Saints and the Sick – 1
Dear Friends,
For the five Wednesdays of September, these Inbox Inspirations will be devoted to saints or holy people who have taken special care of the sick.
The pandemic is my motivation for doing this.
I am starting with Saint Camillus de Lellis.
Born in 1550 in Italy, Camillus became a soldier at age fourteen.
As a young man, he also developed a significant gambling addiction.
Camillus became afflicted with abscesses on both of his feet and eventually went to a hospital in Rome for treatment.
Mostly because of his disagreeable personality, he was soon asked to leave there.
He reentered the army, continued his gambling, and before long went back to the hospital in Rome for treatment on his feet.
This met with some success, and Camillus then went through a significant change of heart – maybe we would call it a conversion experience.
He became a nurse at that hospital, gained the respect of many, and was eventually made the administrator of this facility.
Soon, under the guidance of Saint Philip Neri, Camillus began studies for the priesthood and was ordained.
Almost immediately, he established an order of priests called the Fathers of a Good Death (1584), soon officially approved by the Pope as a religious order.
The order’s charism or purpose was to care for those stricken by the plague (an outbreak of the Bubonic Plague), whether in hospitals or in their own homes.
Camillus continued to be afflicted with the sores on his feet and other physical ailments.
He suffered most of his life with all of this but always persevered in caring for the sick.
Camillus established fifteen houses of his religious order and eight hospitals throughout Italy before his death in 1614.
He was canonized a saint in 1746 and, in 1930, Pope Pius XI made Saint Camillus de Lellis, together with Saint John of God, co-patron of nurses and nursing associations.
Saint Camillus de Lellis, pray for us.
Father Michael Schleupner
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Saints and the Sick – 2
Dear Friends,
History is sketchy on the details about Saint Roch.
He apparently lived a brief life – born around 1295 and dying around 1327, only thirty-two years-old.
It seems that Roch was born to a noble family in Montpelier, France.
His parents died young and at about the age of twenty, Roch gave up his wealth and became a mendicant pilgrim.
On his way to Rome, he travelled through some Italian towns afflicted with the Black Death.
Roch gave himself to nursing the sick.
Many cures from the plague are attributed to him through his prayers and making the Sign of the Cross on those who were ill.
Eventually, Roch was himself stricken by the plague.
Instead of going to a hospital, he went to a hut in the woods, and legend says that a dog brought him food.
This is why Saint Roch is often depicted with a dog.
At any rate, he recovered and then resumed his ministry with the sick.
Some paintings from that time depict him as among those afflicted with the plague, caring for them and praying for and over them.
Ultimately, Saint Roch returned to Montpelier, and it was there that he died.
His care for victims of the plague certainly relates to us today.
A quote attributed to a history of Saint Roch says this:
“His thoughts went beyond the grave to that life after death, when there shall be no grief, nor sorrow, nor hunger, nor thirst, nor pain and when death shall be no more.”
St. Roch “saw in the plague-stricken an image of the Savior stricken for the sins of all.”
Saint Roch, pray for us.
Father Michael Schleupner
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Saints and the Sick – 3
Dear Friends,
Catherine McAuley was the founder of the Sisters of Mercy.
Born in Dublin in 1778, both of her parents had died by the time she was twenty-years-old.
Catherine then got a position as the household manager of a wealthy Protestant couple.
By 1822, they had both passed away, and Catherine was the sole legatee of their significant estate.
Catherine had for a long time felt a strong desire to serve the poor.
So, with her inheritance, in 1827 she established the first House of Mercy in Dublin to care for homeless women and children, especially orphans.
The Archbishop of Dublin was impressed with the work of Catherine and her companions and encouraged them to wear a distinctive garb and to care for the sick.
With his enthusiasm and persuasion, Catherine formed a religious institute with herself and several others professing their vows on December 12, 1831.
She named this new religious institute the Sisters of Mercy because she wanted the works of mercy to be its distinctive feature.
In 1832, the Sisters began staffing a hospital to care for those stricken by the cholera epidemic.
Catherine died in 1841, and by that time there were 100 Sisters of Mercy in fourteen locations in Ireland and England.
The Sisters of Mercy arrived in the United States in 1843 and opened their first hospital in 1847.
Since then, the Sisters have become part of six different health systems, which include hospitals, long-term care facilities, rehab centers, family care, and outreach.
The Sisters have served as nurses, doctors, CEOs, CFOs, and trustees of these health care institutions.
The cause for canonization of Catherine McAuley began in 1978, and Pope John Paul II declared her as Venerable.
Catherine once said: “A community in which universal charity reigns is…capable of surmounting all difficulties.”
Venerable Catherine McAuley, pray for us.
Father Michael Schleupner
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Saints and the Sick – 4
Dear Friends,
Jozef De Veuster was born in Belgium in 1840, the youngest of seven children.
His parents were Catholics and raised their children in the faith.
At a young age, Jozef decided that he wanted to be a priest.
He was accepted as a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a missionary religious institute.
Jozef took Damien as his religious name and made his first vows in 1860.
His brother, also a priest of the same religious institute, was scheduled to go to Hawaii on mission, but ill health prevented him from doing so.
Damien volunteered to take his place, and he arrived in Honolulu in 1864.
Later that same year, he was ordained to the priesthood and was then sent on mission to the island of Hawaii.
At this time, the population of the Hawaiian Islands was suffering from a number of infectious diseases, including cholera, smallpox, and influenza.
These were brought to the islands by traders and sailors, and the islanders had no immunity to them.
The mortality rate was high.
Leprosy had also been introduced to the islands probably around 1840.
This disease was seen as highly contagious and incurable, and so the king of Hawaii decreed that all persons with leprosy would be quarantined on the island of Molokai.
In 1873, Father Damien was the first volunteer priest to go on mission to Molokai.
At that time, there were six hundred persons with leprosy there.
Father Damien brought faith and dignity to these people.
He would personally care for them, dressing their ulcerous wounds and helping to build clean houses, hospitals, schools, and roads.
He provided great medical, spiritual, emotional, and social support for the people.
In 1884, Father Damien himself contracted leprosy.
Nevertheless, he continued to work with and for his people until his death in 1889.
He was canonized a saint by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.
Saint Damien of Molokai, pray for us.
Father Michael Schleupner
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