In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The life of Saint Camillus de Lellis is the life of a sinner who was expelled from the
hospital for his bad behavior
and who became the patron saint of the sick and of hospitals
for his total dedication to the service of the sick.
He founded a religious Order named: The Order of the Camillians or Clerics Regular, Ministers to the Sick,
which is especially dedicated to the service of the sick in hospitals
homes for the elderly
and centers for the disabled.
Certainly the life of this giant of holiness, who at the same time was also physically giant,
does not detract from the holiness of other great saints of the Church.
God also granted him some charisms such as prophecy and healing,
but above all He gave him the gift of love to serve with motherly tenderness all the poor patients in hospitals.
He was an example to all for his total dedication.
He himself did the heaviest work, even carrying the sick from the street to the hospital or
the dead for burial on his shoulders.
He also cared for the dying in their homes.
And all this was a means to reach their souls and save them for eternity.
That was the supreme goal of his endeavors.
In Genoa our religious were called to help a poor dying woman.
They asked her if she had any scruples left in her conscience, so that she could rest
before she totally lost consciousness.
She piously turned her eyes to Saint Camillus and said
"Dear Father, God has sent you here
for my salvation."
When all those present moved away from her bed, she added crying
“Father, I haven't
believed in the most holy host on the altar for thirty years now and I have always been
ashamed to confess it.”
Then, Saint Camillus, saddened because there was almost no time
he gave her a brief review
of the most serious sins.
After giving her absolution
the dying woman suffered such great pain and crying that she
could barely finish her penance
which consisted of repeating the name of Jesus five times
and to the astonishment of the saint, she passed into the life after death.
The priest was completely amazed when he thought of the danger in which that soul had found herself,
who, without a doubt
would have been lost for all eternity if her relatives
had taken a little longer to call him.
In Bologna, while assisting an elderly woman
she cried so much that she made Saint Camillus suspect
that she had some unconfessed sin that did not leave her conscience alone.
And the Saint asked her about it.
Seeing herself half discovered, she said
“Father, it is true, thirty-two years ago
one of my daughters,
having taken a wrong step, became pregnant and after giving birth,
I helped her by throwing the child into the well
without baptizing him.
Since then I have always confessed and received Communion many times a year,
but I have never accused myself of this sin.
Saint Camillus gave a brief confession to her that she could barely finish
because she immediately went to the Lord in total repentance.
Another woman who was dying in Rome for having eaten poisonous mushrooms
while one of our religious
was helping her to die well, the woman said to him
“Father, I have been
the concubine of this man who is present for twenty years.
I have never confessed this, although every Sunday I have attended confession and Communion.
And all the parishioners and the neighborhood have always thought that he was my husband.”
Saint Camillus hardly had time to propose some acts of pain and contrition, because
after receiving his absolution
closing her eyes, she died repentant.
In Rome, a student who had been at least fifteen years without confessing
when the moment
of agony arrived
he desperately wanted to die.
They called our religious, who, seeing his bad disposition
began to persuade him
and shortly after having confessed, he died showing signs of great repentance.
The Father imposed a small penance on him, but he did not want to accept it
saying he
wanted a bigger one.
And although he knew that he could not fulfill it in this world, he said that he wanted to
do it at least in the life after death.
He fervently begged the saint to write it down on a piece of paper and tie it around
his neck so that he could appear before the tribunal of God, in sign of being sorry.
Before his pleas, Saint Camillus was forced to satisfy him, putting the paper tied around
his neck.
Thus he died happily.
In Rome, in 1589
a novice was ill
having been declared without hope of recovery by
the doctors.
He seemed to be so close to death that some brothers
on the way to the hospital, prayed
the rosary for him, thinking that they would find him dead on the way back.
Saint Camillus de Lellis went to visit him and sent everyone out of the infirmary.
He asked him if he wanted to heal and persevere in the Congregation and the novice answered yes.
