July 17 — Saint Camillus of Lellis, Confessor. ♦

The Holy Spirit, who desires to raise our souls above this earth, does not therefore despise our bodies. The whole man is his creature and his temple, and it is the whole man he must lead to eternal happiness. The Body of the Man-God was his masterpiece in material creation ; the Divine delight he takes in that perfect Body he extends in a measure to ours ; for that same Body, framed by him in the womb of the most pure Virgin, was from the very beginning the model on which ours are formed. In the re-creation which followed the Fall, the Body of the Man-God was the means of the world's redemption ; and the economy of our salvation requires that the virtue of his saving Blood should not reach the soul except through the body, the Divine Sacraments being all applied to the soul through the medium of the senses. Admirable is the harmony of nature and grace; the latter so honours the material: part of our being, that she will not draw the soul without it to the light and to heaven. For in the unfathomable mystery of sanctification, the senses do not merely serve as a passage ; they themselves experience the power of the Sacraments, like the higher faculties of which they are the channels; and the sanctified soul finds the

ST. CAMILLUS OF L ELLIS. humble companion of her pilgrimage already associated with her in the dignity of Divine adoption, which will cause the glorification of our bodies after the resurrection. Hence the care given to the very body of our neighbour is raised to the nobleness of holy charity; for being inspired by this charity, such acts partake of the love wherewith our heavenly Father surrounds even the members of his beloved children. / was sick, and ye visited me, our Lord will say on the last day, showing that even the infirmities of our fallen state in this land of exile, the bodies of those whom he deigns to call his brethren, share in the dignity belonging by right to the eternal, only-begotten Son of the Father. The Holy Spirit, too, whose office it is to recall to the Church all the words of our Saviour, has certainly not forgotten this one; the seed, falling into the good earth of chosen souls, has produced a hundredfold the fruits of grace and heroic self-devotion. Camillu of Lellis received it lovingly, and the mustard-seed became a great tree offering its shade to the birds of the air. The Order of Regular Clerks, Ministering to the sick, or of happy death, deserves the gratitude of mankind ; as a sign of heaven's approbation, Angels have more than once been seen assisting its members at the bedside of the dying.

The Liturgical account of St. Camillas' life is so full that we need add nothing to it.

Camillas was born at Bac- Camillus Bucclanici The- chianico, a town of the diocese atinae dicecesis oppido ex of Chieti. He was descended nobUi Lelliorum familia na- from the noble family of the tus est matre sexagenaria,

Lellis, and his mother was cui gravidas visum est per sixty years old at the time of quietein, puerulum Crucis his birth. While she was signo in pectore munitum,

1 St. Matth. ixv. 36.

PENT. IV. - K et agmini puerorum idem signum gestantium praeeuntem, so peperisse. Adolescens rem militarem secutu.«, saeculi vitiis aliquamdiu indulsit, donee vigesimum quintum agens aetatis annum, tanto supernae gratiae lumine, divinaeque offensae dolore correptus fuit, ut uberrimo lacrymarum imbre illico perfusus, anteactae vitae sordes indesinenter abstergere, novumque induere hominem firmiter decreverit. (juare ipso, quo id contigit, Purificationis beatissimae Virginia festo die, ad Fratres Minores, quos Capuccinos vocant, convolans, ut eorum numero adscriberetur, summis precibus exoravit. Voti compos semel atque iterum factus est ; sed fcedo ulcere, quo aliquando laboraverat, in ejus tibia iterato recrudescente, divinae Providentiae majora de eo disponentis consilio humiliter se subjecit, suique victor, illius Religionis bis «xpetitum, et susceptum habitum bis dimisit.

Romam profectus, in nosocomium, quod Insanabilium dicitur, receptus est: cujus etiam administrationem, ob perspectas ejus vir-

L PENTECOST. with child with him, she dreamt that she gave birth to a little boy, who was signed on the breast with the cross, and was the leader of a band of children, wearing the same sign. As a young man he followed the career of arms, and gave himself up for a time to worldly vices, but in his twenty-sixth year he was so enlightened by heavenly grace, and seized with so great a sorrow for having offended God, that on the spot, shedding a flood of tears, he firmly resolved unceasingly to wash away the stains of his past life, and to put on the new man. Therefore on the very day of his conversion, which happened to be the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, he hastened to the Friars Minors, who are called Capuchins, and begged most earnestly to be admitted into their number. His request was granted on this and on a subsequent occasion, but each time a horrible ulcer, from which he had suffered before, broke out again upon his leg ; wherefore he humbly submitted himself to the designs of Divine Providence, which was preparing him for greater things, and conquering himself he twice laid aside the Franciscan habit, which he had twice asked for and obtained.

