Warm greetings full of affection: this is what the Holy Father addressed this morning, Sunday 13 July, to the great family of St. Camillus who had gathered together in St. Peter’s Square to take part in the Sunday Angelus.

At the end of the usual Marian prayer, Pope Francis spoke to those present in the following way: ‘I greet with great affection all the spiritual sons and daughters of St. Camillus de Lellis, the four-hundredth anniversary of whose death falls tomorrow. I invite the Camillian family, at the end of this jubilee year, to be a sign of the Lord Jesus who, like the Good Samaritan, bent down in front of the wounds of the body and the spirit of suffering humanity, pouring the oil of consolation and the wine of hope. To those of you who have come here to St. Peter’s Square. and to the health-care workers who provide service in your hospitals and nursing homes, I hope that you will grow ever more in the charism of charity, nourished by daily contact with the sick. And please, do not forget to pray for me!’

From the middle of the morning onwards, a large group of representatives of the Order of the Ministers of the Sick, of the female Congregations of the Daughters of St. Camillus and the women Ministers of the Sick, and the Lay Camillian Family, had gathered together in St. Peter’s Square, challenging the forecasts of bad weather. Also present was the recently elected Superior General of the Order, Father Leocir Pessini, and the members of the General Consulta.

Against a background of joyous songs dedicated to St. Camillus, accessible material was distributed to the crowd on the ‘Giant of charity’. Two large banners with the words ‘400 Years St. Camillus’, little hats, scarves, flags and coloured umbrellas completed the choreography, which was very visible from above and on a number of occasions filmed by the cameras of television channels.

The final greetings of Pope Francis were the right crowning of a splendid day, the eve of the jubilee anniversary of St. Camillus, who went to heaven exactly four hundred years ago.

Look here at the photographic gallery

Read here the press information