SHE was the daughter of an Irish king, and having by vow consecrated her virginity to God, to avoid the snares to which she saw herself exposed at home, passed to Antwerp and chose her abode at Gheel, a village in Brabant, ten leagues from Antwerp. There she served God in retirement and assiduous prayer. But being at length discovered and pursued by those who were the enemies of her chastity, she was murdered by them because she refused to consent to their brutish passion.—Her relics were solemnly taken up by the bishop of Cambray on the 15th of May, and are preserved with veneration in a rich shrine at Gheel. She flourished in the seventh century. See Molanus, Miræus, the Roman Martyrology, Henschenius, t. 3, Maij. p. 477, and Colgan, in MSS. Contin. Act. SS. Hibern.
Butler’s Lives of the Saints
Heh. That is an extremely understated and efficient summary that still suggests a loooooot of back-story.
Her mother was Christian, her father was pagan. After her mother died, her father wanted to marry her (because he was deranged and because she looked like her mother), but she ran away with her Preist and ended up in Belgium where she used her fathers money to open a hospice for the sick and poor. Her father eventually tracked her down and he murdered her. She was buried in Belgium and apparently miracles started happening when her remains were later discovered. Apparently some of her remains are in Ohio, US.
She is the Patron Saint for the mentally ill, depressed. Pretty important patronage considering how many people have depression today.
*excuse my woeful spelling