died c. 625
A monk of Gaza who in old age went to Alexandria, laboring by day and spending his nights visiting fallen women to turn them to repentance through prayer and alms; he bore slander in silence and was vindicated after his repose.
Our Venerable Father Vitalius the Monk, of Gaza
Vitalius was an ascetic monk associated with the monastic life of Gaza in Palestine who, in his old age, undertook an unusual labor of mercy in the city of Alexandria. According to his life, he belonged to the monastery of Saint Seridus near Gaza before travelling to Egypt at the age of sixty.
On arriving in Alexandria he devoted himself to the conversion of the city's prostitutes. He hired himself out as a day laborer and used each day's wage to visit one of these women, paying her so that she would pass the night without sin while he kept vigil in prayer. He is said to have learned the names of every prostitute in the city and to have visited them in turn, urging repentance and asking that they keep his purpose secret.
Because he made his visits openly and refused to explain himself, his conduct drew gossip, suspicion, and opposition; nevertheless the accounts hold that every inquiry into his behavior cleared him of wrongdoing. He died about the year 625 in Alexandria after being struck on the head by a man who misunderstood his work, managing to return to his cell before he died. After his repose the women he had reformed came forward to reveal the truth of his labors, and his hidden righteousness was made known.
By a flood of tears you made the desert fertile,
and your longing for God brought forth fruits in abundance.
By the radiance of miracles you illumined the whole universe!
O our holy father Vitalius, pray to Christ our God to save our souls!
Text used with permission of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org).
The life of Vitalius is set in early seventh-century Alexandria. According to the synaxarion, he arrived in the city during the patriarchate of John the Merciful (John the Almsgiver), who served as Patriarch of Alexandria in the early 600s, fixing the events of Vitalius's later years within that period.
His repose is dated to around the year 625. The Eastern Orthodox Church commemorates him on April 22 and January 11; in the Western calendar his feast is kept on January 11.
Vitalius deliberately allowed his nightly visits to be seen and even announced where he was going, drawing scandal upon himself rather than defending his reputation. By tradition he bore the resulting slander in silence. His death came when a man, taking offense at his apparent conduct, struck him on the head.
The truth of his ministry emerged only after his death, when the women he had turned from their former life came out to testify to what he had truly been doing, accompanying his body to burial. His vita is associated with the scriptural counsel to judge nothing before the appointed time, when the Lord brings to light the hidden things of darkness.
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