He was born in 1550 at Bacchianico in Abruzzo, in the kingdom of Naples. He lost his mother in his infancy, and six years after his father, who was a gentleman, and had been an officer first in the Neapolitan and afterwards in the French troops in Italy. Camillus having learned only to read and write, entered himself young in the army and served first in the Venetian and afterwards in the Neapolitan troops till, in 1574, his company was disbanded. He had contracted so violent a passion for cards and gaming that he sometimes lost even necessaries. All playing at lawful games for exorbitant sums, and absolutely all games of hazard for considerable sums, are forbidden by the law of nature, by the imperial or civil law, by the severest laws of all Christian or civilized nations, and by the canons of the church. No contract is justifiable in which neither reason nor proportion is observed. The best remedy for this vice is, that those who are infected with it be obliged, or at least exhorted, to give whatever they have won to the poor.
Camillus was insensible of the evils attending gaming till necessity compelled him to open his eyes; for he at length was reduced to such straits that for subsistence he was obliged to drive two asses and to work at a building which belonged to the Capuchin friars. The divine mercy had not abandoned him through all his wanderings, but had often visited him with strong interior calls to penance. A moving exhortation which the guardian of the Capuchins one day made him completed his conversion. Ruminating on it as he rode from him upon his business, he at length alighted, fell on his knees, and vehemently striking his breast, with many tears and loud groans deplored his past unthinking sinful life, and cried to heaven for mercy. This happened in February in the year 1575, the twenty-fifth of his age; and from that time to his last breath he never interrupted his penitential course. He made an essay of a novitiate both among the Capuchins and the Grey Friars, but could not be admitted to his religious profession among either on account of a running sore in one of his legs, which was judged incurable. Therefore, leaving his own country he went to Rome, and there served the sick in St. James's hospital of incurables for years with great fervor. He wore a knotty hair shirt, and a rough brass girdle next his skin; watched night and day about the sick, especially those that were dying, with the most scrupulous attention. He was most zealous to suggest to them devout acts of virtue, and to procure them every spiritual help. Fervent humble prayer was the assiduous exercise of his soul, and he received the Holy Communion every Sunday and holiday, making use of St. Philip Neri for his confessarius. The provisors or administrators having been witnesses to his charity, prudence, and piety, after some time appointed him director of the hospital.
He was himself afflicted with many corporal infirmities, as a sore in his leg for forty-six years; a rupture for thirty-eight years, which he got by serving the sick; two callous sores in the sole of one of his feet, which gave him great pain; violent nephritic colics, and for a long time before he died, a loss of appetite. Under this complication of diseases he would not suffer any one to wait on him, but sent all his brethren to serve poor sick persons. When he was not able to stand he would creep out of his bed, even in the night, by the sides of the beds, and crawl from one patient to another to exhort them to acts of virtue, and see if they wanted anything. He slept very little, spending a great part of the night in prayer and in serving the sick. He used often to repeat with St. Francis: "So great is the happiness which I hope for, that all pain and suffering is a pleasure." His friars are not obliged to recite the church office unless they are in holy orders; but confess and communicate every Sunday and great holiday, have every day one hour's meditation, hear Mass, and say the litany, beads, and other devotions.
He assisted at the fifth general chapter of his Order in Rome in 1613, and after it, with the new general, visited the houses in Lombardy, giving them his last exhortations, which were everywhere received with tears. At Genoa he was extremely ill, but being a little better, Duke Doria Tursi sent him in his rich galley to Civita Vecchia, whence he was conveyed in a litter to Rome. He recovered so as to be able to finish the visitation of his hospitals, but soon relapsed, and his life was despaired of by the physicians. Hearing this he said, "I rejoice in what hath been told me; we shall go into the house of the Lord." He received the viaticum from the hands of Cardinal Ginnasio, protector of his Order, and said with many tears: "O Lord, I confess I am the most wretched of sinners, most undeserving of Thy favor; but save me by Thy infinite goodness. My hope is placed in Thy divine mercy through Thy precious blood." Though he had lived in the greatest purity of conscience ever since his conversion, he had been accustomed to go every day to confession with great compunction and many tears. Then he received the extreme unction, he made a moving exhortation to his religious brethren, and having foretold that he should die that evening, he expired on the 14th of July 1614, being sixty-five years, one month, and twenty days old. He was buried near the high altar in St. Mary Magdalen's Church; but upon the miracles which were authentically approved, his remains were taken up and laid under the altar; they were enshrined after he was beatified in 1742, and in 1746 he was solemnly canonized by Benedict XIV.
