Immortality is the state that every person dreams of, and it really exists. The source of immortality is the Resurrection of Christ. At the end of life’s journey, after Christ’s Resurrection, death no longer rules over a person who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christians are Christ-bearers, that is, bearers and possessors of eternal life, which is given according to the measure of faith and according to the measure of holiness. Saints are ordinary people in flesh and blood, but the most perfect Christians, since they sanctified themselves through deeds in the name of the risen and eternal Christ the Savior.
Lives of the Saints
Since ancient times, the exploits of saints, martyrs, and saints have been recorded and sacredly preserved by devotees of piety. Gradually, many legends accumulated, which are usually called “Lives of the Saints.” In this article we will look at the life of one amazing saint named Vitaly.
This venerable Vitaly (saint) lived in the second half of the sixth century. His feat was the only one of its kind; as far as is known, neither before nor after him anyone dared to repeat such actions, they were so unusual. But his example of spiritual holiness can teach a lot to any person, especially for monks.
Life of Saint Venerable Vitaly
From his youth, the future Saint Vitaly labored in the monastery of Saint Serid near the city of Gaza, close to the Holy Land. Until the age of sixty, Vitaly (the saint) did not leave the walls of the monastery, but then he dramatically changed his life.
In old age, the monk decides to leave the walls of the monastery and settles in the city of Alexandria. At that time, Alexandria was a huge city, as they now say, a metropolis, and the morals of its inhabitants were not distinguished by meekness and humility. In very extreme cases, the abbots of nearby monasteries blessed the monks to enter the city, and then they equipped the most spiritually strong monks for this feat, who would not succumb to temptation, would not fall into temptation.
And Saint Vitaly writes down all the harlots of this city in his memorial, and he himself settles in a private apartment. From the very morning this saint works as a day laborer, in the evening he buys himself some food (the life says “beans”), and he gives the rest of the money to one of the many harlots of Alexandria. That is, he buys a night with this woman. The inhabitants of the city, having learned about this, became so indignant that day and night they reviled the holy man, calling him names in every possible way.
How do the prayers of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly help?
Archimandrite Vitaly spent the last years of his life serving in a church in Tbilisi. He died at the age of 64.
His memorial day falls on December 1st.
To this day, believers come to his grave to pray to Vitaly Sidorenko.
The prayers of Saint Vitalis are addressed in the following cases:
- In case of danger to life;
- To bless the home.
The feat of the monk
Usually people see in others the sins that they themselves commit, and they are pleased that they are not the only ones who are so sinful. The inhabitants of Alexandria themselves were far from holiness, and many of them probably used the services of priestesses of love, but they could not forgive this vice to the monk, who had previously reproached their conscience with his pure life. This case is very indicative for modern people who gladly blame the church and its ministers if they notice imperfection or vice in something.
As the residents of the city later learned, the monk Vitaly, a man of holy life, locked himself with harlots, and allowed these unfortunate women to forget about their dirty work at least for one night, to get some sleep, or to pray to the Lord with him. He did not condemn or rebuke anyone with whom he spent time, but only pitied them. And many prostitutes took the righteous path. Some of them repented, got married, gave birth to children and became faithful wives, others went to a monastery and practiced purity until their death.
Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly (Sidorenko) (1928–1992)
“If you want to overcome your enemies without fighting,
to win without weapons, to tame without difficulty and to subjugate,
be meek, patient, quiet, gentle, like a lamb, and you will overcome,
you will win, tame and conquer.”
Saint Demetrius of Rostov
Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly (in the world Vitaly Nikolaevich Sidorenko) was born in 1928, in the village of Ekaterinovka, Krasnodar Territory. (According to some sources, this happened on May 5, according to others, on June 3.)
His father was a kind, smart, hardworking man who helped the poor and orphans a lot. He died during the Great Patriotic War.
At the age of five, Vitaly began to fast: he did not eat meat at all, and on Wednesday and Friday he refused dairy foods. When he was eight years old, he went to school. As soon as he learned to read, the Gospel became his reference book.
Vitaly often ran off to pray in the cornfield or hid in the reeds by the river. When he was eight years old, he dug a hole in the garden and prayed there for a long time.
