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Who was St. Camillus?
St.
Camillus de Lellis was born in 1550 at Bocchiavico, Abruzzi, Kingdom of Naples, Italy. In 1570 he began to live a life of
penance and became a nurse at the hospital of St. Giacomo (Rome) and ordained a priest in 1584.
St. Camillus founded the
Congregation of the Servants of the Sick and Poor (the Camellians) whose members took the vow to "Devote themselves to material
and spiritual care of the sick and needy". The congregation expanded to several countries within a few years and by the time
he retired from the generalship of his order in 1607, in order to have more leisure for the poor and sick, there were three
hundred members, fifteen houses and eight hospitals.
St. Camillus honored the poor and sick as living images of Christ.
His reverence in their presence was as great as if he were really and truly in the presence of his Lord. His devotion and
compassion was so great that when he was taking care of people, he seemed to spend and exhaust himself completely. St. Camillus
charity was great and all embracing, not only he helped the sick and dying, but every other needy or suffering human being.
His charity was not confined to those who came to him; he also went out from city to city looking for people to help. When
his disciples suggested that it was enough to help those who came to them, he said: “If no poor could be found in the
world, men ought to go in search of them, and dig them up from underground to do them good, and to be merciful to them.”
We
are a group, both religious/ordained and lay, that seeks to emulate St. Camillus in the healing and care for the sick, injured,
dying and disenfranchised. We take the same vow. We are not monastic monks, nor mendicants friars, but 'Cleric Regulars'.
We are religious or lay, but are employed mainly in the secular world.
I, for one, am a Registered Nurse employed by the
Florida Department of Veteran's Affairs on an Alzheimer's Unit. I am also ordained in the Anglican Church.
If interested,
please join. You are welcomed!
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