Apostleship of Prayer - Saints
July 14 - Saint Camillus de LellisCamillus was born in1550 at Bocchianico in Abruzzi. As his father he joined the Venetian Army to fight against the Turks. He was a very tallman with an aggressive temper. He was also an inveterate gambler. He contracted an incurable disease in his leg. He lost everything in his gambling but was cared for by four Capuchins. Nevertheless of his diseased leg he ws unable to join the Capuchins and so found his vocation in caring for the sick. With help of his friend Philip Neri Camillus founded a Congregation of male nurseswho bound themselves to serve the plague-stricken, the sick in their homes. His Congregation was called the Ministers of the Sick, the Camillians.
Some of his members went to the battlefields in Hungary and Croatia where they becme examles of a militry ambulance unity. In Rome and Naples Camillus founded hospitals in which he insisted in fresh air, suitable diets and isolations of infectious patients.
In spit of his own serioous illness he served as General of the Congregation, while at the same time he still served the sick in the hospital. He was declared a Saint of the Church in 1746 and was declared the patron saint of nurses and the sick.
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