Not much is known about the early life of Vitalis of Gaza, other than he was born in the late 6th Century in Egypt and he lived his life as a monk and a hermit, never leaving the monastery until he was about 60. When he went to Alexandria to proclaim the Gospel, he was shocked at the number of prostitutes. Every day he did hard manual labor, and every night he used the wages at a brothel. Once he paid for the woman and the room, he told the woman she could sleep and he would stay up praying for her. For those women who would listen, he told them about Christianity, then he secretly helped any who were interested to leave their profession. He was murdered by a brothel-keeper who saw him as bad for business.
CHALLENGE
St. Vitalis was scorned by Christians who saw him with a different prostitute every night. What St. Vitalis saw was that each of these women was a child of God whose soul needed saving. At his funeral, scores of women he secretly helped came forward to testify of his virtue and faith. Today, prayerfully consider who you judge by appearances. Then pray about whose souls you could save if you didn’t care about what people thought—or said—about you and the company you keep.
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