14th Jul - ST CAMILLUS DE LELLIS (1550-1614)

 Camillus’ mother died when he was a child, his father neglected him, and he grew up with an excessive love for gambling. At 17 he was afflicted with a disease of his leg that 

    remained with him for life. In Rome, he entered the San Giacomo Hospital for Incurables as both patient and servant, but was dismissed for quarrelsomeness. He accepted work at the 

    Capuchin friary at Manfredonia, and was one day so moved by a sermon of the superior that he began a conversion that changed his whole life. He came back at San Giacomo and devoted 

    the rest of his life to the care of the sick, and has been named, along with St. John of God, patron of hospitals, nurses and the sick. With the advice of his friend St. Philip Neri, 

    he studied for the priesthood and was ordained at the age of 34. He left San Giacomo and founded a congregation of his own. The members of his community bound themselves to serve 

    prisoners and persons infected by the plague as well as those dying in private homes. Some of his men were with troops fighting in Hungary in 1595, 

    forming the first recorded military field ambulance. In Naples, he and his men went onto the galleys that had plague and were not allowed to land. 

    He himself suffered the disease of his leg through his life. In his last illness, he left his own bed to see if other patients in the hospital needed help. In 1886, 

    Leo XIII declared St Camillus Patron of the Sick and of Hospitals.





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