Saint Vitalis of Gaza

Saint Vitalis is the patron saint of prostitutes and day labourers. He was a 7th century monk in Gaza, and at age 60 traveled to Alexandria to minister to the prostitutes there. He would work as a day labourer, and use his earnings to pay prostitutes to stay home while he read Psalms to them.  His work was misunderstood, and he was slandered as an immoral person. Thus Saint Vitalis' story emphasises the importance of not judging others, especially if we do not understand them well.

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Transcript

God is glorious in his saints!
 
 Welcome to the Christian Saints Podcast. My name is Darren Ong, recording from Sepang in Malaysia. In this podcast, we explore the lives of the Christian saints, from the Anglican, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions. Today we will be discussing a more obscure saint, but one that I feel deserves to be better known, the 7th century St Vitalis of Gaza. To draw your attention, I will mention that he is the patron saint of day labourers, and prostitutes. How is that for a hook!
 
 Saint Vitalis (or Vitalius, Vitalios, Vitali) was a monk in Gaza. His story actually starts when he reaches the age of 60. Quite a few people from the Bible and from the calendar of saints are older than we think. For example, Moses was 80 years old when he has his famous confrontation with Pharaoh. Sometimes people feel opportunities are closed to them because they are too old, and I think this can be an encouragement. God can use you at any point of your life, as God used Saint Vitalis at the age of 60.
 
 His advanced age also speaks to the preparation that God puts us through before we begin our ministry. To be a monk is to live a life completely dedicated to God, living simply, with few or no posessions and spending all your time in prayer, worship, and overcoming the sinful parts of the self. And I like to think that his time at the monastery helped him prepare for his life’s work, as he leaves Gaza at the age of 60, to the great cosmopolitan city of Alexandria in Egypt. I will refer to an account of his life, from the website of the Orthodox Church of America.
 
 “When he was sixty years old, 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.

He did this each day, visiting all the harlots in turn, and he made them promise to keep the purpose of his visit secret. The people of Alexandria, not knowing the truth, became indignant over the the monk’s behavior, and they reviled him. However, he meekly endured their scorn, and he only asked that they not judge others.

The holy prayers of Saint Vitalis saved many fallen women. Some of them went to a monastery, others got married, and others found respectable work. But they were forbidden to tell anyone the reason why they had changed their life, and thereby stop the abuse heaped upon Saint Vitalis. They were bound by an oath they had made to the saint. When one of the women began to break her oath and stood up to defend the saint, she fell into a demonic frenzy. After this, the people of Alexandria had no doubt concerning the sinfulness of the monk.
 
 Saint Vitalis continued on with his difficult exploit: appearing himself before people under the guise of a sinner and a prodigal, he led the prodigal to repentance.”
 
 The main theme of Saint Vitalis’ life is in not judging others. This affirms many verses from the Bible in general, but especially in the teachings of Jesus Christ. For instance, this teaching by Jesus is in Matt 7:1-5:
 Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

 3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

 How wonderful it must have been for these prostitutes of Alexandria, looked down upon, judged as sinful by all in their city, to have St Vitalis, a man so committed to Jesus teaching on avoiding judgment, ministering to them, loving them. Loving them, not with a love that is merely superficial, but a love that costs him a great deal. To be a day labourer at age 60, just to give that hard-earned money to these prostitutes surviving only on a single bean a day to sustain yourself, and to spend the night reading the Psalms to them, before yet another day of hard work. I love the detail that says that St Vitalis even went to the trouble of memorizing their names, which just emphasizes how much St Vitalis recognizes how precious these women are in Gods’ sight. And St Vitalis’ sacrifical love towards these prostitutes cost him not just money and toil, but in reputation, and ultimately his life.

One might ask why St Vitalis did not simply tell people what he was doing, rather than meeekly enduring their scorn, and asking that they not judge others. We actually see this refusal to defend oneself from false accusation in the lives of other saints as well, especially monastic saints. Perhaps this is an expression of humility. Perhaps part of this is from a desire to emulate Jesus Christ, who, before his crucifixion refused to answer the false accusations against him. Perhaps it is a teaching tool, so in enduring these false accusations people learn from their lives not to to be quick to judge. 
 
