Camillus had a great devotion to the passion of the Lord. His life and his works of charity were all inspired by Christ on the Crucifix. He often prayed for help to the holy Angels as well, and in particular to the Archangel Michael.

In 1580 Camillus received as a gift a crucifix with Christ on it which became the inseparable companion of his life. ‘This Crucifix’, he later confided to someone, ‘founded the Religion of the Ministers of the Sick’. When detaching his arms from the cross, this divine image had assured him that he would overcome all difficulties. ‘This Crucifix helped me and comforted me: and certainly I did not merit the very many graces that have been bestowed upon me’.

‘My father’, he declared to Father Cicatelli, ‘first God and then this foot with a sore founded this Religion…since Christ on the Crucifix is witness to this. Thus no hour passes in the day without me remembering Christ on the Crucifix, and without me praying to him with great trust for help, taking refuge in his most holy wounds…in all your needs and temptations’, he commended his religious, ‘have fixed in your hearts the passion of the Lord who will liberate you from evil’.  

Conversing with Christ on the Cross

His prayer was usually a tender conversation with Christ on the Cross whom he always carried with him. At the hospital, he gave the crucifix to the sick to be kissed and in the streets he did this with the poor. He used it to convert sinners, to confound the enemies of the faith, and to nourish his piety at every moment. He also wanted his religious to carry Christ on the Cross with them. When writing to two of them, who had been sent to collect alms in Puglia, he said: ‘I send you two crucifixes, one for each one of you: carry them with you’.

Camillus’ prayers to Christ on the Cross were constant and fervent. During his final illness he had a painting made of Christ on the Cross from whose wounds a great deal of blood flowed. ‘My crucified Lord’, he prayed with ardour, ‘I commend to you this soul of mind, purchased anew with your precious Blood…when I am about to die’, he repeated to Father Mancini, his confessor, ‘remind me often of the merciful Blood of the crucified Jesus Christ, and repeat those words often, even though it may seem to you that I am not myself’.

Guardian Angels

In his spiritual testament, Camillus wrote: ‘I leave to crucified Jesus all of my self, in soul and body, and I trust that by his goodness and mercy alone he will receive me, although unworthy, as previously…that good father received his prodigal son; and he will forgive me as he forgave Mary Magdalene; and that he will be good to me as he was with the good thief at the end of his life on the cross: thus, with this last step of mine, he will receive my soul, and with the Father and the Holy Spirit may it rest eternally’.

    Camillus often prayed to the holy Angels for help. He honoured in particular St. Michael who had been his patron saint since his birth, given that he had received his baptism in the parish church of Bucchianico which bore the name of the Prince of the heavenly hosts. And even more, because of the help that he had received from him at the foot of Mount Garagano, at the Sanctuary of the Archangel, when he converted to God, he took him as the special patron saint of the Order, entrusting the defence of souls to St. Michael, especially during their last battle with the devil. Every year, when he was in Rome, on the feast day of St. Michael he went to celebrate that day at the church of the Archangel near St. Peter’s.

He wanted the Archangel to be depicted in the painting of Christ on the Cross – which he had painted during his last illness – casting the devil down to hell.

He also nurtured great devotion for his guardian angel, often praying to him, and merited him coming to his aid on a number of occasions. When travelling from Genoa to Florence in the year 1606, he ran the risk of drowning in a swamp between Sarzana and Pisa. After Camillus’ prayer to his guardian angel, a kind young man suddenly appeared who took his horse by the bridle, took him and his companions to the right path, and then immediately disappeared. Continuing on his journey, at Acquapendente Camillus fell from his horse, and remained there with his leg trapped underneath the animal. Powerless to free himself, he once again prayed to his guardian angel for help: four strong peasants appeared who raised him up with great grace from the ground and put him back on his saddle. After this had been done, and after they had said goodbye to the saint, they disappeared.

A Sign of Gratitude

In his spiritual testament, Camillus thanked God for having favoured him with the protection of his guardian angel during so many dangers to his soul and his body. ‘And you, O holy Angel, I thank again for the very many favours that you have done me, and I pray that you will want to favour me, giving me spirit, help and strength so that I may arrive at my last end happy, and that you may have a glorious victory with my soul, with God, because of the protection that you have given me for the whole of my life’. He prayed to the guardian angels of the sick and the dying whom he cared for, and when passing through some town or village he commended himself to the celestial spirits to whom those places were entrusted.

Mario Vanti