Latin: Clerci Regulari Ministeri Infirmaribus | |
Abbreviation | MI |
---|---|
Nickname | Camillians |
Formation | 1586 |
Founder | |
Founded at | |
Type | Order of clerics regular of pontifical right (for men) |
Region served | Worldwide |
Members | 1,080 |
Ministry | Care for the sick |
Parent organization | Catholic Church |
Website | www |
The Camillians or Clerics Regular, Ministers to the Sick (Latin : Clerci Regulari Ministeri Infirmaribus) are a Catholic religious order founded in 1582 by St. Camillus de Lellis (1550-1614). A large red cross was chosen by the founder as the distinguishing badge for the members of the Order to wear upon their black cassocks, which was later adopted as the international symbol of medical care. In the past, because of the red cross on their apparel, they were also referred to as the Crociferi. As of 2018, 1080 Camillians serve in 35 countries. They use the postnominal initials of M.I. (Ministri degli Infermi).
Camillus lived much of his early life as a soldier, following his father's path. When his regiment was disbanded, he happened to find work as a laborer for a Capuchin friary. One of the friars led him to a religious conversion, after which he sought admission to the Capuchin Order. The Capuchins were willing to accept de Lellis as a candidate. He had sustained a leg wound, however, in the course of his military career, which would not heal. After examination, it was declared incurable by physicians. He then moved to Rome, where he took up residence in a hospital dedicated to the care of the incurably ill, the San Giacomo degli Incurabili. As he progressed in his spiritual life, he noticed the poor care given the patients by the attendants of the hospital. [1]
De Lellis invited some young men he had come to know through his religious circles to care for the patients for a more concrete expression of their faith. They began to work at the Ospedale di Santo Spirito in Sassia in Rome, and demonstrated a level of commitment, which caused him to consider forming a religious community to provide this care for the sick. He received Holy Orders to this end, and both he and his disciples took religious vows. De Lellis thereby established the Order of Clerics Regular, Ministers to the Sick. [1]
His experience in wars led him to establish a group of health care workers who would assist soldiers on the battlefield. In response to a request of the Pope, Camillus sent religious to Hungary to care for wounded or sick soldiers. The large, red cross on their religious habits, which they adopted as a sign of their vocation to medical care, remains a symbol of the Order. Camillians today continue to identify themselves with this emblem on their habits, a symbol universally recognized today as the sign of charity and service. This was the original Red Cross, hundreds of years before the International Red Cross was formed. In 1586 the group obtained the approval of Pope Sixtus V and in 1591 Pope Gregory XIV gave them the status of an Order with the name of ‘Order of the Ministers of the Sick’. [2]
According to Camillians, during the siege of Nagykanizsa in 1601, while Camillians were busily occupied with the wounded, the tent in which they were tending to the sick and in which they had all of their equipment and supplies was completely destroyed and burned to the ground. Everything in the tent was destroyed, except for the red cross of the habit belonging to one of the Camillians who was ministering to the wounded on the battlefield. This event was taken by the community as manifesting divine approval of the Red Cross of St. Camillus.
It was due to the efforts of the Brothers and alleged supernatural healings by de Lellis that the people of Rome credited De Lellis with ridding the city of a great plague and the subsequent famine. For a time, he became known as the "Saint of Rome". By the time of his death in 1614, Camillians served in eight hospitals, including ones in Naples, Genoa, Milan and Mantua. [1]
In 1630 a plague devastated the north and centre of Italy. Over a hundred Camillians provided assistance to the plague-stricken and fifty-six religious died while providing them service. In the years 1656-57 another plague in Italy led to the death of eighty-six Camillian religious who were looking after the plague-stricken. [2] Annually, on May 25 the order commemorates the "Camillian Martyrs of Charity", all those Camillian priests and brothers who died after contracting diseases in the course of ministering to the sick. [3]
The Irish province developed from the French Province. Started by Fr. Terence O'Rourke in Westmeath in 1935, it became an official province in 1946. After the war the Irish Province spread to England, set up houses in Birmingham, London and Hexham and became known as the Anglo-Irish Province. During the early 60s, two members were sent to Perth, Australia. In 2000 the Anglo-Irish Province opened a Mission in Uganda. [4] As of 2014, there were fifteen members of the Anglo-Irish Province. [5]
The presence of the Camillians in Asia, which began in 1943 in China. In Taiwan the order operates the 700 bed St. Mary's Hospital, a 230-bed center for the mentally disabled, a home for the elderly with 150 beds, and a nursing school with more than 3 thousand students. [6]
Camillians arrived in Thailand in 1952. A small clinic in Baan Pong, Ratchaburi province, later became San Camillo Hospital. They also run Camillian Hospital. [7]
In 1975, the first Camillian Community in the Philippines was established in Quezon City under the Lombardo-Venetian Province. The Vice-Province in India was first established in 1980 in Kerala by Fr. Antonio Crotti of the Lombardo Venetian (Italy) Province. In 1997, Camillians undertook a healthcare initiative for the care and support of people living with HIV. This is in addition, and complementary to their ministries in pastoral care, especially with palliative care for cancer patients, and in jail ministry. [8]
The order runs fifty-six hospitals in Brazil. [9] In the U.S. it operates a number of home health care services.