 But by being mocked and vilified for associating with these prostitutes, St Vitalis shares in their struggle, and in their suffering. For they too are judged quickly and harshly by those around them who don’t fully understand their circumstances. St Vitalis’ getting scorned by his association with these prostitutes also points to Jesus. 
 
 In Matthew’s gospel, we hear this short passage about Jesus associating with tax collectors, and people getting scandalized by his actions. To understand this story perhaps requires a bit of context. The tax collectors in the gospels are Jews working for the Roman empire which was a foreign power occupying Judea at the time. They were extorting money from their own countrymen to hand over to the Romans oppressing them, and were shunned as traitors. Yet Jesus loved them all the same. It is believed that the Levi that this story mentions here is the apostle Matthew himself. From Matt 2:13-17
 
  Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.
 
 Jesus’ words here speak directly to St Vitalis’ ministry. Rather than seeing people who are far away from God as lawbreakers to be condemned, Christ sees them as the sick, who need healing, compassion and care. 

 And as Christ’s love for sinners led him to be crucified, so did Vitalis’ love lead him to an untimely death. He is attacked by a man who misunderstood his mission, supposedly for being a disgrace to the name of Christ, and dies soon afterward.

 ***

One time, emerging from an house of ill repute, the monk encountered a young man going there -- a prodigal fellow, who with an insult struck him on the cheek and cried out, that the monk was a disgrace to the Name of Christ. The monk answered him: “Believe me, that after me, humble man that I be, thou also shalt receive such a blow on the cheek, that will have all Alexandria thronging to thine cry”.

A certain while afterwards Saint Vitalis settled into a small cell and in it at night he died. At that very hour a terrifying demon appeared before the youth who had struck the saint, and the demon struck the youth on the cheek and cried out: “Here is a knock from Saint Vitalis.” The youth went into a demonic madness. In a frenzy he thrashed about on the ground, tore the clothing from himself and howled so loudly, that a multitude of people gathered.

When the youth finally came to his senses after several hours, he then rushed off to the cell of the monk, calling out: “Have mercy on me, O servant of God, for I have sinned against thee.” At the door of the cell he came fully to his senses and he told those gathered there about his former encounter with Saint Vitalis. Then the youth knocked on the door of the cell, but he received no answer. When they broke in the door, they 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”.

At this moment there came up the demon-possessed woman, punished by the monk for wanting to violate the secret of his exploit. Having touched the body of the saint, she was healed and told the people about everything that had happened with her.

When the women who had been saved by Saint Vitalis learned about his death, they gathered together and told everyone about the virtues and mercy of the saint. And from that time many of the Alexandrian people made themselves a promise to judge no one.
 
 I would like to think that this heroic spirit of St Vitalis lives on today with an organization called Talitha Kum, which is an international organization of Roman Catholic nuns who fight against human trafficking. The name comes from an Aramaic phrase that Jesus utters when he raises a girl from the dead. Talitha Kum’s fight against human trafficking takes many forms. They run safehouses for escaped slaves, lobby governments for laws protecting vulnerable victims of trafficking, and train women to combat trafficking in their communities. The nuns of Talitha Kum have even posed as prostitutes themselves, to infiltrate brothels and rescue women trapped there. St Vitalis would be proud. This podcast episode is dedicated to the wonderful nuns of Talitha Kum.
 
 If you would like to contact me, my twitter handle is @podcast_saints. You can also visit my personal website at www.drong.my and get all my other contact information there. Music in this episode is composed by my good friend James John Marks, of Generative Sounds. 
 
I would like to end with this wonderful passage from John 8:2-11, where like St Vitalis, Jesus is confronted by a woman condemned for sexual sin and responds in compassion. 
 
 

 2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

11 “No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”