the dissolute and fornicators to think of. Moreover the holy man warned the holy virgin not to consent in anything to the King, lest she should incur the displeasure of the eternal King her Spouse, whose sweetness she had already foretasted. Then the King, and all who were with him, cried out that holy Gerebern deserved death — as the author of the virgin’s flight and her subverter; and separating him from the virgin, they all rushed upon him, and laying violent hands on him, they racked him with injuries. And so the glorious Martyr, receiving the victory of the Lord over the tyrant, fulfilled the course of his life by the cutting off of his head, and received the crown of martyrdom from the Lord. This worshipper of God, Gerebern, an exemplar of the firmness of justice and chastity, detesting wickedness, rebuked the unbelieving king for incest — not out of hatred, but love. For the savour of chastity he incurred the King’s wrath and hatred, and at last death.

¹² Then the King, turning again to the virgin shining with rosy beauty, began to press her still more urgently to yield to him, and spoke thus to the Holy Virgin: “O my daughter Dymphna, why do you grieve your father with such sorrows? Have pity on an old man, and despise not him whom your love draws. Only consent to me, and whatever you shall ask I will give you. Moreover I will command your celebrated name to be numbered among the most sacred goddesses throughout the borders of my whole realm.”

¹³ Then the most devout virgin — who chose rather to be afflicted for the Lord than to have the delight of temporal sin — answered her father with indignation: “Why, unhappy tyrant, do you strive with false promises to overthrow me from my purpose of chastity? Do you think, wretch, that I shall recoil from the stability of my resolve, and offend Christ, my most beloved lover, by polluting my body? Your royal delights I despise with my whole mind, and those promises of my Lord Jesus Christ, which surpass all desires, I already long for with all the strength of my life; your gods I spurn, and the honour of an image I hold cheap — so presume no further to urge such speech on me.”

¹⁴ Then the King, savage in soul, given over to lust and a chief worshipper of idols — the more he recognised the faith of Christianity burning in her, the more he rose up against her with all his might, and said: “That you may not waste your malice on us from abroad in vain, do at once what I ask, or you shall incur your father’s wrath, as that malignant teacher of yours, Gerebern, did — and therefore he perished by the cutting off of his head. Spare therefore the flower of your youth, and give me your consent, and sacrifice to our gods — or be sure that you shall die; and so, by the example of your death, all kings’ daughters shall dread to contradict their fathers’ commands.”

¹⁵ Then the most devout virgin answered: “Why, cruel tyrant, have you slain the Lord’s chosen priest, in whom you found no sin? You shall not escape the judgement of almighty God in this deed. Your gods and goddesses I detest as a figment, and to the Lord Jesus Christ I commend myself with my whole mind and devotion — He is my spouse, my glory, my salvation and my desire. All pains that you can inflict, I am ready with a glad mind to endure for the Lord.” Hearing this, the King became as one demented, and kindled with exceeding fury, wishing to avenge his deception and the insults to his gods, he commanded her to be beheaded without delay. But none of those present in the King’s retinue presumed to carry out so cruel a command, lest they should incur the wrath of the king when afterwards repenting of the deed. When the cruel King saw this — forgetful of his ancient nobility and royal clemency — with the sword with which he was girt he cut off the sacred head of the glorious virgin as she implored the divine mercy; and the Lord Jesus Christ, her spouse, crowned her with the greatest joy in heaven.

¹⁶ And so the King, returning to his own land with his retinue, left the bodies of the Saints to the birds and beasts. The inhabitants round about reverently gathered up the virginal limbs of the holy virgin and the body of the venerable priest, and laid them to rest in a cave not far away. And after a long course of years, when God willed to reveal them by signs, a certain devout woman of that place, having had a vision, besought her companions that they should fetch a bier, on which they might place the venerable body and carry it speedily to a place of due veneration. Some laughed and, mocking her over this matter, thought her mad — until, vanquished by her insistent prayers, they lifted the most blessed body without any difficulty and placed it on the wagon; and from that spot, uncovered though it was, it was carried back with the greatest joy to her own church — the great weight made strangely light — in which innumerable miracles shine through the merits of the venerable Virgin and Martyr Dymphna.

¹⁷ Afterwards, moreover, the nobler and richer inhabitants of Gheel, gathered together, had made a vessel of gold and silver and precious stones, in which they laid the body of so venerable a virgin. From where the Bishop of Cambrai, with his clergy and the rest of the people and noble persons of either sex, of every rank and age, with an immense concourse of the common folk, translated the honoured body of Saint Dymphna from the stone coffin into the golden and silver vessel. And when the Bishop opened the tomb, there was found lying upon the breast of the venerable virgin a red stone, on which was written: Hic iacet S. Dymphna virgo et Martyr — “Here lies Saint Dymphna, virgin and martyr.” By the red stone placed by angels upon the breast of the most holy virgin, her martyrdom is signified. Now the aforementioned translation of the venerable virgin’s body was made on the fifteenth day of May, on which her feast is celebrated. She was beheaded on the thirtieth day of May, about the six hundredth year of the Lord — the fifteenth year of the tenth indiction.

