Camillus de Lellis was born in 1550 in the Kingdom of Naples.
His parents were older, and after his mother’s death in 1562, he was taken care
of my family members who often neglected him. At age 16 he joined the Venetian
army. After his regiment disbanded in 1575, he gambled away everything he had.
He took a job at a Capuchian friary. He continued to gamble excessively and
suffer from a leg injury he received in the army. He was known for having an aggressive
temper.
Yet a friar worked to bring out Camillus’ better side.
Eventually Camillus had a religious conversion and entered the novitiate there.
However, he was denied admission because of his leg wound. He went to Rome and
entered the San Giacomo Hospital for incurable diseases. He also worked as a
caregiver for others there. He followed an ascetic lifestyle, and St. Philip
Neri served as his spiritual director and confessor.
Camillus worked for the sick to receive better attention and
care, inviting pious men he met at Neri’s Oratory to come care for patients at
the hospital. He felt called to start a religious order to care for the sick.
Neri helped him receive funding to go to seminary and get ordained. He became a
priest on Pentecost 1584. He established the Order of Clerks Regular, Minister
of the Infirm, called Camillians. They wore red crosses on their cassocks as a
symbol of their service. They took a vow to “serve the sick, even with danger to one’s
own life.”
Charity to patients was of first concern, but they also
worked to make hospitals clean and make sure people received proper burial. The
order served soldiers in battle and victims of bubonic plague. The order spread
throughout Italy. The pope assigned them the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Rome
(whose feast is today), which the order still operates.
St. Camillus continued to suffer from his leg
injury as he traveled and served the sick. He died in Rome in 1614 and was
entombed at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene. He is the patron of the sick,
hospitals, doctors, and gamblers. His feast day (in the old calendar and still
in the US) is July 18.
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