Then he put his hand on his forehead, over his eyes
so that he would not see what he
was doing
but the patient observed everything through his fingers.
Saint Camillus raised his eyes to heaven and prayed to the Lord for his health.
Afterwards, he told him to remain joyful and trusting in God
because he would not die
of that disease.
The next day, by the grace of the Lord, the doctors found him without fever and free of
all ailments.
The doctors were totally amazed.
Since that day, the novice always affirmed and manifested that it was the work of heaven
obtained by the prayer of Saint Camillus de Lellis.
Naples, April 1594.
Another novice had a malignant fever,
on the fifth day a skin infection developed on his left shoulder,
which in a short time swelled his arm and hand and advanced towards his heart
putting his life in great danger.
One night, while Saint Camillus was guarding him
the sick man told him that the swelling
reached almost to the left side of his chest
and that he felt his heart suffocate.
Then, Saint Camillus uncovered his chest
and made the holy sign of the cross over his heart
telling him not to fear because that evil would not progress.
Then he covered him up and left.
It was certainly surprising, because the next day, the patient verified
that the swelling
had not progressed.
The disease had arrived just at that part that Saint Camillus touched
as if his fingers
had had the virtue of marking the borders of evil.
In that part the swelling was more than usual, as if it were trying to force itself to go through
but divine goodness did not allow it.
A few days later he was cured
and always told everyone
that he had miraculously recovered
his health through the merits and hand of Saint Camillus de Lellis.
Rome, year 1596.
A few days after the end of the General Chapter
a novice was terminally ill, declared without
hope of recovery by the doctors.
In the morning, they had consulted and concluded that there was no other hope of life except
to trust in his youth.
They ordered that the Holy Viaticum be given to him, and that same morning, after the doctors
left, it was administered to him.
When Saint Camillus found out
he went to visit him and asked how he was.
He answered that he was ill.
Saint Camillus told him
"Don't be afraid, because although the doctors this morning
have said so, you will not die from this disease."
Later, seeing him without a nightcap, he asked, "Don't you have a nightcap?"
He replied that he had lost it to the bed.
They looked for it and, not finding it, he told the nurse to give him another one.
But God allowed that they did not find the key to the chest where the clean clothes were either.
So, Saint Camillus went to his room, took his own night cap, came back and put it on
the sick man's head.
Then he prayed with the sick man, made the sign of the cross over his head and left.
Immediately something amazing happened.
As soon as he left the infirmary
the patient was seized by a strange attack of cold
with so much trembling and sweat that it wet two mattresses and a pallet and soaked to the ground
also turning everything yellow as if it had been dyed with saffron.
After two hours
the cold and the yellow color passed, the illness also passed and he found
himself completely healthy.
This caused great astonishment, not only in the doctors who returned in the afternoon,
but also in the people who were already preparing to pray the Office for the Dead.
The nurse had already prepared even the vestments for the grave.
From that day on
the sick man always told by his own mouth
that as soon as he had Saint Camillus's nightcap on his head
he immediately felt an inner commotion
and he was cured of all ills.
He propagated it as an extraordinary miracle.
Listening to this video about Saint Camillus
we can praise God for the great charity that
He granted him to care for the poor and the sick.
He was like a mother to them and was so happy to be able to help them with the simplest things
even if they were unpleasant.
Saint Camillus de Lellis
did so many acts of charity with the sick and with all those
around him that Pope Benedict XIV himself
who canonized him, said that he was the founder
of a new school of charity.
Saint Camillus de Lellis was not the only one in the history of the Church who has dedicated
himself to caring for the sick.
We can say that he was one of the first to dedicate himself full time to this activity
without neglecting patients in times of epidemics
pestilence or war.
Let us ask Jesus through the Virgin Mary
to give us the courage and strength to do acts
of charity with the sick around us
and to be able to live with strength the personal
moments of the illness itself.
May God bless you through the Virgin Mary, our mother.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.