Venerable Servant of God

FRANCISCO CAMACHO

Born on 13 October 1630 in Jerez de la Frontera (Spain).

Died in Lima (Peru) in 1698.

At the age of 20, attracted to a life of adventure, he joined the army and crossed the Atlantic to Latin America. In Cartagena (Colombia) he contracted syphilis and was admitted for treatment by the hospital dedicated to Saint Sebastian, run by the Brothers of St John of God. He then abandoned his military service, and travelled to different countries in America, until 1662, when he returned to Lima, and completely changed his life, performing such harsh and humiliating public penances that he was considered to be insane, and was briefly confined to hospital.

Following a sermon by Fr Francisco del Castillo, who continued to advise him as his spiritual director, in 1663, at the age of 34, he entered the Order of St John of God to serve the sick, but above all, he went from house to house begging for alms for almost thirty-five years of Religious life. He was elected Superior of the community, but Francis declined this office and devoted his life the humblest jobs, penance and prayer.

He also worked to liberate prostitutes, and built a new hospital to replace the existing one which had become inadequate by then. He would forever be known as "God's almoner" in the city of Lima in support of the hospital until he died from a severe form of dropsy.

His remains are buried in Lima Cathedral.

Proclaimed Venerable by Leo XIII on 01 January 1881.