Subsequently, Father Vitaly recalled this time in a letter to his spiritual daughter: “In my youth, I worked on a collective farm, but they didn’t give me a salary... But they didn’t give me because if there was a holiday in the middle of the week, then I quit work and went to God’s temple. So they didn’t give it.”
One day Vitaly was sent to graze the collective farm herd. He drove the cows out to pasture, and he himself began to read the Gospel and did not notice that the cows had wandered into the wheat, ate too much life and fell ill. The young ascetic was not at a loss and began to prayerfully baptize every cow on all sides. With God's help, he raised the entire herd and drove it to the village.
From the age of 14 he took upon himself the feat of wandering. He often spent the night in haystacks in a field or an abandoned barn. At the age of 16 he went to Taganrog, where he received a blessing for a monastic feat from the blind, perspicacious elder Alexy. In 1948, Vitaly went to the Holy Trinity-Sergius Lavra, which had just opened after the war, and helped restore the monastery for some time. Since the young ascetic did not have documents, they could not accept him among the inhabitants of the monastery, but advised him to go to the Glinsk hermitage.
During these years, the continuers of the traditions of the Glinsk elders were the rector of the monastery, schema-archimandrite Seraphim (Amelin) (1874–1958), schema-abbot Andronik (Lukash) (1889–1974) and hieroschemamonk Seraphim (Romantsov) (1885–1976). He was a fraternal confessor, strict and demanding. Elder Seraphim (Romantsov) became Vitaly’s spiritual father.
Schema-Archimandrite John (Maslov) in the history of the Glinsk Hermitage wrote the following about Elder Seraphim: “He was a most experienced confessor, an expert in all the innermost movements of the human heart, the owner of spiritual treasures, which he acquired through a long, arduous feat... His conversations, filled with true humility, warmed the cold hearts of people , opened their spiritual eyes, enlightened their minds, led to repentance, spiritual peace and spiritual rebirth.”
Schema-Archimandrite Seraphim (Romantsov) said: “The only feat for young people is obedience. Asceticism without obedience is walking on stilts.”
“A person must certainly experience the bitterness of sin and the sweetness of grace. For this it is very good and even necessary to have a leader on this difficult path.”
Elder Seraphim (Romantsov) became the spiritual leader of novice Vitaly. At first the novice was a watchman, later he worked in the refectory. When he was obedient to the candle box, he had to linger after the service (he counted the proceeds). In order not to wake up the brethren, he went to bed at the door of the fraternal building right on the street.
In those years, the perspicacious blessed hierodeacon Ephraim labored in the monastery and carried out the obedience of a night watchman. After the monastery was closed, he was forcibly sent for treatment to a psychiatric hospital located on the territory of the Vyshenskaya Hermitage near Ryazan. There he continued to play the fool and receive people who came to him for spiritual needs. Father Vitaly and Father Ephraim were connected by spiritual closeness; he talked about him as an old man of high spiritual life. Hierodeacon Ephraim often repeated: “The whole secret of salvation is humility.”
From the memoirs of Hieromonk Mardarius (Danilov): “The Glinsk hermitage at that time was a hotbed of spirituality. What kind of elders there were... And Vitaly - although he was just a novice with Father Seraphim (Romantsov), he received all wanderers - he was like a father of mercy, and led a very spiritual life...
Father Vitaly was an amazing person! When they lived in Glinskaya, letters were sent to Father Seraphim (Romantsov) from Moscow, from St. Petersburg, from Kyiv: Father simply does not have time to answer - they lie and lie. And then he will call Vitaly:
– Vitaly, do you see the letters?
- I see, father.
– Here I give my blessing: print them out and give the answers as if they were from me. And don’t contact me: - well, the priest knew that he was smart: and, of course, he prayed for him. - Write. Don’t come to me and ask me what to write...
Well, Vitaly will begin to answer: He will give the answer, and at the bottom he will sign: “Sche-abbot Seraphim.” And he sends it.
They get: “Well, that’s it! We are now alive, we are resurrected! Now we won’t despair!” They write gratitude to the priest: “Oh, father, thank you!” “You saved us! We were in despair”... Father Seraphim - he saw Vitaly’s grace, that Vitaly could do it. And indeed it is".