Camillus was insensible of the evils attending gaming till necessity compelled him to open his eyes; for he at length was reduced to such straits that for subsistence he was obliged to drive two asses and to work at a building which belonged to the Capuchin friars. The divine mercy had not abandoned him through all his wanderings, but had often visited him with strong interior calls to penance. A moving exhortation which the guardian of the Capuchins one day made him completed his conversion. Ruminating on it as he rode from him upon his business, he at length alighted, fell on his knees, and vehemently striking his breast, with many tears and loud groans deplored his past unthinking sinful life, and cried to heaven for mercy. This happened in February in the year 1575, the twenty-fifth of his age; and from that time to his last breath he never interrupted his penitential course. He made an essay of a novitiate both among the Capuchins and the Grey Friars, but could not be admitted to his religious profession among either on account of a running sore in one of his legs, which was judged incurable. Therefore, leaving his own country he went to Rome, and there served the sick in St. James's hospital of incurables for years with great fervor. He wore a knotty hair shirt, and a rough brass girdle next his skin; watched night and day about the sick, especially those that were dying, with the most scrupulous attention. He was most zealous to suggest to them devout acts of virtue, and to procure them every spiritual help. Fervent humble prayer was the assiduous exercise of his soul, and he received the Holy Communion every Sunday and holiday, making use of St. Philip Neri for his confessarius. The provisors or administrators having been witnesses to his charity, prudence, and piety, after some time appointed him director of the hospital.
He was himself afflicted with many corporal infirmities, as a sore in his leg for forty-six years; a rupture for thirty-eight years, which he got by serving the sick; two callous sores in the sole of one of his feet, which gave him great pain; violent nephritic colics, and for a long time before he died, a loss of appetite. Under this complication of diseases he would not suffer any one to wait on him, but sent all his brethren to serve poor sick persons. When he was not able to stand he would creep out of his bed, even in the night, by the sides of the beds, and crawl from one patient to another to exhort them to acts of virtue, and see if they wanted anything. He slept very little, spending a great part of the night in prayer and in serving the sick. He used often to repeat with St. Francis: "So great is the happiness which I hope for, that all pain and suffering is a pleasure." His friars are not obliged to recite the church office unless they are in holy orders; but confess and communicate every Sunday and great holiday, have every day one hour's meditation, hear Mass, and say the litany, beads, and other devotions.
He assisted at the fifth general chapter of his Order in Rome in 1613, and after it, with the new general, visited the houses in Lombardy, giving them his last exhortations, which were everywhere received with tears. At Genoa he was extremely ill, but being a little better, Duke Doria Tursi sent him in his rich galley to Civita Vecchia, whence he was conveyed in a litter to Rome. He recovered so as to be able to finish the visitation of his hospitals, but soon relapsed, and his life was despaired of by the physicians. Hearing this he said, "I rejoice in what hath been told me; we shall go into the house of the Lord." He received the viaticum from the hands of Cardinal Ginnasio, protector of his Order, and said with many tears: "O Lord, I confess I am the most wretched of sinners, most undeserving of Thy favor; but save me by Thy infinite goodness. My hope is placed in Thy divine mercy through Thy precious blood." Though he had lived in the greatest purity of conscience ever since his conversion, he had been accustomed to go every day to confession with great compunction and many tears. Then he received the extreme unction, he made a moving exhortation to his religious brethren, and having foretold that he should die that evening, he expired on the 14th of July 1614, being sixty-five years, one month, and twenty days old. He was buried near the high altar in St. Mary Magdalen's Church; but upon the miracles which were authentically approved, his remains were taken up and laid under the altar; they were enshrined after he was beatified in 1742, and in 1746 he was solemnly canonized by Benedict XIV.
