Camillus de Lellis (1550-1614) founded the Order of the Ministers of the Sick. It is still a flourishing organisation, which now serves not only in Europe, but also in North and South America, Africa, Asia and Australia.
As a young man, though, Camillus was very far from being a saint. A nobleman’s son from the Abruzzi region in central Italy, he grew up a huge man (6ft 6in tall, with a girth to match), feared for his outbursts of temper.
At 17 he joined the Venetian army to fight against the Turks. He was ruined, however, by his passion for gambling, eventually losing everything down to the shirt on his back, which he forfeited in Naples in 1574.
