Camillus de Lellis

Who they were

Camillus was born at Bucchianico near Chieti on 25 May 1550. A soldier in his youth, he was converted in 1575 when a friar told him, 'God is everything, the rest is nothing; you must save the soul that does not die.' He tried to become a Capuchin but was twice sent away because of a wound in his leg from his soldiering days, which took him to the hospital of San Giacomo in Rome.

There he saw how the sick were abandoned, and founded the Ministers of the Sick, the Camillians, joining a soldier's discipline to Christian charity, with a fourth vow, besides poverty, chastity and obedience, to serve the sick. In 1586 Pope Sixtus V allowed them to wear a red cross on their habit. He is considered the first great reformer of nursing and hospital care, teaching that whoever cares for the sick must care for the soul too. He died in Rome on 14 July 1614.

The miracles

The miracles examined for his causes are not described in the sources we have used.

Why that counted as sanctity

A former soldier became the servant of the sick, seeing Christ in them, and gave the Church a new way of caring for body and soul together.

Connected on this site

• Aloysius Gonzaga Saint
  “When plague struck Rome in 1591 he nursed the sick alongside St Camillus de Lellis, 'like the others', forgetting his rank.” — this site's research
• Giuseppina Vannini Saint
  “On 2 February 1892, in the room where St Camillus de Lellis had died, she and two companions received the red cross of the Camillians from the Superior General, and on 19 March she took the habit as Sister Giuseppina.” — this site's research