Saint Camillus de Lellis and the Jews
The sixteenth century Roman Catholic Saint Camillus de Lellis – who founded the Order of the Camillians – is often portrayed as some kind of modern pacifistic hippy. The EWTN biography of him is a good example of this as it portrays him as some kind of modern Catholic liberal in regards to other religions.
To wit:
‘Indeed, if one may distinguish the charity of Camillus from that of any hero of his class it was specially this: he was for ever "digging out the poor from underground to do them good." No one knew the slums or the ghetto of Rome better than Camillus; and all whom he found there, Christians or Jews or Turks, were all the same to him.’ (1)
Yes Saint Camillus was clearly an inspirational character as his biographer Father Mueller attests when he writes that:
‘This zeal of his converted many heretics, Jews, and infidels, as we shall have occasion to relate farther on.’ (2)
As well as:
‘Again, as he was going from Bologna to Ferrara, there was a Jew in the boat, who was so struck by the spiritual conversation of Camillus that he knelt down with the rest of us to say the evening Ave, and crossed himself, and, in short, was converted.’ (3)
Yet Saint Camillus regarded jews as sordid worshippers of money since as Mueller writes:
‘He got up and ran to the infirmary, where he found every one employed in looking for the unhappy man. His clothes, with the bundles of all those who had died, were sold to the Jews.’ (4)
In addition to:
‘A trick of this kind was played him at Ferrara; but as he knew that the house there was very poor, he sold the new dress to the Jews and spent the money on the house.’ (5)
Saint Camillus regarded jews as growing rich off of the back of non-jews as is evidenced when Mueller describes how:
‘Nor was this the only effect of God's kindness; for He so ordered things that, during the whole time of the famine, the baker never asked to be paid his bill; and the congregation, though rich only in poverty, and without any income whatever, was never in want of any- thing; that the brethren who were sent out to beg bread never returned with empty bags; and that even the rich Jews, edified by the charity that they saw practiced at the granary hospital, were forward to contribute.’ (6)
Yet Saint Camillius made it his life’s work to ensure that Christians and not jews were rewarded for their faith with the fruits of the earth despite the best efforts of the latter.
To wit:
‘Remember the words that this most merciful Master " (pointing to the Blessed Sacrament) "said to the holy virgin Catherine of Siena, 'Catherine, think thou of Me, and I will think of thee.' So we ought to believe for certain, that if we think of Him and His poor. He will think of us and will not leave us destitute of those temporal things with which He has abundantly provided Turks, Jews, and other enemies or His holy faith."’ (7)
And then we read:
‘But seeing that the officer would not listen to him, burning with his usual zeal, he burst out: "What," said he, "can Rome support so many Jews, and can it not feed these few Christians? Only give them to me, I will feed them at my own expense while they live, and when they die, surely Rome, the mother of all goodness, will not refuse sufficient ground to bury them in."’ (8)
Saint Camillus makes it very clear that in his mind that the jews are both afraid of everything that is holy when he says:
‘The Jew was frightened at his voice, and unable to endure Camillus's presence, who continued to hold the holy image before him, he left the carriage and went away.’ (9)
And that the jews are the enemies of Christianity and should be treated accordingly:
‘His aversion to heretics and infidels was so great that he seemed to know them by their smell. Thus, when he was once traveling from Milan with a large company on horseback, he conversed freely with all but one, who he said smelt like a heretic; and so indeed the man turned out to be. He remembered the counsel of St. John, not even to salute or eat with infidels, and so would have nothing to do with them or with Jews, especially with those who showed no respect at all for our religion.
He was once traveling in Lombardy when he observed that one of the passengers turned away his eyes, so as not to look at the crucifix which hung upon his breast. From this Camillus judged him to be a Jew.’ (10)
Therefore far from being the modern Catholic hippy presented by EWTN and other Catholic sources. Saint Camillus was a fanatical warrior for the Catholic Church who despised jews and fought against them in every way he possibly could.
References
(1) https://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/STCAML.HTM
(2) M. Mueller, 1926, ‘Saint Camillus de Lellis: Patron of the Sick and of Hospitals’, 1st Edition, The Servants of the Sick: Milwaukee, p. 204
(3) Ibid, p. 210
(4) Ibid, p. 98
(5) Ibid, p. 285
(6) Ibid, p. 97
(7) Ibid, p. 121
(8) Ibid, p. 92
(9) Ibid, p. 208
(10) Ibid, p. 207