St. Camillus de Lellis, born in Bucchianico in the Abruzzo in 1550, founded the Order of the Ministers of the Infirm (Camillians) in Rome in 1582 — dedicated to the systematic care of the sick and dying, and the first order in the Church to require a fourth vow of service to plague victims. He died in Rome on July 14, 1614; his body was buried at the mother church of Santa Maria Maddalena.
In 1749, in preparation for his canonization (Benedict XIV, June 29, 1746), his body was exhumed and found substantially preserved. His heart was removed and enshrined separately at the general house of the Camillians; the incorrupt heart is displayed in a reliquary at their church on Via Guiseppe Cerbara. His body was returned to Santa Maria Maddalena and re-enshrined beneath the altar of a chapel dedicated to him.
In 1794, during the French Revolutionary invasion of Rome, a fire in the sacristy of Santa Maria Maddalena — apparently arson — spread to the chapel of St. Camillus. The Camillian Fr. Amerigo Chiodini and two lay brothers pulled the wooden reliquary of the body from the flames; the body was undamaged. The body was again exhumed in 1889 for the canonical re-recognition ordered by Leo XIII; the flesh was in similar condition to that recorded in 1749. St. Camillus was declared patron saint of the sick by Leo XIII (1886), of hospitals and nurses (1930), and co-patron with St. John of God of all Catholic hospitals worldwide. His body remains at Santa Maria Maddalena, and his heart at the mother house.