Since novice Vitaly did not have documents, he often had to hide when government officials came to the monastery. At the end of the 1950s, the authorities tightened control, and inspectors began to come to Glinskaya Pustyn more and more often. It became dangerous for the novice Vitaly to be in the monastery, and he left for Taganrog. In Taganrog, he loved to visit the city cemetery, where he prayed at the grave of the blessed elder Pavel (Stozhkov) (1792–1879). He often repeated the words of Elder Paul: “My whole desire from my youth was to pray to God, and my intention was to go to holy places.” Seeing the ascetic life of Brother Vitaly, believers began to gather around him. He stayed in those houses where he was invited. As the Taganrog elder Pavel once did, the ascetic walked to holy places, he was accompanied by believing women, sisters in Christ, and future spiritual children.
“Go! I send you out like lambs among wolves.
Do not take bag, scrip, or sandals...” (Luke 10:3-4)
From the memoirs of Father Vitaly’s cell attendant, Schema-Abbess Seraphima (Dyachenko): “While traveling with him, we had neither money nor two clothes. Sometimes we would spend the night in a field, pray in the morning, bow down and move on...”
One day, a motorcycle with armed policemen stopped right in front of a devotee while he was walking with people. "Who are they? Where? Documentation!" But he addressed them so kindly that they were extremely amazed. He bowed and kissed them on the shoulders with the words: “You are our guardian angels, our protectors.” He defeated them with his humility and love - they asked him to pray and left. Only after some time did he say: “But they were specifically coming for me.”
Spiritual children said that when traveling around Russia, Brother Vitaly always walked around in a cassock and with a traveling staff - it was impossible not to notice him. And in almost every village the police were waiting for him. He told his children about this time: “I’m walking - there’s a river on the way, I crossed it - there’s a guard standing. I bowed to his feet, he turned his back, as if he hadn’t noticed, and I walked past. And in another place I was greeted like a gentleman in a car. They took me to a very beautiful house. They stroked me there." (They beat me). He said: “And there are good people in the police. Once, when I was traveling, the police grabbed me and beat me, and the boss stood up for me and said: “Don’t hit him too hard, otherwise he will die, and then you won’t have any trouble.” Then they stopped kicking me, and only pulled me by my hair and beard.”
At the same time, he did not experience any hostile feelings towards his offenders, remembering the words of the Lord “bless those who curse you and pray for those who abuse you” (Luke 6:28) - thus he acquired great humility.
Let us quote the story of one of Father Vitaly’s spiritual daughters: “Once we were walking with our father... like sheep following a shepherd. And a drunk man comes to the meeting and loudly shouts all sorts of curses. When he approached us, we all ran away in fright, but the priest did not shy away and went straight to meet him, came up, hugged and began to kiss him. How this man immediately changed! Where did his menacing appearance go? And when the priest blessed him, the man’s joy knew no bounds. He began to thank the priest and said that no one had ever treated him like that before...”
Having not condemned anyone in his life, Father Vitaly immediately suppressed dissatisfaction with others if it arose in anyone. “We must blaspheme, blame, flog, punish ourselves, but love everyone, consider them Angels,” Elder Vitaly wrote in one letter.
The righteous man had to endure a lot, hiding from his pursuers, he spent the night buried in a snowdrift so that the black cassock would not be noticed. In 1954, in Taganrog, a seriously ill ascetic was admitted to the hospital. Doctors stated that tuberculosis was in the last stage, only a few days remained. But the ascetic survived. The Lord protected his chosen one for the sake of the suffering, who, through his prayers, were to take the true Path.
Wherever Brother Vitaly wandered, he always returned to the Glinsk Hermitage to his spiritual father, Elder Seraphim. In 1958, his confessor decided to send him to the Caucasus. At night, Elder Seraphim and Elder Andronik tonsured him into a robed monk. Monk Vitaly went to Sukhumi, and from there to the mountainous area - Bargany.
In the book “The Mystery of Salvation. Conversations about spiritual life,” Archimandrite Raphael (Karelin) writes: “The monks went to the mountains not only to hide in their wilds from the world, just as ships escape from the deserted shores during a storm. The mountains seem to open before a person a canopy stretched over eternity, here he feels how fleeting and insignificant all the ant-like earthly vanity is; stones scorched by the sun remind him of death, the very silence of the mountains seems to be a song about eternity, which echoes without words and without sounds in his heart. The silence of the mountains seems like an echo of eternity...
