This Tuesday is the feast of Camillus de Lellis (1550-1614). A former solider, Camillus tried more than once to enter the Franciscan order, but was unsuccessful mainly for reasons of health. Ending up in Rome, St Philip Neri became his spiritual director – establishing a link between this saint and the Oratory – and Camillus was eventually ordained priest. He was drawn specially to ministry with the sick and dying, including sufferers of the plague. He later founded an Order specifically for this work, the Ministers of the Sick (Camillans) who still exist today. The order is known for the large red cross on their habit, adopted centuries before its use by the International Red Cross in modern times.
“Saint Camillus De Lellis, transformed by God’s love, heard the call to give life to a new religious family that, imitating Jesus’ compassion and tenderness towards those who suffer in body and in spirit, might live out the commandment of love by joyfully spreading the Gospel announcement and taking care of the most fragile. Our time is marked by individualism and indifference, which generate loneliness and lead to the throwing away of many lives. … The Christian response does not lie in the resigned observation of the present or in the nostalgic regret of the past, but in charity which, animated by trust in Providence, knows how to love its own time and, with humility, bears witness to the Gospel. This is what was achieved by your founder, who is one of the saintly figures who best embody the style of the Good Samaritan, of being close to the wounded brother along the road. In this choice of life lies the turning point to come out of the shadows of a closed world and to generate an open world (cf. Encyclical Letter Fratelli Tutti, chapters 1-3). To you, brothers, the gift and task of being inspired by him to look at the reality of suffering, illness and death with the eyes of Jesus.”
Address of Pope Francis to participants in the General Chapter of the Order of Ministers of the Infirm, 16th May 2022