to a little-known princess will be laid in the east Devon town of Seaton on Tuesday week.
The £7,000 building, in the charge of the Augustinian Fathers, will be dedicated to the sixth century Irish Princess, St. Dympna, and placed under her protection for the benefit of the mentally disordered.
A home dedicated to St. Dympna and housing mentally handicapped children has been in operation in Seaton since 1943. In 1952 a small notice in a Catholic paper on the Saint's feastday, May 15, brought a few enquiries. ln 1953 a similar advertisement drew 200 letters; in 1954 600 petitions arrived.
The movement grew until public request brought the League of St. Dympna into being in 1959. Now, there are over 3,000 members.
More and more visitors went to the little chapel in the house. Permission was gained to erect a large hut-which rapidly became a National Shrine. But the time limit has run out and soon the hut must come down.
Hence the new church-for which the Fathers still need £4,500. League members and the mentally disordered will have a church of their own, and, Fr. Ortiz, the Superior told the CATHOLIC HI-RALD this week. if
more money comes in it may be possible to help more children through the Catholic Handicapped Children's Fellowship.
And who was St. Dympna? She was born in Ireland of royal parents. Her Christian mother died when Dympna was 15 years eld and the girl found it necessary to flee from the impious and unnatural designs of her pagan father. Persued to Belgium the girl still resisted the father who in a violent rage drew his sword and struck her to death. Many miracles have been wrought through intercession to her as patroness of the mentally handicapped.
The address of the English shrine is St. Dympna's, Earcpath Hill, Seaton, E. Devon.
OUR LADY'S CATECHISTS' annual Study Conference (Cenaele Convent, Hampstead. May 18-21) will include four lectures by Fr. H. J. Richards. S.T.L. on 'The Old Testament". Modern catechetical ideas on Catechetics based on Doctrine, Scripture, Liturgy, will be stressed.