As of 2018, the Order of St. Camillus serves in 42 countries. [3] The Order is made up of about 1080 priests and brothers, [10] engaged in a variety of ministries. The priests work mainly in the area of spiritual care for the sick and the brothers provide trained physical care. Besides the common three vows, the members of the Order take a fourth vow to serve the poor sick, even when they are infectious, even at the risk to their own lives. [8]
When flooding would periodically cause the Tiber River to top its banks, Camillus worked to bring the patients of the Hospital of the Holy Spirit to safety. Today the Camillian Task Force Order responds to natural or man-made disasters. [2] Members of the Lay Camillian Family work beside the Camillians in various ministries as nurses, caregivers, pastoral caregivers, and extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist.
The Very Reverend Father Renato Salvatore, M.I., is the current Superior General, as of September 2012. He was named by Pope Benedict XVI to serve as one of the papally-appointed, non-episcopal participants, representing the Church's religious orders, for the October 2012 13th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization. Salvatore was arrested in November 2013 and charged with unlawfully detaining two priests to prevent them voting against him in the election for the Superior General. [11] Fr. Leocir Pessini, was elected the new Superior General. [9]
Camillians celebrate November 16 as the Virgin Mary's feast day of Our Lady Health of the Sick.
The Order is divided into Ecclesiastical Provinces (the main level of geographical jurisdictions), some of which have Delegations and/or Foundations in other continents; they are distributed geographically as follows: Europe is divided into 11 Provinces (four of which are in Italy), and four Foundations; Asia into one Province, three Delegations and four Foundations; Africa into two Delegations and five Foundations; Australia into one Delegation.
The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin is a religious order of Franciscan friars within the Catholic Church, one of three "First Orders" that reformed from the Franciscan Friars Minor Observant, the other being the Conventuals (OFMConv). Franciscans reformed as Capuchins in 1525 with the purpose of regaining the original Habit (tunic) of St. Francis of Assisi and also for returning to a stricter observance of the rule established by Francis of Assisi in 1209.
Aloysius de Gonzaga was an Italian aristocrat who became a member of the Society of Jesus. While still a student at the Roman College, he died as a result of caring for the victims of a serious epidemic. He was beatified in 1605 and canonized in 1726.
Camillus de Lellis, M.I., was a Roman Catholic priest from Italy who founded the Camillians, a religious order dedicated to the care of the sick. He was beatified by Pope Benedict XIV in the year 1742, and canonized by him four years later in 1746. De Lellis is the patron saint of the sick, hospitals, nurses and physicians. His assistance is also invoked against gambling.
Gerolamo Emiliani, CRS was an Italian humanitarian, founder of the Somaschi Fathers, and is considered a saint by the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church in Thailand is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome.
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Fidelis of Sigmaringen, OFM Cap. was a German Capuchin friar who was involved in the Catholic Counter-Reformation. He was martyred by his opponents at Seewis im Prättigau, now part of Switzerland. Fidelis was canonized in 1746.
Roch, also called Rock in English, was a Majorcan Catholic confessor whose death is commemorated on 16 August and 9 September in Italy; he was especially invoked against the plague. He has the designation of Rollox in Glasgow, Scotland, said to be a corruption of Roch's Loch, which referred to a small loch once near a chapel dedicated to Roch in 1506.
The Third Order of Saint Francis is a third order in the Franciscan tradition of Christianity, founded by the medieval Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi.
The Basilica of San Camillo de Lellis is a church on Via Sallustiana, Rome, Italy. It is dedicated to Saint Camillus de Lellis (1550–1614).
The Saint Camillus Foundation of Thailand is a charitable organization in Thailand, set up and run by the Camillian monastic order.
The Santa Maria Maddalena is a Roman Catholic church in Rome, named after Saint Mary Magdalene. It is located on the Via della Maddalena, one of the streets leading from the Piazza della Rotonda in the Campo Marzio area of historic Rome. It is the regional church for the people of Abruzzo.
Venerable Nicola D'Onofrio was a Catholic seminiarian and member of the Camillian order from Abruzzo, Italy who was declared Venerable by Pope Francis in 2013.
The Catholic Church is the largest non-government provider of health care services in the world. It has around 18,000 clinics, 16,000 homes for the elderly and those with special needs, and 5,500 hospitals, with 65 percent of them located in developing countries. In 2010, the Church's Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Health Care Workers said that the Church manages 26% of the world's health care facilities. The Church's involvement in health care has ancient origins.
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The Bethlehemite Brothers are a religious institute founded in Guatemala in 1653 and restored in 1984.
Luigi Tezza was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Camillians. He established the Daughters of St. Camillus and is known as the Apostle of Lima. He was ordained in 1864 and went on to serve the sick and the poor in Peru where he administered. Tezza's new religious congregation was established with the sole aim of sick relief who followed the example of the Camillian order as a branch of it.
The Church of Saint Nympha is a Baroque-Mannerist church of Palermo. The facade rises on Via Maqueda, a block north of the central intersection known as the Quattro Canti, in the quarter of Seralcadi, within the historic centre of Palermo. The church belongs to the Camillians.
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San Camillo dei Mercedari, also called San Camillo de Lellis after its titular saint, or San Camillo ai Crociferi after the founding monastic order founded by Camillo de Lellis, the Camillians known popular as the Crociferi, which also gives name to the street which it faces, via Crociferi. Located on #71, is a Roman Catholic church located in the piazza of the same name in Catania, Sicily, southern Italy; the church is one of four major baroque church-monasteries on this street, the others being San Francesco Borgia (Jesuit), San Giuliano, and San Benedetto.