FRATELLI CELLITI (ALESSIANI). — Society of lay brothers founded in the 14th century in Romania for the care of the sick. Several such charitable societies are found in the same century, especially during the terrible European plague of 1348, when Clement VI granted spiritual graces to those who offered their services on behalf of the victims of so great a calamity. The C. survived this epidemic and, indeed, underwent considerable development.
They were also called Alessians after their protector, St. Alessio. More commonly, however, their designation as C. has remained in use to the present day, derived from Zelle, meaning room or burial place, as some believe, because among the good works to which they devoted themselves was the burial of the dead. In the Paesi Bassi they were called Lollards. We find the name C. for the first time in a bull of Eugene IV of 1431. By another bull, in 1459, Pius II prescribed that they live under religious vows, since until then they had been content with the common life without a determined rule, although it seems that in some houses that of the Franciscan Third Order was observed. Finally, in 1472, Sixtus IV imposed the Augustinian rule on all of them, granting at the same time a series of privileges, later confirmed by Julius II and Urban VIII. As a result, the C. spread considerably in Germany, Belgium, and Holland, but during the French Revolution and the subsequent social and political upheavals they were almost extinguished. A few convents still exist in Germany, with the mother house at Aquisgiana, as well as in Belgium, England, and the United States. The habit is a black tonsa with a scapular of the same color and a rounded hood. More numerous are the callettine, or Alessians, also called, from their clothing, “Black Sisters,” entirely similar to the C.
Today there are approximately 400 religious.