From Crazed Father to Families of Healing: Host Families in Geel, Belgium
Andrew Ciferni, STL, PhD, St. Norbert College
The town of Geel, present population approximately 38,000, lies in Flanders, the Flemish speaking northern half of Belgium. It has become internationally famous for its centuries old practice of deinstitutionalized psychiatric care based on the placement of patients in the families of the town.
Ancient Christian beliefs around client-patron relationships with the saints, pilgrimages to the shrines of saints considered specific patrons for specific needs, and monastic traditions of xenodochial care, inter alia, provide offer insights into the origin and ongoing practice of Geel’s host families and their “guests.”
The origins of the Geel model are intimately connected to the veneration of the Irish virgin martyr, St. Dympna (also spelled Dymphna) whose relics are enshrined in Geel. The narrative of her life and death published by the Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum May, vol.111 comes from the first written account of her vita by Peter of Cambrais, canon of the collegiate church of Saint-Aubert. It is dated between 1238 and 1247. This account was penned several centuries after the events it narrates.
This presentation does not intend to demythologize the medieval narrative but proposes an explanation of how the veneration of St. Dympna at her shrine in Geel may have given birth to the practice of host families taking into their homes the clients of this saint. The paper places Geel’s unique tradition within pre-Christian and Christian beliefs and practices as well as presenting data on the state of practice in the Age of Enlightenment from the French Revolution to modern times.
There is no dearth of contemporary writing on Geel’s tradition of host family psychiatric care.
Professionals making a case for the Geel model have published in community health and nursing journals. Geel Revisited: After centuries of mental rehabilitation by Eugeen Roosens and Lieve Van de Walle (text and DVD) carries a foreword by Oliver Sachs, M.D.
A version of this paper will have been presented at Walking Together: Christian Communities & Faithful Responses to Mental Illness a Reimagining Life Together Conference in Houston, TX (February 5 to 8).
The town of Geel, present population approximately 38,000, lies in Flanders, the Flemish speaking northern half of Belgium. It has become internationally famous for its centuries old practice of deinstitutionalized psychiatric care based on the placement of patients in the families of the town.
Ancient Christian beliefs around client-patron relationships with the saints, pilgrimages to the shrines of saints considered specific patrons for specific needs, and monastic traditions of xenodochial care, inter alia, provide offer insights into the origin and ongoing practice of Geel’s host families and their “guests.”
The origins of the Geel model are intimately connected to the veneration of the Irish virgin martyr, St. Dympna (also spelled Dymphna) whose relics are enshrined in Geel. The narrative of her life and death published by the Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum May, vol.111 comes from the first written account of her vita by Peter of Cambrais, canon of the collegiate church of Saint-Aubert. It is dated between 1238 and 1247. This account was penned several centuries after the events it narrates.
This presentation does not intend to demythologize the medieval narrative but proposes an explanation of how the veneration of St. Dympna at her shrine in Geel may have given birth to the practice of host families taking into their homes the clients of this saint. The paper places Geel’s unique tradition within pre-Christian and Christian beliefs and practices as well as presenting data on the state of practice in the Age of Enlightenment from the French Revolution to modern times.
There is no dearth of contemporary writing on Geel’s tradition of host family psychiatric care.
Professionals making a case for the Geel model have published in community health and nursing journals. Geel Revisited: After centuries of mental rehabilitation by Eugeen Roosens and Lieve Van de Walle (text and DVD) carries a foreword by Oliver Sachs, M.D.
A version of this paper will have been presented at Walking Together: Christian Communities & Faithful Responses to Mental Illness a Reimagining Life Together Conference in Houston, TX (February 5 to 8).