JULY 18TH, ST. CAMILLUS DE LELLIS, CONFESSOR;

Commemoration of Ss. Symphorosa and her Seven Sons, Martyrs

Month in honor of the Most Precious Blood of OLJC.

Camillus was a son of the noble family of the Lelli, and was born at Bacchianico, a town in the Diocese of Chieti, in the Abruzzi, in the year of our Lord 1550. His mother was sixty years of age at the time of his birth. While she was great with child, she dreamed that she brought forth a babe bearing the mark of a Cross upon his breast, and going before a troop of other babes marked likewise. When Camillus was a young man he served as a soldier, and yielded himself for a while to the sins of the world. In the twenty-fifth year of his age light from God broke upon him and in a violent fit of tears he determined to wipe away the evil relics of his past life, and to put on the new man. That very day, being the holiday of the Purification of the Most Blessed Virgin, he ran to the Friars Minors, who are commonly called Capuchins, and implored them to enrol him among them. They granted his wishes, but God was keeping him for greater things, and on this as well as on another occasion when he made the same attempt he was forced to abandon it by the increasing virulence of a loathsome running sore in the leg, with which he was afflicted. He meekly bowed himself to the will of Providence, and conquering his own wishes twice, stripped himself of the habit of the Order, which he had sought and received. He went to Rome and was received as an inmate in the Hospital for Incurables. In consequence of his eminent good qualities the administration of the Hospital was committed to his charge, and he discharged this office with the most thorough trustworthiness and with a tenderness like a father's. He counted himself the slave of all the patients, and made it a religious duty to make their beds, clean them, dress their sores, and help by godly prayers and exhortations such as were in their last agony. In doing these things he showed himself a bright example of wonderful patience, indomitable firmness, and heroic charity. He became persuaded that a knowledge of letters would make him much more useful as a comforter to the dying, who were his peculiar care, and therefore, at the age of thirty-two years, he humbly went to school again, among little boys learning the first rudiments. After a time he took Priests' orders, and, in company with some companions who joined him, he laid the first foundations of the Congregation of Regular Clerks for ministering to the sick a scheme against which the enemy of man made an unsuccessful struggle. Camillus heard a voice from heaven issue from an image of Christ Crucified, strengthening him, and saw the nailed hands stretched out from the Cross to protect him He obtained from the Apostolic see an approval of his Institute, the members of which, (besides the three vows of Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience,) take a fourth and very stern one, by which they bind themselves to serve all sick persons, even those stricken with the plague. Holy Philip Neri, who was Confessor to Camillus, testified that he had often seen Angels prompting the members of this Congregation what they should speak when they were assisting the dying, a proof how well-pleasing in the sight of God, and how useful for the salvation of souls, is this Institution. Then he had thus given himself entirely over by these strict ties to the service of the sick, it was wonderful to see with what earnestness Camillus, broken by no weariness, and scared by no danger to himself, watched over their comfort by day and by night as long as life lasted. Becoming all things to all men, he took with cheerful readiness the most repulsive duties, discharging them with the most humble attention, and oftentimes on his knees, as though he saw Christ Himself in His suffering members. That he might be the readier to serve every one's need, he resigned the general government of his own Institute, and denied himself the indulgence in the heavenly refreshment which abundantly poured upon him, when he fixed his mind solely upon God. His tender, fatherly love toward the wretched had its brightest manifestations when Rome was stricken first by a contagious sickness, and then by famine, and Nola in Campagna suffered from a frightful plague. His love to God and to his neighbour was so glorious that he earned the nickname of Angel, and found Angels helping him in the difficulties of his diverse journeyings. He had the gifts of prophecy and healing, and could read the secret thoughts of men's hearts. At his prayer, food was multiplied, and water turned into wine. His want of sleep, fasting, and unceasing work wore him down till he seemed nothing but skin and bones. He suffered from a complication of five different painful and incurable diseases, which he was accustomed to call the Lord's mercies to him, and which he bore bravely. He died at Rome on the day which he had himself foretold, the fourteenth of July, in the year of salvation 1614, and of his own age the 65th. He had received the Sacraments, and fell asleep in the Lord in an attempt to utter the sweet names of Jesus and Mary, while the Priest was reciting the words of the Ritual: “Gentle and joyous may the Countenance of Christ Jesus appear to thee.” He was famous for many miracles, and Benedict XIV. solemnly enrolled him in the calendar of the Saints.