They asked Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly what he found best for salvation. He answered: “Prayer with repentance”... Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly said: “Demons tempt people living in the world through thoughts, and they appear to hermits in sensual images. At night we heard the roar of animals, the cries of people who wanted to attack our huts, the sound of footsteps in the attic, as if someone was walking there; sometimes we saw that people we knew came to visit us, but it turned out to be a ghost. I experienced a severe temptation from demons... This lasted a long time. Finally, having gathered my strength, I make a mental cross, then I begin to say: “May God rise again” - and I feel that a stone slab is falling from my chest. I wrote to my spiritual father about this with a request that the entire monastery pray for me...
One winter, I left my cell at night and saw a big dog. I began to call her, but she howled in response. I realized that it was a wolf who was preparing to rush at me, and shouted: “Lord, through the prayers of my spiritual father, schema-abbot Seraphim, have mercy on me!” - and the wolf, as if driven by an invisible force, ran into the forest. It was no longer a ghost: the next morning we saw wolf tracks in the snow."
One day, the monk Vitaly, crossing a mountain river, fell into icy water and caught a cold. Due to the exacerbation of tuberculosis, blood came from the throat. Monk Vitaly, feeling the seriousness of his situation, began to beg the hermit Hieromonk Mardarius (Danilov) to secretly tonsure him as a monk, citing the fact that he wanted to die as a monk, and it was not possible to ask for the blessing of Elder Seraphim at that time - there were rivers in the mountains spilled, blocking the road to the city. The hieromonk agreed. When he was tonsured, Father Vitaly was given the name Venedikt.
When his confessor found out about the secret tonsure, he was angry for a long time, but then forgave him. From the memoirs of Hieromonk Mardariy: “Well, Father Seraphim humbled him quite harshly, so as not to give rise to arrogance and conceit. Although the tonsure itself was a reason for Father Vitaly’s greatest humility - that he supposedly accepted it willfully. This was a strong humbling circumstance for him for many years, until he accepted the great schema - the memory of the fact that he was, after all, “self-willed.” The Lord arranged everything this way: on the one hand, he frightened him with death, and on the other, with the elder.” (Glinskaya Hermitage was closed in 1961.)
In the mid-sixties, monk Benedict secretly accepted the schema with the name Vitaly.
In 1969, with the blessing of Elder Seraphim, Father Vitaly went to Tbilisi to visit Bishop Zinovy (Mazhuga)**.
In Tbilisi in 1976, Bishop Zinovy ordained him a hierodeacon, and a few months later a hieromonk. The day before this significant event, on January 1, 1976, his spiritual father, Schema-Archimandrite Seraphim (Romantsov), reposed in the Lord.
According to the testimony of Father Vitaly’s spiritual children, the elder was distinguished by extreme non-covetousness: he never wore good clothes, he always wore an old cassock. He never had money - he quickly distributed everything that was sent to him to those in need, following the words of one hermit: “Do not let the money you received spend the night in your cell.” (Testimonies of Father Vitaly’s spiritual children are published in the book “On the Life of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly.”)
The ascetic had a special ability to see the souls of other people; often, in order not to embarrass a person who had an unrepentant sin, Elder Vitaly acted like the blessed Elder Pavel of Taganrog: he denounced in secret, attributing other people’s sins to himself, or scolded the cell attendant nearby for them.
The Glinsky elders taught to repent as soon as one sinned. If you have someone to tell, good, but if not, ask God for forgiveness: “Lord, have mercy on me, the fallen one.” And Father Vitaly advised his spiritual children: “If you have sinned or thought something unkind, immediately confess to your sisters. The main thing is to restore peace." Also Father Vitaly Fr.
The elder’s spiritual children believed that the elder’s prayer would tear him out of hell; he begged the Almighty to grant forgiveness or ease the fate of the unfortunate man.
From the story of Abbot N.: “His prayer kept me safe. If it weren’t for Father Vitaly, I don’t know what would have happened to me. The KGB “loved” me from the very first steps - first in the seminary, then in the parish. They threatened to imprison me at any time. But you come to Father, you only tell him, and you leave with the hope that God will not allow you to be offended by his holy prayers. And indeed, you look - and you are left behind me for a while. Another sorrow will come - you go again. He saved me from all troubles. And only now I realized who he was to us. I am ready to kiss the ground where he walked..."
