Jul. 18 Saturday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time; Opt Mem of St. Camillus de Lellis, Priest (USA), Opt. Mem.

The Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of St. Camillus de Lellis (1550-1641). Camillus suffered an incurable wound in his foot, experienced the horrors of the Roman hospitals in the sixteenth century in which the nursing and other staff were drawn from the dregs of the population. He effected a great change for the better, not content with making himself a slave of the sick and diseased he established for them a congregation of Clerks Regular pledged to this work, even when it involved those suffering from the plague, and whatever their state of life or disease.