Saint Camillus de Lellis:

Feast day : 14 July

Today the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Camillus de Lellis, a Roman Catholic priest who lived during the period 1550-1614. He is the founder of the Camillians Order, a religious Order dedicated to serving the sick and the dying even amidst great dangers such as wars, plagues and famines. It is the original International Red Cross movement. Though his early years were spent in gambling and fighting wars, he had a true conversion of heart after the age of 25 and thereafter till his death, lived a life of penance, prayer and service. He was known to posses gifts of healing and prophecy. He was beatified by Pope Benedict XIV in the year 1742, and canonized by him four years later in 1746. He is the patron saint of the sick, hospitals, nurses and physicians. His assistance is also invoked against gambling.

Early Life:

Camillus de Lellis was born at Bucchianico on May 25, 1550. His father served in the army and was mostly away from home, fighting wars. At the age of twelve, after he lost his mother, he was placed under the care of his relatives. He was known to be disobedient, unruly and had a violent temper which made him a cause of concern. At the age of 16, he left his relatives to join his father in the Venetian army and fought against the Turks. His father was a gambler and taught him to be an expert gambler. When they were not fighting wars, they spent their time gambling away all that they had, sometimes winning too. But his father soon fell ill and on his death bed repented for his wayward living and wished his son to live a better life. Camillus left the army when it disbanded in 1575 and gambled away all he had. He had a persistent wound in his ankle that would not heal and left him lame. Having lost all his possessions, he begged on the streets till one day he was offered a job as a bricklayer in a Capuchin monastery that was being built. There he persevered hard to overcome his weaknesses and had a true conversion of heart. Though he wished to enter the Capuchin Order he was declared unfit due to his leg wound and therefore refused admission.

Vocation:

By now he was keen on serving the sick and helping the outcasts who had no one to care for them. He joined the San Giacomo Hospital and served there for 4-5 years, living an ascetic life of penance, prayer and service. He often went for confession to St. Philip Neri who was his spiritual director. Eventually, he felt he was called to be a priest and establish a formal religious community. He began his seminary studies and was ordained a priest in 1584.

During the years that he served the sick, he felt he needed to do more for the outcast and dying. So he gathered around him a group of like-minded people and made a vow that wherever there was pain and illness and death, no matter how dangerous the place, they would go and serve. They wore the Red Cross of the Crusaders and helped people who were sick and dying of the plague, those in prisons, on battlefields or wherever they were. This was the Camillian Order that he founded and it is the original International Red Cross movement. The large Red Cross on their cassock remains the symbol of their Congregation and stands for the charity and service they offer.

During the Battle of Canizza in 1601, while the Camillians were helping with the wounded, the tent in which they were tending to the sick and in which they had all of their equipment and supplies was completely destroyed and burned to the ground. Everything in the tent was destroyed except the red cross of a religious habit belonging to one of the Camillians who was ministering to the wounded on the battlefield. This event was taken by the Camillans to manifest divine approval of the Red Cross of St. Camillus.

Members of the Order also devoted themselves to caring for the victims of Bubonic plague. It was due to the efforts of the brothers and supernatural healings by St. Camillus that the people of Rome credited St. Camillus with ridding the city of a great plague and the subsequent famine. For a time, he became known as the "Saint of Rome". His concern for the proper treatment of the sick extended to the end of their lives. He had come to be aware of the many cases of people being buried alive, due to haste, and ordered that the Brothers of his Order wait fifteen minutes past the moment when the patient seemed to have drawn his last breath, in order to avoid this.

In 1586 Pope Sixtus V gave the group formal recognition as a congregation and assigned them the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Rome. In 1588 he was invited to Naples and with twelve companions founded a new house there. In 1594 he led his religious to Milan where they attended to the sick of the Ca' Granda hospital. In 1591, Pope Gregory XV raised the Congregation to the status of an Order, equivalent with the mendicant orders. At that time they established a fourth religious vow unique to their Order: “to serve the sick, even with danger to one’s own life”. Pope Clement VIII again confirmed this Order with additional privileges in 1592 and 1600.

Throughout his life Camillus De Lellis' ailments caused him suffering, but he allowed no one to wait on him and would crawl to visit the sick when unable to stand and walk. He was also known to be blessed with the gifts of healing and prophecy. He resigned as Superior General of the Order in 1607, but continued to serve as Vicar General of the Order. By that time, communities of the Order had spread all throughout Italy and as far as Hungary. He assisted in a General Chapter of the Order in 1613, after which he accompanied the new Superior General on an inspection tour of all the hospitals of the Order in Italy.

Death & Sainthood:

In the course of that tour, he fell ill. He received the viaticum from the hands of Cardinal Ginnasio, protector of the Order and said with many tears “O Lord, I confess I am the most wretched of sinners, most undeserving of Thy favour; but save me by Thy infinite goodness. My hope is placed in Thy divine mercy through Thy Precious Blood.” He died on 14 July 1614 in Rome at the age of sixty five. He was entombed at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene.

He was beatified by Pope Benedict XIV in the year 1742, and canonized by him four years later in 1746. He is the patron saint of the sick, hospitals, nurses and physicians. His assistance is also invoked against gambling. His mortal remains are located in the altar in the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Rome, along with several of his relics. Also on display is the Cross which allegedly spoke to Camillus, and asked him, "Why are you afraid? Do you not realize that this is not your work but mine?" which has become the motto associated with De Lellis, as well as healthcare workers who were inspired by him.

The Congregation of the Servants of the Sick of St Camillus, the Daughters of St. Camillus, the Secular Institutes of Missionaries of the Sick Christ Our Hope, of the Kamillianische Schwestern (Camillan Sisters) and of the Lay Camillian Family, were born later of the charism and spirituality of De Lellis.