“I warn you, my children, not to be so ready to mock at, or judge, the acts of other people. For we have often seen the sin of the fornicator, but his repentance, which he made in secret, we did not see, and we may have seen somebody steal, but we know nothing of the groanings and tears which he has offered to God. We still think of him as we saw him, a thief, a fornicator or a perjuror, but in the sight of God his secret repentance and confession have been accepted, and in His eyes he in honourable.”
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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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