Home
Saint Camillus de Lellis 400th Anniversary of Death Issued - 08/28/2014 Face Value €0.70 Perforation: 13 ¼ x 13 ¼ The Feast of Saint Camillus de Lellis is celebrated on July 14 on the General Roman Calendar. Prior to 1969, his feast was celebrated on July 18, which is the date upon which the feast is still celebrated in the United States. In 2014, Vatican City issued the stamp above to commemorate the 400th anniversary of his death on July 14, 1614. The stamp is a view of the painting “Saint Camillus Among the Plague Stricken”, which is housed at the Chiesa di Santa Maria Maddalena, the home of the Order of the Ministers of the Sick (the Camillians), located in Rome near the Pantheon. Italy and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) also issued stamps to honor Saint Camillus de Lellis in 2014. Saint Camillus de Lellis was born in 1550. He had a troubled youth, and as a young man he was known to have a violent temper and reckless habits. Following in his father's footsteps (who was an army officer), Camillus served in the Venetian army where he incurred a permanent leg injury. Shortly after his military experience, he got a menial job in a Capuchin friary. A saintly friar spoke to him, saying, “God is everything. The rest in nothing. One should save one’s soul which does not die”. While working at the friary, Saint Camillus had a conversion of heart. He determined that his true vocation was to be a servant of the sick and infirmed. He wanted to become a friar but the order rejected him because of his leg injury. Camillus traveled to Rome and found work at Saint James Hospital for the incurable. With others he found ministry success. In Rome, he met Saint Philip Neri, who became his spiritual director. He eventually was ordained in 1584 and, shortly thereafter founded the Order of Clerks Regular, Ministers of the Infirm (M.I). The order is known as the Camillians, and obtained the approval by Pope Sixtus V in 1586. Their vows are poverty, chastity, obedience and corporeal and spiritual assistance to the sick regardless of the danger to one’s own life. Members of the order are identified by a large red cross on their cassocks. Camillus was driven by a desire to completely reform the system of caring for the sick. At the time, the sick were usually cared for by convicts or untrained mercenaries, and Camillus dreamed of transforming the approach to caregiving where it was no longer seen as punishment, but as “an act of love and compassion toward those who suffer, recognizing in the sick the reflection of Christ’s face, to be served and loved”. The Camillians gave service to soldiers in time of wars and to communities in time of plagues, epidemics and disasters. They did this at the peril of their own lives. Annually, on May 25 the order commemorates the “Camillian Martyrs of Charity”, priests and brothers who died after contracting diseases and those who gave their life in giving service to those involved in war and disasters. Today, the Camillians serve world-wide, with posts in Rwanda, Sudan, the Philippines, and Haiti, as well as in the United States. It has approximately 1,100 priests and brothers. Two congregations of the Camillians for women were created in the 19th century, and secular institutes were established in the 20th century. The mission of the Camillians remains the same since its founding: “Camillian healthcare workers help the sick and dying so that they may feel the loving hand of God, even in their darkest hours”. Quote of Saint Camillus: “Think well, Speak well. Do well. These three things, through the mercy of God will make a man go to Heaven.” Camillus de Lellis was beatified in 1742 and canonized in 1746, both by Pope Benedict XIV. Along with Saint John of God, he has been named a patron of hospitals, nurses, and the sick. These two saints, along with Pope John Paul II, are commemorated on the stamps below, known as the Patrons of Hospitals and of All the Sick in the World issue. The stamp featuring the pope includes an image of the Camillian Order's emblem, the oval shield with the red cross. 
 Patrons of Hospitals and of All the Sick in the World, Scott 774-776 (1986) 700 L, Saint Camillus de Lellis 700 L, Saint John of God 2000 L, Pope John Paul II Scott 774-776 (1986) References: |