He set out for Rome and was received into the hospital called " Of Incurables.'' His virtues became so well known that the management of the

ST. CAMILLUS institution was intrusted to him and he discharged it with the greatest integrity and a truly paternal solicitude. He esteemed himself the servant of all the sick, and was accustomed to make their beds, to wash them, to heal their sores, and to aid them in their last agony with his prayers and pious exhortations. In discharging these offices he gave striking proofs of his wonderful patience, unconquered fortitude, and heroic charity. But when he perceived how great an advantage the knowledge of letters would be to him in assisting those in danger of death, to whose service he had devoted his life, he was not ashamed at the age of thirty-two to return again to school and to learn the first elements of grammar among children. Being afterwards promoted in due order to the Priesthood, he was joined by several companions, and in spite of the opposition attempted by the enemy of the human race, laid the foundations of the Congregation of Begular Clerks, Servants of the sick. In this work Camillus was wonderfully strengthened by a heavenly voice coming from an image of Christ crucified, which, by an admirable miracle loosing the hands from the wood, stretched them out towards him. He obtained the approbation of his Order from the Apostolic See. Its members bind themselves by a fourth and very arduous vow, namely, to min- tutes sibi demandatam, summa integritate ac sollicitudine vere paterna peregit. Omnium segrorum servum se reputans, eorum sternere lectulos, sordes tergere, ulceribus mederi, agonique extremo piis precibus et cohortationibus opem ferre solemne habuit; quibus in muneribus prseclara praebuit admirabilis patientiae, invictae fortitudinis, et heroicae charitatis exempla. Verum cum animarum in extremis periclitantium, quod unice intendebat, levamini subsidium litterarum plurimum conferre intelligeret, triginta duos annos natus, in primis grammaticae dementis tirocinium inter pueros iterum subire non erubuit Sacerdotio postea rite initiatus, nonnullis sibi adjunctis sociis, prima jecit Congregationis Clericorum Begularium infirmis Ministrantium f undamenta, irrito | conatu obnitente humani generis hoste ; nam Camillas coelesti voce e Christi crucifixi, manus etiam de ligno avulsas admirando prodigio protendentis, simulacro emissa mirabiliter confirmatus, Ordinem suum a Sede Apostolica approbari obtinuit; sodalibus quarto obstrictis maxime arduo voto, infirmis, quos etiam pestis infecerit, ministrandi. Quod institutum, quam foret Deo acceptum, et animarum saluti proficuum, sanctus Philippus Nerius, qui Camillo a sacris confes- sionibus erat, coniprobavit, dam ejus alumnis decedentiura agoni opem ferentibus Angelos suggerentes verba ssepius se vidisse testatus est.

Arctioribus hisce yinculis segrotantium ministerio mancipatus, mirum est qua alacritate, nullis fractus laboribus, nullis deterritus vitse periculis, diu noctuque ad supremum usque spiritum, eorum com mod is vigilaverit. Omnibus omnia factus, vilissima qua3que officia demississimo obsequio, flexisque plerumque genibus, veluti Christum ipsum cerneret in infirmis, nilari promptoque animo arripiebat ; utque omnium indigentiis prassto esset, generalem Ordinis praefecturam, coelique delicias, quibus in contemplatione defixus affluebat, sponte dimisit. Paternus vero illius erga miseros amor turn maxime effulsit, dum et Urbs contagioso morbo primum, deinde extrema annonae laboraret inopia, et NolaB in Campania dira pestis grassaretur. Tantadenique in Deum et proximum charitate exarsit, ut Angelus nuncupari, et Angelorum opem in vario itinerum discrimine experiri promereretur. Prophetise dono, et gratia sanita-

L PENTECOST. ister to the sick, even those infected with the plague. St. Philip Neri, who was his Confessor, attested how pleasing this institution was to God, and how greatly it attributed towards the salvation of souls ; for he declared that he often saw Angels suggesting words to disciples of Camillus, when they were assisting those in their agony.

