Bishop Donald Hying of the Diocese of Madison has a special place in his heart for St. Camillus de Lellis, and he shared some words about what Camillus means to him on the saint’s feast day.

“Every time I go to Rome, I search out the little church right off of the Pantheon where Saint Camillus de Lellis is buried,” Hying said on Facebook. “St. Camillus was an Italian, he was a soldier, he was far from God, and he had a dramatic conversion. He was inspired to serve the poor, and especially the sick. He founded an order … to extend that mission.” 

St. Camillus of Lellis was born in Italy in 1550, a report from Britannica said. He converted at the age of 25 and began working in a hospital for "incurables." Nine years later he was ordained a priest, and shortly after that Pope Gregory XIV approved creating a group of priests that Camillus had formed to care for the sick. The group became an order called Ministers of the Sick, which grew from its original 12 members to more than 300 members at the time of Camillus' death in 1614. 

For that work, Camillus is recognized as the patron saint of sick people, hospitals, nurses and health care workers; a report from Franciscan Media said. Catholics celebrate his feast day each year on July 18. 

Camillus' Ministers of the Sick first worked at Holy Ghost Hospital in Rome, but after several years they were able to establish a new location in Naples, a report on Catholic.org said. The group then went on to care for people suffering from the plague, and they later went out to care for injured soldiers in Croatia and Hungary.

Camillus was canonized in 1746.