BROTHER CELLITES (ALESSIANS). - A society of lay brothers founded in the 14th century in the Rhineland for the care of the sick. Several such charitable societies emerged in the same century, especially during the terrible European plague of 1348, when Clement VI granted spiritual favors to those who assisted the victims of such a calamity. The C. survived this epidemic and indeed experienced strong growth.
They were also called Alessians after their patron Alexander. However, the most common name to this day has remained their designation as C., derived from Zelle, i.e., chamber, or sepulcher, as some believe, because among the good works to which they dedicated themselves was the burial of the dead. In the Low Countries they were called Lollards. The name C. appears for the first time in a bull of Eugenius IV from 1431. With another bull in 1439, he prescribed that they live with religious vows, since until then they had been content with a common life without a fixed rule, although it seems that in some houses the rule of the Third Order of St. Francis was observed. Finally, Sixtus IV, in 1472, imposed the Augustinian Rule on all of them, at the same time granting a series of privileges, later confirmed by Julius II and Urban VIII. As a result, the C. spread widely in Germany, Belgium, and Holland, but during the French Revolution and the subsequent social and political upheavals they were nearly extinguished. Some convents still exist in Germany with the motherhouse in Aix-la-Chapelle, in Belgium, in England, and in the United States. Their habit is a black tunic with a scapular of the same color and a round hood. More numerous are the collettine or Alessiane, also called from their black dress and entirely similar to the C.
There are about 400 religious today.