Camillus de Lellis. A former soldier who led a dissipated life, he was quick tempered and addicted to gambling before his conversion. By some accounts, he may have suffered from depression at times as well. He tried his vocation with the Capuchins but was sent away due to the disabling effects of a war injury. Guided by St. Philip Neri, Camillus devoted himself to caring for the poor sick in Rome and was later ordained a priest, going on to found a nursing order of men, whose habit bore a large red cross. He's a good patron for scoundrels, jerks, drunks, gamblers, failed and late vocations.
I often wonder whether they would even allow people like St. Ignatius to even become a priest today, let alone found the Society of Jesus ;) His self-mortification would today, no doubt, be interpreted as a form of psychiatric illness. An illegitimate child? Foretaboutit. Saints like Ignatius and Camillus de Lellis give me hope. I find it so ironic that religious orders have articulated such a plethora of demands, to wit, "psychological testing" and "age requirements". It is as if the Church has conluded, up front, that anyone who wants to give their life to Christ must be unhinged. I suspect that the Apostles would be rejected by most orders today. The Cathlic Church is a great puzzlement to me sometimes...
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