The feast day of St. Camillus is organised, following  a long tradition, with great solemnity in Acireale (Catania) because he is one of the patron saints of the town.

The celebrations of this year, the fourth centenary of the death of the saint, began officially on 4 July with a novena in the nursing homes in order to meet the requests of elderly people who are not able to move around.

On 12 July, in the Church of St. Camillus, a solemn Holy Mass was celebrated with all the members of the Great Camillian Family (religious, Daughters of St. Camillus, women Ministers of the Sick, women Missionaries of the Sick Christ the Hope, the Handmaidens of the Incarnation, the Lay Camillian Family) and volunteers who are always in the front line at the side of suffering people.

On 13 July, the eve of the feast day, the Bishop Emeritus of Acireale, Monsignor Pio Vigo, presided over a Holy Mass in  the courtyard of the centre run by the Camillians. This was followed by the ‘Feast Day of Friendship and Solidarity’.

On 14 July, the liturgical memorial of St. Camillus, the church named after the saint was animated the whole of the day with celebrations of the Eucharist which culminated with that of the evening to close the jubilee year in the cathedral basilica. This was presided over by the Vicar General of the diocese, Monsignor Guglielmo Giombanco. Immediately afterwards there was a reading of the Transit (the last days on earth of St. Camillus). In the presence of the new mayor, Roberto Barbagallo, the town of Acireale was entrusted to the protection of St. Camillus. Lastly, at 21.30, the parish priest of the SS. Annunziata Cathedral Basilica, Don Roberto Strano, presided over the traditional Holy Mass in the courtyard of the centre in the presence of people who have the same name as the saint.

The celebrations continued on 20-26 July with the ‘Camillian Week’. Amongst the most important appointments was that hosted on 18 July by the John XXIII Psycho-Pedagogic Medical Institute which helps our diversely abled brothers and sisters.

Here there was a special celebration with about fifty patients accompanied by their family relatives, to whom were added guests from other institutes of the local area. In all, about 250 people took part in the Holy Mass that was celebrated in the open air by the new General Consultor of the Order, Father Aris Miranda (this was his first visit to Acireale) and concelebrated by the Superior of the Province of Sicily and Naples, Father Rosario Mauriello. Members of the Camillian communities of Acireale and Guardia Mangano were present, as well as the sisters women Ministers of the Sick and the Daughters of St. Camillus.

‘The closing of the jubilee year’, observed Father Aris when beginning his homily, ‘opens a new pathway on our journey and our witness to the merciful love of God’.

The new General Consultor the recalled the life of St. Camillus who ‘exhorted his religious brothers to serve (love) the sick in the same way that a mother looks after her only child’. ‘St. Camillus beheld, loved, followed and served God with a very specific perspective: the merciful Christ, the Good Samaritan who went through towns and villages healing the sick and doing good’. The life of St. Camillus was ‘conformed and shaped according to the merciful Christ in all of his being, behaving, living’. ‘In order to do the same’, Father Aris went on, ‘we are invited to follow at a deep level the spiritual pathway of St. Camillus until his conversion. Camillus converted to God… After knowing God through the sick and the poor, Camillus dedicated and consecrated the whole of his life (body and soul) to their service’.

Quoting the words of greeting that Pope Francis addressed to the great Camillian family at the end of the Angelus of Sunday 13 July, the new General Consultor ended his homily with an invitation taken from the final message of the recent Extraordinary General Chapter: ‘The four hundred  years of history that precede us are interwoven with great examples of witness to charity and mercy: this heritage, an extraordinary witness to the benevolence of the Lord towards our Order, should be a stimulus and an encouragement to purify our present – with its lights and shadows – and to reactivate a virtuous circle of hope and trust in the future’.

The evening ended with a festive moment of conviviality which involved the diversely abled, with games, music and dancing.

Read here  the homily of Father Aris Miranda

Look here at the photographic gallery

Read the press information