When he had thus bound himself more strictly than before to the service of the sick, he devoted himself with marvellous ardour to watching over their interests, by night and by day, till his last breath. No labour could tire him, no

Eeril of his life could affright im. He became all to all, and claimed for himself the lowest offices, which he discharged promptly and joyfully, in the humblest manner, often on bended knees, as though he saw Christ himself present in the sick. In order to be more at the command of all in need, he of his own accord laid aside the general government of the Order, and deprived himself of the heavenly delights, with which he was inundated during contemplation. His fatherly love for the unfortunate shone out with greatest brilliancy when Eome was suffering first from a contagious distemper, and then from a great scarcity of rovisions ; and also when a readful plague was ravaging Nola in Campania. In a word, he was consumed with so great a love of God and his

ST. CAMILLUS OF LELLIS. neighbour that he was called an Angel, and merited to be helped by the Angels in different dangers which threatened him on his journeys. He was endowed with the gift of prophecy and the grace of healing, and he could read the secrets of hearts. By his prayers he at one time multiplied food, and at another changed water into wine. At length, worn out by watching, fasting, and ceaseless labour, he seemed to be nothing but skin and bone. He endured courageously five long and troublesome sicknesses, which he used to call the " Mercies 44 of the Lord ;M and, strengthened by the Sacraments, with the sweet names of Jesus and Mary on his lips, he fell asleep in our Lord, while these words were being said : "May Christ 44 Jesus appear to thee with a 44 sweet and gracious counte- " nance." He died at Rome, at the hour he had foretold, on the day before the Ides of July, in the year of salvation 1614, the sixty-fifth of his age. He was made illustrious by many miracles, and Benedict XIV. solemnly enrolled him upon the calendar of the Saints. Leo XIII., at the desire of the Bishops of the Catholic world, and with the advice of the Congregation of Kites, declared him the heavenly Patron of all nurses and of the sick in all places, and ordered his name to be invoked in the Litanies for the Agonizing. turn praeditus, arcana quoque cordium inspexit; ej usque precibus nunc cibaria multiplicata sunt, nunc aqua in vinum conversa. Tan* dem vigiliis, jejuniis, et assiduis attritus laboribus, cum pelle tan turn et ossibus constare videretur, quyique molestis seque ac diutinis morbis, quos misericordias Domini appellabat, fortiter toleratis, Sacramentis munitus, Komae inter suavissima Jesu et Marise nomina, ad ea verba: Mitis atque festivus Christi Jesu tibi adspectus appareat : qua prsedixerat hora, obdorraivit in Domino, pridie Idus Julii, anno salutis millesimo sexcentesimo decimo quarto, setatis suae sexagesimo quinto : quern pluribus illustrem miraculis Benedictus Decimusquartus solemni ritu Sanctorum fastis adscript sit ; et Leo decimus tertius, ex sacrorum Catholici orbis Antistitum voto, ac Bituum Congregationis Consulto coelestem omnium hospitalium et infirmorum ubique degentium Patronum declaravit, ipsiusque nomen in agonizantium Litaniis invocari praecepit.

TIME AFTER PENTECOST.

Angel of charity, by what wonderful paths did the Divine Spirit lead thee! The vision of thy pious mother remained long unrealized ; before taking on thee the holy Cross and enlisting comrades under that sacred sign, thou didst serve the odious tyrant, who will have none but slaves under his standard, and the passion of gambling was well nigh thy ruin.

0 (5amillu, remembering the danger thou didst incur, have pity on the unhappy slaves of passion ; free them from the madness wherewith they risk, to the caprice of chance, their goods, their honour, and their peace in this world and in the next. Thy history proves the power of grace to break the strongest ties and alter the most inveterate habits : may these men, like thee, turn their bent towards God, and change their rashness into love of the dangers to which holy charity may expose them! For charity, too, has its risks, even the peril of life, as the Lord of charity laid down his life for us : a heavenly game of chance, which thou didst play so well that the very Angels applauded thee. But what is the hazarding of earthly life compared with the prize reserved for the winner ?

According to the commandment of the Gospel read by the Church in thy honour, may we all, like thee, love our brethren as Christ has loved us ! Few, says St. Augustine, love one another to this end, that God may be all in all. Thou, O Camillus, having this love, didst exercise it by preference towards those suffering members of Christ's mystic Body, in whom our Lord revealed himself more clearly to thee, and in whom his kingdom was nearer at hand. Therefore, has the Church in gratitude chosen thee, together with John of God, to be guardian of those homes for the suffering which she has founded

1 Homily on the Gospel of the day. In Johann. Tract, lxxxiii.

ST. CAM1LLUS OF LELLIS.

13T with a mother's thoughtful care. Do honour to that Mother's confidence. Protect the hospitals against the attempts of an odious and incapable secularization, which, in its eagerness to lose the souls, sacrifices even the corporal well-being of the unhappy mortals committed to the care of its evil philanthropy. In order to meet our increasing miseries, multiply thy sons, and make them worthy to be assisted by Angels. Wherever we may be in this valley of exile when the hour of our last struggle sounds, make use of thy precious prerogative which the holy Liturgy honours to-day ; help us, by the spirit of holy love, to vanquish the enemy and attain unto the heavenly crown !