No matter how much Elder Vitaly tried in his humility to hide the gift of insight from people, it was impossible to hide it. He himself did not like it when they talked about his perspicacity, and if he heard it, he answered like this: “Here is the servant of God Vitaly: is he perspicacious? He is gluttonous." And then he began to scold and denounce himself. He once admitted: “Do you think it’s easy to be perspicacious when you see that a person is dying? And you know how to help him, and you know that he will reject this help... Then the heart is filled with such sorrow.”
Father Vitaly predicted the tragic events in Sukhumi 30 years in advance. One day, walking through the city, he said: “I want this house to survive, and this one too. I hear people shooting and killing in the streets, blood flowing in streams.”
And Father Vitaly did what was in his power to save people from spiritual and physical death. The elder had the ability to heal bodily illnesses; he extended the lives of many people with his prayers.
From the memoirs of Abbot Nikita (Tretyakov): “Everyone left Father Vitaly comforted and healed. You tell him: Father, it hurts here. When you leave, it doesn’t hurt...”
One woman, having visited the elder with her family, said: “A person can no longer achieve higher love than he has. If a person has such love, and God gave it to him, then what kind of God is that?” Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly himself said the following about love: “There will be love and the walls will come apart.”
From the memoirs of schema-abbess Seraphima: “Knowing the hour of his departure, Father Vitaly... finished his business, and then said: “We are going to Moskovsky, I will take a bath and then serve the Liturgy” (with the blessing of the Bishop, he could serve privately at home). He said goodbye to everyone, but the sisters felt that he would not return home. They brought Father Vitaly to the temple, he walked around the whole place, but, as usual, he could no longer bow before the icons. I said goodbye to everyone and cried a lot. In the car he said: “Now I will always be with the fathers in the temple.” No one understood these words then...
The doctors tried to help him as best they could, but God’s will was different. The day before his death, he suddenly signaled with his hand for me to open the curtain on the window. I asked: “Who do you see?” He looked silently, then kissed his hand and pointed to the icon of the Mother of God. I presented the image and he blessed everyone with it.
I asked: “Did the Mother of God come?” He nodded his head and began to cry."
Schema-nun Elizabeth recalls: “Father did not let anyone go without his blessing. By evening, I felt very tired and asked for a blessing to go to the kitchen and eat. He blessed with his eyes alone. I felt that there were only a few hours left of his life, and so I asked: “Father Vitaly, wait for me.” Having had a quick snack, Mother Evgenia and I quickly returned. I again took his blessing, as we usually did after the meal. She kissed his hand, then wiped it with holy water. After that, he sighed quietly and died, having fulfilled his last “obedience” - he waited for me.” This happened on December 1, 1992.
In the evening, His Holiness Patriarch Elijah came to say goodbye to the ascetic, he said: “You don’t know who we have lost.” He thanked everyone who cared for the ascetic and, pointing to the room where Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly lived, prayed and died, this great elder said: “Go there, bow to the place.”
The coffin with the body of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly was placed in the Church of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky.
The people went to say goodbye to their shepherd for several days. Despite the difficult military-political situation in Georgia at that time, his spiritual children came from Russia, Ukraine...
The burial of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly took place on December 5. The funeral service in front of a large crowd of believing people was performed by the Patriarch of All Georgia, co-served by the clergy of the Alexander Nevsky Church, the Tbilisi clergy and clergy who came from Russia and Ukraine.
Father Pavel Kosach recalls: “The Patriarch read a prayer of permission and handed it to me to place in the hand of Father Vitaly. At this time, the thumb on his hand bends, I put a sheet of prayer into my palm - and the hand closes. Herself. I was so shocked that I cried out in surprise: “I took it myself!” - and only later did he realize it as a given - after all, this man was not of this world.”
“I took it myself!” – Archpriest Mikhail Didenko, who was standing nearby, confirmed. His Holiness the Patriarch silently nodded his head in affirmative and continued the service. It should be noted that several years before his death, Father Vitaly once said to his spiritual daughter, schema-nun Larisa (Voronova): “For the tears of my sisters, I will extend my hand from the grave.”
To this day, the ascetic helps everyone who believes in the power of his prayerful intercession before God.
