St. Camillus de Lellis COLLECTION (SAU 37)

A hard-living soldier in his youth, St. Camillus de Lellis (1550-1614) had a religious conversion in 1575. Because of an incurable leg wound he had received fighting the Turks however, he was denied admittance to the Capuchin Order three times. Having then entered a hospital for incurables in Rome, he became a gentle caregiver to the sick and dying. He was eventually promoted to hospital administrator, became a priest, and founded the Order which today bears his name, the Camillians. Here, he holds the crucifix he took everywhere with him in his left hand and a book, presumably the Rule of his Congregation, in his right; and, he wears the Order’s ‘uniform’—a black cassock and cape with a large red cross respectively on the chest and on the right shoulder. St. Camillus is patron saint of nurses, hospitals, and the sick. + Feast: July 18 (in the United States); July 14 elsewhere