Camillus de Lellis stood six feet tall, like a basketball champ. He was robust and exceptionally strong. When he was born on May 25, 1550, in Bucchianico, Italy, his father, Giovanni, saw that his boy "was almost big enough to be sent to school."

But the son ended up a dropout. Barely had he learned to read and write when he gave himself over to playing cards and throwing dice.

Camillus' wild boyhood peaked into a mercenary soldier's life in his twenties. By then he was stuck deep in his vice, gambling and losing everything except his essential garments. Eventually, he found himself reduced to a beggar, limping around with a nasty sore in his right foot.

He landed a job as construction worker at the Capuchin monastery in Manfredonia, Italy. There, his natural goodness re-surfaced. In time, a Gambler par excellence engaged him in a different game. On February 2, 1575, He threw a die that knocked Camillus down on his knees, sobbing over his sinfulness and pleading for forgiveness. Camillus felt he would rather be torn to smithereens than sin again.

God gambled further with the repentant addict. Wagering on his passionate character, inherent nobility, risk-taking energy and strong physique, God entrusted to him the "precious jewel of charity." With this love, Camillus plunged himself totally to the care of the sick and the dying. Still afflicted by his wound, he went to St. James' Hospital in Rome, ready to stake his life for his new passion: to be Jesus to the sick and to serve Jesus in the sick. As before, he was dead set on winning.

Camillus assembled men of similar passion. He led them in caring for the sick even to the point of mortal danger, as when they aided the plague victims in Rome. At age 32, he took up studies for the priesthood and at 34 got ordained. Two years later, on March 18, 1586, he and his companions received official confirmation and recognition as the Congregation of the Ministers of the Sick.

Never did Camillus' mother, Camilla Compelli de Laureto, imagine her son founding a religious congregation. Until her death, when Camillus was 13, she sorrowed over a dream that showed her son with a red cross on his chest leading other men with similar crosses. She thought her son was destined to lead a pack of criminals and the cross, the mark of those sentenced to die in the gallows, foretold his end. But God had other dreams and thoughts. He teamed up with Camilla's son and led him to sainthood. Camillus was canonized in 1746 by Pope Benedict XIV who attributed to him the foundation of a "new school of charity." Later he was declared patron saint of the sick, healthcare practitioners and hospitals. Evidently, God and Camillus became a winning combination.