A Patron Saint and Her Agent

The Patron Saint of the Insane

Saint Dymphna, whose memory is celebrated on the 15th May, is one of the least familiar of all the saints; and yet the scene ?f her martyrdom is known by name to psychiatrists all over the world. On this day in Gheel, a small village in the moorland district called the Kampenland, some 25 miles from Antwerp, there are processions and public festivities; special services are held in the church w...

St. Macrina, the Patron Saint of Modern Oncoplastic Surgery?

S t. Agatha classically has been the patron saint of breast cancer patients. She had her breasts mutilated in the 3rd century by a pagan governor in Sicily because she refused to accede to his sexual demands or to sacrifice to the Roman gods. As a martyr, she thus became the patron of nursing mothers and nursemaids who pray to her for healthy breasts and a good supply of milk. Patients with dis...

Analysis of the Putative Remains of a European Patron Saint–St. Birgitta

Saint Birgitta (Saint Bridget of Sweden) lived between 1303 and 1373 and was designated one of Europe's six patron saints by the Pope in 1999. According to legend, the skulls of St. Birgitta and her daughter Katarina are maintained in a relic shrine in Vadstena abbey, mid Sweden. The origin of the two skulls was assessed first by analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) to confirm a maternal relat...

Worshipping the Great Moderniser: King Chulalongkorn, Patron Saint of the Thai Middle Class

St. Agnes of Rome: patron saint for women with hair loss?

and Damian, St. Roch of Montpellier, St. Rosalia, St. Sebastian, St. Thecla of Iconium), erysipelas (St. Martin of Tours, St. Andrew), snake bite (St. Paul the Apostle, St. Peter the Apostle, St. Patrick), skin wounds (St. Margaret of Antiochia), skin diseases in general (St. Bartholomew, St. Peregrine). Nevertheless, there is no patron saint for hair loss, though there are 4 patron saints for ...