Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology. Beatified by Benedict XIV., in 1742, and canonized in 1746. Authority: — A Life by his disciple, Cicatelli.] The little town of Bacchianico, in the Abruzzi, has the honour of being the birthplace of this Saint. He was bora of aged parents, and it is said that his mothei dreamed that she was about to give birth to a child with a cross on his breast, but it is probable that this is a pious fable of later times.

In his youth Camillus gave no promise of good things; he spent his time in pleasure and dissipation, and had an inveterate passion for cards, so that he lost at once his health, his fortune, and his reputation. He became a soldier of fortune, passing from one service to another. He gambled away everything he had, and staked at last his sword, his arquebus, his cloak and coat. Then, reduced to abject destitution, he was forced, burning with shame, to solicit alms, till he could work for his livelihood. He hired himself as hod-man to some masons engaged in building for the Capuchins of Siponto. It was when thus engaged, his conscience reproaching him with his past excesses, that the Guardian of the convent took him aside one day, and walking up and down the garden walks, spoke to him seriously about the condition of his soul. Next day Camillus was on horseback on some errand, when his mind recurred to the words of the father. Struck with anguish of spirit, his soul melted by divine grace, he felt that he had erred far from God, and that the voice that called to his heart must be answered, or it would cease to speak again. He flung himself from the horse, and falling on his knees in the middle of the road, burst into tears and prayer for pardon.

S. Camillus of Lellis. On reaching the convent, he sought the tribunal of penance, and reconciled his soul with God. Then he humbly asked to be admitted into the Franciscan Order. He was tried for some time before his request was granted. He was made to sweep the convent, work in the garden, and do the most servile tasks for the convent. But as he remained constant in his resolution, he was sent to pass his noviciate in the convent of Trirento. But the breaking out of an ulcer on his leg made the Franciscans decline to accept him, and he was obliged to leave them. He went to Rome, where he served for four years in the hospital; and as his leg became again healed, he once more applied for admission into the Minorite Order. But again the old wound opened, and he was obliged to leave the convent He now felt satisfied that God did not will him to become a Capuchin.

His work in the hospital had convinced him that to minister to the sick, the nurses should belong to a religious congregation, and not be mere hirelings. He determined therefore to found an Order whose special work should be in the hospitals.

He now set to work to learn sufficient to take holy Orders. In the schools he was an object of joke among the boys, who saw a tall man, head and shoulders higher than themselves, sitting with them at their desks, standing up with them in class.

He persevered, distanced his youthful companions, and was ordained priest in 1584. He founded his Congregation in the same year. Only two men joined him. They cleansed the hospital wards, made the beds, applied poultices, and did all that was possible to succour and cheer the sick, The Order grew, and was given a house and church in Rome, spread to Naples, Milan, Genoa. In 1591 it received the sanction of Gregory XIV. After a holy and devoted life in religion, very different from that he had lived in the world, S. Camillus breathed forth his happy soul on July 14th, a.d. 1614, at the age of sixty-five. He expired murmuring, “ Mitis atque festivus Christi Jesus mihi aspectus appareat.”

His relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] are preserved in the church of S. Mary Magdalen in Rome. He is generally represented in Art accompanied by an angel, as he is said often to have seen his guardian by his side.