Feast Day: January 11th & April 22nd
The Life of Saint Vitalis: “I beg you, take this money and do not sin with anyone tonight.” Then he stayed with the harlot in her room. While she slept, the Elder spent the whole night at Prayer, reading the Psalms, and quietly left in the morning…
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A Prayer
Saint Vitalis Pray to God for us.
When he was sixty years old, he undertook an extraordinary task: he wrote down from memory the names of all the prostitutes of Alexandria and he began to Pray for them. He worked from morning to evening, earning twelve copper coins each day. In the evening the Saint bought a single bean, which he ate after sunset. Then he would give the rest of the money to one of the harlots, whom he visited at night and said, “I beg you, take this money and do not sin with anyone tonight.” Then he stayed with the harlot in her room. While she slept, the Elder spent the whole night at Prayer, reading the Psalms, and quietly left in the morning…
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Certain of the clergy, scandalized by the behaviour of Saint Vitalis, reported him to the Holy Patriarch John the Merciful. But the Patriarch did not believe the informers and he said, “Cease to judge, especially Monks. Don’t you know what happened at the First Council of Nicea? Some of the Bishops and the Clergy brought letters of denunciation against each other to the Emperor Saint Constantine the Great. He commanded that a burning candle be brought, and not even reading the letters, he burned them and said, ‘If I had seen with my own eyes a Bishop sinning, or a Priest, or a Monk, then I would have veiled such with his garb, so that no one might see his sin.’”
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…Then saw that the Monk was dead, on his knees before an Icon. In his hand was a scroll with the words: “Men of Alexandria, judge not beforehand, til cometh the Lord, the Righteous Judge”.
An Icon
