Hello everybody:

On Ides of May, the Irish commemorate the sacred Princess whose consecrated virginity she sealed with her own blood, shed in the valiant confession of her Divine Spouse and Lord and in defense of holy purity: St. Dymphna, Virgin and Martyr.

In his translation of the Roman Breviary (vol. 2, pp. 1146-47), John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, translates her name as "Devnet" in an appendix entitled "Offices peculiar to Ireland." A footnote reads, "It survives in County Louth as 'Demmy.'"

Let us pray to St. Dymphna for all of those who are afflicted with mental, nervous or emotional disorders, and for ourselves, lest we succuмb to such maladies.

Note that the life of the Virgin Martyr shows, in the tragic example of her impious father, how impurity (especially the unnatural sort) and insanity are linked with one another. Nowadays we have seen in so many examples shown in popular magazines, television, radio, criminological studies, &c., that impurity does indeed bring about, or at least exacerbate, mental instability, which can lead to psychopathic disorders and, ultimately, to crime.

Attached is the text of the Collect and lessons of the Second Nocturn at Matins for the Feast of St. Dymphna (or, Devnet), taken from The Roman Breviary Reformed by Order of the Holy Œcuмenical Council of Trent; Published by Order of Pope St. Pius V; and Revised by Clement VIII, Urban VII, and Leo XIII: Together with the Offices Since Granted and the Martyrology (trans. John, Marquess of Bute, K.T.; Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1908).