Living in Tbilisi, Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly, I answered letters from my spiritual children every day. Here are just a few excerpts from the elder’s letters:
"What to do? What to do? There is one refuge and consolation for everyone: the Lord and Mother of God... Pray, my soul, especially the Jesus Prayer, which will put everything in proper order. Ask the Lord and the Mother of God to make you wise for salvation and teach everything sacred... We will repent of our sins, confess, lament, remain in prayer, and everyone must reproach themselves in everything, that they themselves are guilty, and not anyone else, then the Lord will soon hear us. Abba Macarius said: if we remember the evil that people have done to us, our remembrance of God will weaken, but if we remember the evil inflicted by demons, we will be safe from their arrows. Abba Or said: no matter what temptation you are in, do not complain about anyone but yourself, and say: this happened to me because of my sins. Abba Pimen said: if you are silent, you will find peace wherever you live. Let us entrust all our requests to the will of God, and whatever the Lord does not fulfill according to our desire and request, we will be satisfied. He knows best what is useful for our salvation...
Let us therefore rejoice and be glad in the works of God, which surpasses all human understanding. Everything is with God and from God, to Him be glory with the Son and the Holy Spirit forever, amen.
The elder writes to his disciple: “Pray for the offenders, they are your friends, through them the Lord gives you crowns, and if you grumble, and even offend yourself, then you will lose your crowns.” Therefore, avoid curiosity, gossip and everything unnecessary that does not relate to you. Every day, prepare yourself for temptations, sorrows and all kinds of insults, slander and the like, know that it is God’s mercy coming to you. For enduring everything, you will join the ranks of martyrs and, without other exploits, you will be honored with the Kingdom of Heaven.
Remember the main thing:
1
. Consider every day the last of your life and spend it in the fear of God and contrition of heart. Reduce fuss, avoid idle talk. Remember God and cry out to Him in repentance.
2
. Do not judge or condemn anyone, otherwise you will condemn yourself. Do not analyze other people’s thoughts, deeds, slander and gossip, pass by: it is the enemy who is trying to scatter you and distract you from prayer.
3
. Know God, keep His Commandments, listen to your spiritual father; Accept into your soul only good things from your neighbors that are in accordance with the Commandments of God. Try to listen to yourself and not judge anyone, and not notice the shortcomings of others - we have many of our own...”
“If you want to pray about many things... Pray like this: “Sovereign Lord Jesus Christ, guide me according to Your will!” If it’s about passions, then say: “Heal me according to Your will.” And when about temptations, say: “You know what is useful to me, help my weakness and grant me, according to Your will, deliverance from temptations.” Or: “Lord! I am in Your hands, You know what is useful to me, guide me according to Your will, do not let me fall into error and abuse Your gift. Arrange, O Master, that this should be accomplished in Thy fear, for Thy is the glory forever, amen...”
“Our God in heaven and on earth, do whatever He pleases; to Him be glory. Amen. You must consider yourself an unpaid culprit and bring repentance. You see, Saint Seraphim of Sarov, the miracle worker, standing on a stone, prayed for 1000 days and nights with the prayer: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Saint Ephraim the Syrian called himself an abomination, and in prayer he said: “Grant me to see my sins and not condemn my brother.” The Holy King and Prophet said: “I am the worm of Israel.” The Apostle Paul called himself a monster. And each of the saints blasphemed himself and cried about his sins. There is an icon of St. Nicholas, which depicts the stripes-potholes on his face that were formed when tears streamed down his cheeks.
Saint Great Anthony prayed to God to show who he was like. And the Lord said that he had not yet come to the measure of the shoemaker living in the city. The saint came to this man and found out that he thought like this: “All people will be saved, but I alone will perish,” and he always cried. Try to always read: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Consider everyone saints, do not condemn anyone, endure the trials that come your way, thank God for sorrows and joys, force yourself to do good, do not be discouraged, confess your sins to God, humble yourself, remember the Passion of Christ, have mortal memory, work in obedience, and so on You will be Lord. May He bless you, to Him be glory. Amen…"
“It is written: Many are the sorrows of the righteous, and the Lord will deliver them from all of them (Ps. 33:20). The Lord said: take up the cross and follow Me, and don’t walk without the cross, to Him be the glory. Amen".
