On 8 December 1591, the day of the Immaculate Conception, Camillus de Lellis, together with another twenty-five religious of his Company, made a Solemn Profession, specifically in front of the wooden statue of the Virgin Mary of the school of Michelangelo which today is kept inside the St. Camillus de Lellis Museum at the generalate house of the Order of the Ministers of the Sick.

Thus it is that every year, the day of the Immaculate Conception, all the Camillians in the world renew their vows with a special celebration.

On 8 December next, at 10.30, 442 years after the Solemn Profession of St. Camillus and his companions, at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Campo Marzio in Rome, the Renewal of Vows will be accompanied by the Perpetual Profession of eight new religious specifically in front of the same statue that witnessed St. Camillus and his companions receive their consecration.

These eight religious are: Bon Llamado Arimbuyutan, of the Province of the Philippines; Mahugnon Romuald E. Hounkpe Sagbo and Charles Gbetognon Ahouandjinou, of the Vice-Province of  Benin-Togo; Désiré Oubda and Raoul Sankara, of the Vice-Province of Burkina Faso; Jean Oliver Yaurvilica Torpoco, of the Vice-province of Peru; and Umberto D’Angelo and Germano Santone, of the Province of Rome. These last come from Bucchianico, the town where St. Camillus was born.

The celebration, presided over by Fr. Paolo Guarise, Vicar General of the Order of the Ministers of the Sick, will be broadcast by the television company Telepace (on channel SKY 850, digital terrestrial television and streaming).

At 16.00 the newly professed, together with other brothers, will go to Piazza di Spagna to take part in the usual floral tribute of the Pope to the Immaculate Mary.

These new professions follow those of Br. Alfredo Tortorella who made his profession on 17 November last at the V. Monaldi Hospital of Naples, and will follow that of Br. Vincenzo Duca, who will make his on 1 December, the World AIDS Day.

These new witnesses to the salvific words of the Gospel and the charism of St. Camillus, like the other Camillians who on the same day will make their Perpetual Professions throughout the world, bring a sign of hope and new fruits for the future of the Order of the Ministers of the Sick during the fourth centenary of the going to heaven of its Founder.

[The Fourth Centenary, Bucchianico and the talk of Br. Alfredo Tortorella on ‘in theHeart of Days’ on TV2000

Press information on the activities for the fourth centenary