Clerks Regular, Ministers to the Sick

The Camillians or Clerics Regular, Ministers to the Sick (Latin: Clerci Regulari Ministeri Infirmaribus) are a Roman Catholic religious order, founded in 1582 by St. Camillus de Lellis (1550-1614). A large red cross was chosen by the founder as the distinguishing badge for the members of the Order to wear upon their black cassocks, which was later adopted as the international symbol of medical care. The founder taught his volunteers that the "hospital was a house of God, a garden where the voices of the sick were music from heaven". They use the postnominal initials of M.I.

De Lellis lived much of his early life as a soldier, following his father's path. When his regiment was disbanded, he happened to find work as a laborer for a Capuchin friary. One of the friars led him to a religious conversion, after which he sought admission to the Capuchin Order.

The Capuchins were willing to accept de Lellis as a candidate. He had sustained a leg wound, however, in the course of his military career, which would not heal. After examination, it was declared incurable by physicians. He then moved to Rome, where he took up residence in a hospital dedicated to the care of the incurably ill. As he progressed in his spiritual life, he noticed the poor care given the patients by the attendants of the hospital.

De Lellis invited some young men he had come to know through his religious circles to care for the patients for a more concrete expression of their faith. They took up his challenge and demonstrated a level of commitment, which caused him to consider forming a religious community to provide this care for the sick. He received Holy Orders to this end, and both he and his disciples took religious vows.

De Lellis thereby established the Order of Clerics Regular, Ministers to the Sick. His experience in wars led him to establish a group of health care workers who would assist soldiers on the battlefield. The large, red cross on their religious habits, which they adopted as a sign of their vocation to medical care, remains a symbol of the Order. Camillians today continue to identify themselves with this emblem on their habits, a symbol universally recognized today as the sign of charity and service. This was the original Red Cross, hundreds of years before the International Red Cross was formed.

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