¹⁸ And since the various miracles — all worthy of remembrance — which our Lord Jesus Christ deigned to show through this glorious virgin and martyr, His spouse Dymphna, would be long to narrate, they are omitted for the sake of brevity. Yet it is known that the possessed are delivered from their torments when they are brought to her venerable temple at Gheel, where this most holy virgin and martyr Dymphna suffered her passion, and where their bodies rest. Moreover this most worthy virgin and martyr of Christ obtains for her devout worshippers infinite other benefits from our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

This aforementioned Life or History of Saint Dymphna, virgin and martyr of Gheel, was written from an ancient manuscript belonging to the Lord Deacon Laurentius Sedulius, superior of the Irish seminary in Upper Belgium, and the Lord William Estius, canon of the collegiate church of Saint Dymphna at Gheel, and agreed with their original, as is witnessed by their handwritten subscription.

The Sequence of Saint Dymphna, Virgin, from her ecclesiastical Office. #

¹ May Dymphna be for our people a sweet savour, alleluia. Heaven knows Dymphna, who lives with God, a wonderful martyr. This wise virgin, who loved the Sun of Justice, shone in Ireland as Dymphna, ever bright of face — a daughter like her dead mother in faith and in form. Spurning her father’s marriage, by threats and flatteries she was not corrupted. The force of the infernal fires she has quenched: she opened the cruel enemy’s work, she saved her own flesh, she broke the iron bonds and freed the captives — the old serpent cannot hold her captive. The possessed are restored to their senses by her prayers. Mighty in virtues — we have declared it: now let not the daughter suffer death by law’s decree, lest the hapless race perish — pray to Him whom the Mother bore for us, alleluia.

From Joannes Molanus, natales Sanctorum Belgii. #

¹ In Brabant, in the village called Gheel, [the feast] of Saint Dymphna, virgin and martyr, who for her faith and love of chastity was beheaded by her own father, a pagan king. For when the father, after the Queen’s death, sought a new wife of the same beauty, he was warned by his familiars to take his own daughter — so like her mother that the dead queen seemed to live again in her image. When the father wished to carry out this detestable crime by force, she, as though she would comply, asked for a delay of forty days; and meanwhile, on the advice of Gerebern — a priest of extraordinary holiness and learning, who had secretly baptised her long before and used to give the sacrament of the Eucharist to her and her mother — with him and her father’s jester and his wife, she came across the sea to the fortress called Antwerp. From there they made their way to the village to which the name Gheel had been anciently given, which at that time was sparsely inhabited, there being in it only fifteen houses, surrounded by a dense forest for about six miles. They found in it a single church of Saint Martin, in which Gerebern celebrated Mass; and in Zammel, not far from that church, they built themselves a dwelling, in which for three months, devoted to fastings and prayers, they led a life in some measure angelic. Meanwhile the king, troubled by the flight, came to Antwerp, and from there sent envoys in every direction. Certain of them came to the country village of Westerlo; and when they paid their host’s charges, he said that he had similar coins, the value of which he did not know at all. And when asked from which he had them, he answered: from a virgin of Ireland who dwells nearby in the wilderness with a venerable aged priest, and who sends that kind of money for the purchase of food. On this account the father made haste to Gheel. As soon as he arrived, kindled with the fire of lust, he addressed her suavely. But Gerebern, answering for her, rebuked the father for his abomination, and exhorted the daughter never to consent. Then they all rushed upon him as the author of the flight and the daughter’s subverter, and, racked with injuries, he fulfilled the course of his life by the cutting off of his head. But the King pressed ever more fiercely that the daughter should yield to him. And since she answered, steadily and with much else, that she would not offend Christ her true lover — the father, inflamed with rage, ordered her to be beheaded; and when none would carry out so cruel a crime, lest they should incur the wrath of the king perchance afterwards repenting — the king himself, forgetful of royal nobility and clemency, with the sword with which he was girt cut off the virgin’s sacred head. And the bodies were left to be devoured by beasts of the earth. Afterwards they were laid in a cave by certain of the neighbouring inhabitants. And after the course of many years, because of the stupendous showing of signs, the clergy and people [gathered to give their bodies honourable burial. — The excerpt ends here in the manuscript copy.]