(C.D. Stampley Enterprises, Charlotte, NC 2001). Used with permission.

We hope you enjoy this article from the book. Visit the Library Shop to purchase it now.  

{tab=Introduction}

For nurses

St. Camillus de Lellis (1550-1614)

Feast day: July 14

St. Camillus de Lellis, the patron of nurses, revolutionized health care in 16th-century Italy. His hospitals were scrupulously clean, the sick received healthy meals, and the nursing staff were trained professionals.

Camillus de Lellis must have made an intimidating nurse. Six feet six inches tall and powerfully built, a man who had been a soldier and a compulsive gambler, he did not look like the nurturing type.

Camillus came by his fearsome aspect honestly. His father was a professional mercenary who had made a career of fighting for the prince who paid his soldiers the highest rate. In 1527 as a member of the army of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V the elder de Lellis took part in the notorious sack of Rome.

Camillus was born in the town Bucchianeto de Chieti in Italy’s province of Abruzzi. He was his parents’ only surviving child and, as he grew up, a source of anxiety for his poor mother. He was lazy, short-tempered, bullheaded, undisciplined, and hated school.

{tab=Article}

At age seventeen Camillus enlisted as a mercenary for Venice in a war against the Turks. He was in the same regiment as his father who taught him the rough ways of the military camp, especially gambling. For the next seven years father and son were soldiers of fortune together, until the elder de Lellis fell mortally ill and died. Camillus’ one consolation in later years was that on his deathbed his father suffered a pang of conscience. He called for a priest, made a good confession, and received the Last Rites.

Camillus was 24, unemployed, and flat broke (the de Lellis men had had a run of bad luck at the gambling table). Furthermore he had developed an open ulcer on one leg that would not heal. For a time he found shelter in a Capuchin monastery where he did odd jobs. Attracted by the stability of Capuchin life and moved by his father’s deathbed repentance, Camillus asked to join the order. The superiors of the monastery did not believe he had a vocation, so Camillus returned to the life of a gambling vagabond.

Camillus was in Rome when the ulcer in his leg became so bad he realized he needed medical treatment immediately. Once again all his money was gone, so he struck a deal with the administrators of the San Giacomo Hospital: they would treat his leg and he would work as one of the hospital’s servants.

Hospitals in 16th-century Italy tended to be wretched, filthy places. The “nurses” were often vagrants like Camillus who were taken in off the streets and put to work sweeping the floors, washing the dishes, maybe washing and feeding helpless patients. Often these nurses neglected the sick; sometimes they robbed them.

In such company it was easy for Camillus to get a card game going. But losses at the card table bred resentments and the resentments led to fighting. When San Giacomo’s administrators traced the brawls that plagued the hospital staff to Camillus, they threw him out in the street.

At the city of Manfredonia Camillus was begging outside a church when a well-to-do gentleman famous locally for his good works spotted the tall young beggar. He gave Camillus a Job working on a monastery he was having built outside the town. The work was pure drudgery. Camillus had no training as a builder so he did the most tedious jobs: heavy lifting, driving donkeys, running messages, bringing meals to the craftsmen. He could have left the construction site at any time, but he stayed and in time he found satisfaction in having at last acquired some discipline and self-control. When the monastery was finished Camillus set out again for Rome and San Giacomo’s Hospital where he hoped to have his leg healed at last. The year was 1575; Camillus was 25 years old.

San Giacomo’s Administrator’s gave Camillus a second chance. Meanwhile Camillus introduced himself to St. Philip Neri who agreed to serve as his spiritual director. The one-time mercenary and compulsive gambler had learned how hard work could banish his old vices, now he was learning that the best reason to work was not wages but out love for God and for one’s neighbor. Combining this inspiration with his experiences at the hospital, Camillus conceived the idea of founding a religious society of laymen and priests dedicated to the loving care of the sick.

He turned a house in a bad part of town into a tiny hospital, a decision which Philip Neri believed to be a serious mistake. Neri was certain that left to his own devices in a neighborhood full of temptations Camillus would fall back into his old habits. He urged Camillus to give up this idea of founding a nursing order and go back to work at San Giacomo. Camillus refused, and the once warm friendship between the two saints turned chilly.

Camillus and his nurses went into the worst slums of Rome to find the sick, the dying, the abandoned—people who could not get to a hospital. His hospitals set the standard for other institutions: the wards were well ventilated, the patients received healthy meals, and those suffering from contagious diseases were quarantined. While many hospitals of the day tried to make the sick comfortable until they died, Camillus and his nurses sought out effective treatments that would get the patients on their feet again.

At the end of his life Camillus was tortured by memories of his sinful past. When the general of the Carmelites visited him Camillus begged the priest, “Pray for me, for I have been a great sinner, a gambler, and a man of bad life.” Before death came Camillus’ confidence in God’s mercy was restored. He stretched his arms out so his body took the form of a cross, and giving thanks for the Blood of Christ which had washed away his sins, he died.

St. Camillus de Lellis lies buried in the little Church of Santa Maria Maddalena in Rome. He was named patron saint of nurses by {ln:Pope} Pius XI.

{tab=About Book}

Prayer to the saints is a powerful thing.

Now, with Saints for Every Occasion, readers can quickly find help for any challenge they face – no matter how large or small. Author Thomas J. Craughwell profiles 101 patron saints from various continents, cultures and times – from saints who were contemporaries of Christ, to modern patrons like Padre Pio and Faustina Kowalska. Each saint lived heroically in difficult times and circumstances, providing powerful examples of how to turn almost any obstacle into a source of grace. Along with old favorites such as St. Anthony and St. Jude, Craughwell offers patrons for specifically modern concerns, including, for example, saints to watch over astronauts, internet users and environmental activists. Beautifully illustrated and entertainingly told, Saints for Every Occasion features 101 patron saints readers will seek out time and again.

“An excellent resource for home and classroom use.” – Publisher’s Weekly {/tabs}