The St. Camillus Award is given annually by the Lansing Guild of the Catholic Medical Association, to the health care person or organization that best exemplifies the virtue of charity, in honor of the saint who possessed an all-embracing spirit of this virtue. Candidates are nominated and voted on by members of the Guild. St. Camillus saw the person of Christ in the sick and dying. His reverence in their presence was as great as if he were truly in the presence of his Lord. He devoted his adult life and ministry to the sick and the improvement of the care they received.

Camillus' early life was spent as a soldier and later a gambling addict. Penniless, he sought work with the Capuchins where he met St. Philip Neri who counseled him. A huge, uneducated, man at 32 he studied with the children and was later ordained a priest and eventually founded the Congregation of the Servants of the Sick. To the usual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience was added a fourth "O Lord I promise to serve the sick, who are Your sons and my brothers, all the days of my life, with all possible charity"

For most of his life, Camillus had an ulcerous growth on his leg which gave him a personal understanding of the meaning of pain and suffering.

St. Camillus (1550-1614) was canonized in 1746 and is the Patron of Health Care Workers