Life of St John the Almsgiver, (continued), Book Ib

Chapter XXIX
There was a time when the region was suffering because the usual flooding of the Nile to irrigate the fields had not happened. Someone who was being harassed because he had no money to settle his debts went to the chief banker to borrow fifty pounds of gold, pledging that he would repay it double. The banker promised that he would make the loan but that he would have to put it off for the moment. Still harassed by the debt collectors, the man went like every one else to the door where no one was turned away, the door of the most compassionate and praiseworthy patriarch. He had hardly begun to outline his needs when the holy man said to him, "I would even give you the clothes I am wearing, if you needed them!"
For along with all his other good points he had this quality of not being able to see anyone weeping in distress without watering him with his own tears. Without any hesitation he satisfied the request for a loan.
That night the banker dreamed that he saw someone standing at the altar to whom many people were offering gifts, and for every gift offered they were getting back a hundred fold from the altar. Now the patriarch was standing just behind the banker. An offering was lying on a bench in front of them both.
"Come now, sir banker," someone said to him," pick up the offering, offer it at the altar, and get back your hundred fold in exchange."
But he hesitated, and the patriarch dashed in front of him, although he had been behind him in the queue, picked it up, offered it at the altar and received, like everyone else, a hundred fold. He woke up, unable to understand the meaning of the dream. But he sent a message to the man who wanted to borrow from him, asking him to come and see him.
"Here is the loan you wanted," he said.
"The lord patriarch came before you to receive your reward," the man replied. "You put me off, sir, so I had to run to him as to a safe port in a storm, so demanding had the debt collectors been."
The banker immediately remembered his dream.
"What you say strikes home," he said. "It was my reward that the patriarch received instead of me. Woe betide the man who has an intention of doing good and puts it off."
He then told the man about his dream, which very soon everyone knew about.

Chapter XXX
As he was on his way once to the shrine of the victorious martyrs Cyrus and John, to give thanks for their glorious memory, a woman grasped him as he was going out of the city gate, and fell at his feet.
"Plead my cause," she cried, " for I am being sued over the provisions of my husband's will. There are some who had a grudge against him, and are forcing me to go to law about it."
"If I put this off," replied that most holy man, "How should I expect God to hear my prayers? Who can promise me that I will still be alive tomorrow? And what sort of excuse could I give about this if go to appear before Christ?"
So he did not leave the place until he had done what needed to be done.

Chapter XXXI
God sent to this memorable man two wise and remarkable counsellors, John and Sophronius, who gave support to his good intentions, which were in any case always entirely rooted in God. They were truly good men, and the patriarch trusted them implicitly as fathers, and gave thanks that they were constantly strong in their active defence of the integrity of the true religion. They relied on the power of the holy Spirit to wage a battle of words against the Severians and other unclean heretics in the region. Like the good shepherds they were, they strove to rescue from the mouths of those wild beasts many a stronghold, many a church and many a monastery, for which reason that most holy man held them in highest honour.

Chapter XXXII
If he heard that someone was treating his slaves badly and beating them inhumanely, he would summon the owner and speak to him quite gently.
"My son," he would say, "it has come to my sinful ears that you have been dealing rather too severely, as if they were your enemies, with those whom you should really think of as your children. Please, give place to your anger. God has not given them to us for us to ill treat them but to serve them. Perhaps not even for that, but so that in being placed under us, we may realise that God stands over us all. Is it a human being, tell me, who gives you the authority to buy someone created in the image and likeness of God? Although you are his master, do you really own his hand, his foot, his hearing, his soul, as if it were your own body? Is he not like you in everything?
"Hear what Paul, that glorious source of light, says: 'As many as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free; they are all one in Christ' (Galatians 3.27-28). If then we are all equal in Christ let us deal with each other as equals. For Christ took the form of a servant, to teach us that we should not lord it over our own servants. For there is one Lord for all of us, and 'he dwells on high and has regard to the lowly' (Psalms 113. 5-6) - not the exalted but the lowly. How much gold did we pay in order to subject to slavery one who has been valued and purchased by the divine blood of the Lord? He is the creator of the heavens, the earth, the stars, the sun, the sea and all that is in it.
"It is a true fact that Christ to whom the Angels minister washed the feet of his servants on behalf of your slave, for whom he was crucified and underwent all his sufferings. You however are not giving honour to him whom God honours, and you have no mercy on him, as if he were not of the same nature as you. Tell me, please, how often do you admit any blame for those acts for which God will surely demand payment? Never. Tell me, how can you pray every day 'Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors' (Matthew 6.12)?"
In these words, and others like them which he brought forth from his inner treasury, he gave them a warning and let them go. If he learned that he had not amended his ways, he took steps to advise the slave to find a way out by asking to be sold. The righteous bishop would then acquire him and straightway give him his liberty.

