Saturday, June 12, 2010

Saint Camillus relics to visit Ireland

The relics of St Camillus are to visit Ireland next month to mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Camillian congregation to this country.

The saint’s heart will arrive on July 9 and while the precise itinerary has not been finalised, it will be brought first to Killucan in Co. Westmeath, where a programme of events is under way to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Order's beginnings in Ireland.

The Heart will be present in St Camillus Nursing Centre in Killucan for the Triduum leading up to the feast-day on July 14 of St Camillus.

The sixteenth-century Italian saint is the patron saint of the sick and of health care workers.

Bishop Michael Smith of Meath will celebrate a special commemorative Mass in Killucan on July 14.

After the events in Killucan conclude, the saint’s relics are scheduled to travel to the Mater Hospital and the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin and from there to Knock Shrine on July 24.

RTE Radio has agreed to broadcast two Masses on July 11 and 18 from St Camillus Nursing Centre in Killucan.

These will be heard on long wave 252 and online at Radio 1 Extra.

The Camillian order was founded in Ireland in 1935 by Fr Terence O'Rourke, who had been the first Irish person to join the congregation and who went on to become the first Provincial of the Irish Province.

Fr O'Rourke was joined by a small number of Irish-born Camillians who were, at that time – like himself - members of the French Province of the order.

He borrowed money to set up the house at Killucan, which was to become the Mother House of the Irish Province when it came into being in 1946. After World War 2, the Irish Province spread to England and set up houses in Birmingham, London and Hexham.

The Anglo-Irish Province later set up subsidiary missions in Australia and Uganda.

A soldier by profession, St Camillus fought with the Venetian army against the Turks, but when the war ended, he became a nurse and later a director of a hospital.

He established the Order of Clerks Regular Ministers to the Sick, better known as Camillians, to provide health care to soldiers on the battlefield and victims of plague.

He died in Rome in 1614 and was canonised in 1746.

The visit of St Camillus's relics to Ireland follows a recent similar tour by the relics of St John Vianney.

SIC: CIN