“Do not be embarrassed by the trials that may occur. The Lord said: “Through your patience save your souls” (Luke 21:19) and “He who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:22). Try to pray carefully in the morning, in the evening and with every task, at least like this: “Bless, Lord.” And instead of other thoughts, say: “Lord, help me. Lord protect me. Lord, teach me to do Your will.” – By doing this, you will talk with God, which is prayer. Don’t accept other thoughts, they are not God’s...”
Condemnation is a sin
The Monk Vitaly prayed all night for these women, but strictly forbade them to talk about themselves. With each of them he took an oath that she would not tell the truth about him. The monk simply followed the words of the Savior that the left hand should not know what the right hand was doing. The Lord commanded to do good deeds in secret, so as not to become vain through them. St. Vitaly fulfilled this commandment to the end; he not only remained a secret, but also suffered unrighteous reproaches from sinful people. Saint Vitaly (whose icon is in any Orthodox church) helps everyone who turns to him with a request to protect a loved one from vice or prays for themselves, a sinner.
His example shows that one should not condemn anyone. Only God sees a person’s heart, and He is his judge, and other people judge according to their own measure of sinfulness. The sin of one person before another is nothing compared to the sin that a person commits before the Lord.
The Act of John the Merciful
And although the monk hid his feat, this does not justify those who condemned him or openly reviled him. But there was still a man in the city who did not condemn the saint. It was the Alexandrian Patriarch John the Merciful. When rumors about the behavior of Saint Vitaly reached him, John the Merciful refused to believe them and cited the example of Emperor Constantine the Great, who at the First Ecumenical Council, without reading, burned written denunciations against some bishops and priests, saying that it was not his business to judge clergy. The emperor also added that if he had seen with his own eyes a priest or monk with a harlot, he would have covered him with his own cloak so that no one would look.
The possessed youth and Vitaly (saint)
The Monk Vitaly, the day before his death, met a young man heading to a house of debauchery. This self-confident young man approached Saint Vitaly and hit him on the cheek because the monk, in his opinion, was dishonoring the name of Christ. The saint calmly accepted this, but said that the young man would receive such a slap in the face for this that all the townspeople would gather to hear his cry.
And so it happened: when the monk went into his cell and began to pray, he died after a while, and a demon appeared to the young man and, hitting him on the cheek, declared that this was a slap in the face from the monk Vitaly. This caused the young man to fall into such a frenzy that he rolled on the ground and screamed frantically. People came running to his cry, and, having come to his senses a little, he, along with everyone else, ran to the saint’s home. There they saw the saint kneeling, and in his hands a scroll with an inscription that said that the Alexandrians should not condemn anyone ahead of time until the Lord, the righteous judge, comes.
The unfortunate young man was healed only after he touched the saint; together with him, one of the harlots, who had broken the oath of non-disclosure of the secret of St. Vitaly, was healed from demon possession. Other women, who knew the saint’s secret and were no longer bound by it, told about the monk and restored his honor.
John the Merciful carried the remains of the saint through the entire city with great honor. The whole city buried him. St. Vitaly's Day (remembrance day) is celebrated according to the Orthodox calendar on May 5th.
Rule read in danger
During the armed conflict in Tbilisi, Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly told her spiritual children about a special rule that protects them from danger. He gave them the following advice: “Read Psalms 26, 50 and 90, and the Lord and the Mother of God will show mercy to them.” Among the psalms, it was necessary to read once again “Mother of God, Virgin, Rejoice.” The elder’s spiritual children claim that those who recited such a prayer when leaving home were not afraid of shells and bullets.
Virgin Mary, rejoice, Most Holy Mary, the Lord is with you; Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb when you gave birth to our souls.
Psalm 26
The Lord is my enlightenment and my Savior, whom will I fear? Lord the Protector of my womb, whom will I fear? Always approach the evil hedgehog to tear down my flesh, offend me and interfere with mine, you will get tired and fall. If a regiment takes up arms against me, my heart will not be afraid; If he turns against me, I will trust him. When I ask the Lord one thing, then I will ask: I live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, I see the beauty of the Lord and visit His holy temple. It’s as if I hid in his village on the day of my crime, plunged into the secret of his village, stood on a stone. And now, behold, lift up your head against my enemies: dress and devour your sacrifice of praise and exclamation in the village; I sing and sing to the Lord. Hear, O Lord, my voice, and they cried, have mercy on me and hear me. My heart speaks to you: I will seek the Lord, I will seek My face for You, Your face, Lord, I will seek. Do not take your face away from me and do not turn aside in anger from your servant: awaken my help, do not reject me and do not forsake me. God my Savior. How my father and mother abandoned me. The Lord will accept me. Give me laws, Lord, on your path and guide me on the right path, my enemy, for my sake. Do not betray me in the souls of those who are in the cold season: as if you attacked me as a witness to injustice and the lie turned out to be untrue for you. I think I see a good Lord in the land of the living. Be patient with the Lord, be of good courage and let your heart be strong and be patient with the Lord.
