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Home > Catholic Encyclopedia > C > St. Camillus de Lellis


ST. CAMILLUS DE LELLIS

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Born at Bucchianico, Abruzzo, 1550; died at Rome, 14 July, 1614.

He was the son of an officer who had served both in the Neapolitan and French
armies. His mother died when he was a child, and he grew up absolutely
neglected. When still a youth he became a soldier in the service of Venice and
afterwards of Naples, until 1574, when his regiment was disbanded. While in the
service he became a confirmed gambler, and in consequence of his losses at play
was at times reduced to a condition of destitution. The kindness of a Franciscan
friar induced him to apply for admission to that order, but he was refused. He
then betook himself to Rome, where he obtained employment in the Hospital for
Incurables. He was prompted to go there chiefly by the hope of a cure of
abscesses in both his feet from which he had been long suffering. He was
dismissed from the hospital on account of his quarrelsome disposition and his
passion for gambling. He again became a Venetian soldier, and took part in the
campaign against the Turks in 1569. After the war he was employed by the
Capuchins at Manfredonia on a new building which they were erecting. His old
gambling habit still pursued him, until a discourse of the guardian of the
convent so startled him that he determined to reform. He was admitted to the
order as a lay brother, but was soon dismissed on account of his infirmity. He
betook himself again to Rome, where he entered the hospital in which he had
previously been, and after a temporary cure of his ailment became a nurse, and
winning the admiration of the institution by his piety and prudence, he was
appointed director of the hospital.



While in this office, he attempted to found an order of lay infirmarians, but
the scheme was opposed, and on the advice of his friends, among whom was his
spiritual guide, St. Philip Neri, he determined to become a priest. He was then
thirty-two years of age and began the study of Latin at the Jesuit College in
Rome. He afterwards established his order, the Fathers of a Good Death (1584),
and bound the members by vow to devote themselves to the plague-stricken; their
work was not restricted to the hospitals, but included the care of the sick in
their homes. Pope Sixtus V confirmed the congregation in 1586, and ordained that
there should be an election of a general superior every three years. Camillus
was naturally the first, and was succeeded by an Englishman, named Roger. Two
years afterwards a house was established in Naples, and there two of the
community won the glory of being the first martyrs of charity of the
congregation, by dying in the fleet which had been quarantined off the harbour,
and which they had visited to nurse the sick. In 1591 Gregory XIV erected the
congregation into a religious order, with all the privileges of the mendicants.
It was again confirmed as such by Clement VIII, in 1592. The infirmity which had
prevented his entrance among the Capuchins continued to afflict Camillus for
forty-six years, and his other ailments contributed to make his life one of
uninterrupted suffering, but he would permit no one to wait on him, and when
scarcely able to stand would crawl out of his bed to visit the sick. He resigned
the generalship of the order, in 1607, in order to have more leisure for the
sick and poor. Meantime he had established many houses in various cities of
Italy. He is said to have had the gift of miracles and prophecy. He died at the
age of sixty-four while pronouncing a moving appeal to his religious brethren.
He was buried near the high altar of the church of St. Mary Magdalen, at Rome,
and, when the miracles which were attributed to him were officially approved,
his body was placed under the altar itself. He was beatified in 1742, and in
1746 was canonized by Benedict XIV.

[Note: In 1930, Pope Pius XI named St. Camillus de Lellis, together with St.
John of God, principal Co-Patron of nurses and of nurses' associations.]




SOURCES

BUTLER, Lives of the Saints (Derby, 1845); Bullar. Roman., XVI, 83; CICATELLO,
Life of St. Camillus (Rome, 1749); GOSCHLER, Dict. de theol. cath. (Paris,
1869), III.


ABOUT THIS PAGE

APA citation. Campbell, T. (1908). St. Camillus de Lellis. In The Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03217b.htm

MLA citation. Campbell, Thomas. "St. Camillus de Lellis." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908.
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03217b.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Herman F.
Holbrook. Fratribus meis omnibus Sancti Camilli sodalitatis.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. November 1, 1908. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

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