Gerebernus

Saint Gerebernus (Gerebran, Gerebrand, Genebern) was an Irish priest of the sixth or seventh century, the tutor and then companion of Saint Dymphna, who was killed with her around 700. He is commemorated on 17 May.

According to the Life of Dymphna and the priest Gerebern, written in the thirteenth century by Peter of Cambrai, canon of Saint-⁠Géry-⁠et-⁠Aubert, Gerebernus baptized Dymphna, the daughter of an Irish king. After her mother's death the king wanted to marry her. She fled with Gerebernus to Geel in present-⁠day Belgium, where they were found and beheaded by the king.

The legend says their bones were stolen from Geel by robbers from Xanten. Gerebernus's bones remained at Sonsbeck near Xanten, where a chapel was built; miracles at the grave drew pilgrims into the eighteenth century, and the pilgrimage ended with the bombing of Sonsbeck in 1945. He is depicted as a bearded priest with palm and lance and is invoked against pain in the wrist, paralysis and epilepsy. In the West he is commemorated on 15 May.