Psalm 50
Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your great mercy and according to the multitude of Your mercies, cleanse my iniquity. Wash me from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin; for I know my iniquity, and I will atone for the sin that was committed against me. You, sinned and evil in your eyes, I acted as if you were justified in your words, and I gain every moment to judge Ty. Behold, I was conceived in crimes, and in sins my mother gave birth to me. Behold, you loved the truth; You revealed to me your unknown and secret wisdom. Sprinkle me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Grant my hearing joy and cheerfulness; the bones of the humble will rejoice. Turn away from my sins and cleanse all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew the spirit of righteousness in my womb. Do not reject me from your presence and do not deprive me of your Holy Spirit. Give me the joy of your salvation and strengthen me with the Spirit of the Lord. I will teach you evil, and iniquity will turn to you. Deliver me from blood, O God, God of my salvation; my tongue will rejoice in your righteousness. O Lord, open my mouth, and my lips will declare your praise. As if you wanted sacrifices, you would offer them: do not approve of burnt offerings. Sacrifice to God the spirit is broken; God does not despise a repentant and humble heart. Bless Zion, O Lord, with your mercy, and may the walls of Jerusalem be built. Then choose the sacrifice of justice, the offering and the burnt offering; then they will lay the calves on your altar.
Psalm 90
Living with the help of the Almighty, he will live on the roof of the Heavenly God. The Lord says: You are my protector and my refuge, my God, and in Him I trust. Yako Toy will save you from the traps of the hunter and the words of rebellion, his spray overshadows you, and under his krill you hope: his truth will surround you with weapons. Do not be afraid of the fear of the night, the arrow that flies in the days, the things in the darkness that pass away, destruction and the devil of the noonday. Thousands of people in your country will fall and your right hand will not come near you, look into both eyes and you will see the reward for sinners. How You, Lord, my hope, the Most High, have come running to yours. Evil will not come to you, and the wound will not come close to your body, as with his angel, commandments over you, control yourself in all your ways. They will take you in their arms, but not when you step on a stone, step on a viper and a basilisk and cross a lion and a snake. For I will trust in myself, and I will deliver him and: I will cover him, as my name is known. He will call me, and I will listen to him: I am with him in pain, I will be with him, and I will glorify him.
Prayer to Archangel Barachiel
O great Archangel of God, Archangel Barachiel! Standing before the Throne of God and then bringing God's blessing into the homes of God's faithful servants, ask the Lord God for mercy and blessing in our homes, may the Lord God bless us from Zion and His Holy Mountain and increase the abundance of the fruits of peace on earth, and give us health, salvation and haste in everything, victory and victory of enemies, and will preserve us for many years, may we unanimously glorify God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forever and ever. Amen.
Patrons of Vitaly
The name Vitaly translated from Latin means “life.” In addition to the holy Venerable Vitaly, the martyr Vitaly the Roman is also known, who accepted a painful death for Christ together with his brothers and mother, the holy martyr Felizata, who lived in Rome around the year 164.
Both Vitaly the Roman and the holy Venerable Vitaly of Alexandria, as the patron saints of Vitaly (any person baptized with this name), stand guard and come in difficult times, one has only to turn to them.
The story of Saint Vitaly
Archimandrite Vitaly (in the world Sidorenko) was born on May 5, 1928 into a poor peasant family. From an early age he was close to God, he was considered a man not of this world. He grew up in the Glinsky monastery, became a wanderer and a monk. Persecution and hardship did not break him; on the contrary, they gave his prayers extraordinary strength. During his lifetime, he was a modest and quiet man, known for his high spirituality and ability to heal the mentally ill. He prayed both for his children and for his enemies, begging the Almighty to ease their fate.