Chapter XXXIII
After he had heard that someone well known for his almsgiving had died leaving a son destitute and in great poverty, with both his parents dead, the people who had administered the man's will came to see the bishop.
"When the father died, my lord," they said, "he was left without so much as a single numisma. But just before he made his will he called his son to him and said, 'You could have these ten pounds, my son. Is it your wish that I leave them to you, or to our Lady the birthgiver of God and carer and provider of the poor? The boy chose the holy birthgiver of God, and his father proceeded to give all the money to the poor. So you see, most holy father, he lives in absolute destitution, never straying far day or night from the shrine of our Lady."
The holy man was hearing all this from those who certainly ought to know, so without saying anything to anybody he hired a notary and told him the circumstances of the case, and set a time limit within which he should not tell anybody what he was going to ask him to do.
"I want you to go and write on very old paper a document in the name of someone called Theopentus, stating that the boy's father and I are first cousins. When you have done that go to the boy and say to him, 'Did you know, brother, that you are of the same family as the patriarch? You should not be living in poverty like this'. Then show him the document and say to him, 'If you shrink from doing anything about it, I would be willing to put your case to the patriarch and see what he says.'"
Having done everything that the patriarch had asked he came back to see him.
"The boy agreed," he said, "that I should put his case to you, my lord, and showered me with thanks."
"Go and tell him that you have spoken to the patriarch, and say that I said that I knew my cousin had a son, but that I would not recognise him if I saw him. And then be so kind as to bring him to me. And when you bring him, have the document with you."
After they had arrived that righteous man had a private interview with him and embraced him.
"You are very welcome, son of my cousin!" he said.
He provided him with money, found a wife for him in Alexandria, and bought him a house and everything else he needed, full of joy at being able to demonstrate that the Lord does not abandon those who put their trust in him.

Chapter XXXIV
This admirable man had the habit of pointing out this commandment, among others: 'Do not turn your face away from him who would borrow from you' (Deuteronomy 15. 7-8 & Luke 6.30), and he never denied help of this sort to anyone who asked him. Now there was a certain evil-minded fraudster who was aware of this and asked him for a loan of twenty pounds of gold. He was one of those known as Gallodromes. To blacken the name of the holy man and put him into the same category as many others, he went about saying that the patriarch would not give him anything. Whereupon the officers of the church put him in prison and made public just how much money he had been given.
But the bishop was a follower of him who said, 'Be merciful as your father in heaven is merciful (Luke 6.36), who makes his sun to rise upon good and evil, and the rain to fall upon both just and unjust' (Matthew 5.45), and he disagreed with the man's punishment. The church officers gathered around him rather mockingly.
"Do you really think it is fair, my lord, that this waster should have what might be given to the poor?"
"Believe me, my brothers," he replied, "if you have taken any of that money back from him you will have broken two commandments, but you will fulfil one of them when that amount of money has been given to the poor. The first commandment you have broken is that you have complained about the loss and given a bad example to others. The other is that you have not listened to the Lord God saying, 'Do not seek to get back what has been taken from you.' (Luke 6.30). My sons, you should give everyone an example of patience. Does not the Apostle say, 'Why do you not rather put up with insults? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? (1 Corinthians 6.7) Truly, it is good, brothers, to give to whoever asks, and better still and more honourable to give even when you are not asked. 'To him who takes your cloak give your tunic also' (Luke 6.29). This is to imitate the Angels. It is truly divine. The Lord demands that we give help to our neighbour out of what we possess. It is good that we should deal with our brothers according to what we have, not out of what we have gained by lawsuits and arguments and compensation for injuries."

Chapter XXXV
A notable old man, aged about sixty, who had heard tales of this sort about the blessed bishop, decided to see whether he could be persuaded to do something scandalous, and if so whether he would acknowledge blame. He belonged to the monastery of abbot Seridon in Gaza, from where he came to Alexandria and met up with certain disreputable characters. Not that this was displeasing to God who 'rewards everyone according to what is in their hearts', as David says (Psalms 20.4). For he made a list of all the well known prostitutes, then took on a small job which earned him a certain amount each day. At sunset he took some of the money and went to the house of one of the prostitutes and offered it to her,
"Let me stay the night with you," he said. "but no sex."
And he stayed that night with her, making sure that she didn't commit fornication. For he stood in a corner of the cell where she slept, singing psalms and praying for her, and doing prostrations for her from evening time till dawn. When he left he exacted a promise from her that she would tell no one what had been going on. He kept on doing this until one of the prostitutes did reveal that he had visited her not for sex but for her salvation. The old man prayed, and she began to be possessed by a demon, which terrified the other prostitutes into keeping quiet about what he was doing. But people condemned the girl with the demon.   
"Come off it!" they said, "God is punishing you for being a liar. That monk is a wicked man and went to you for the sake of fornication!"
And the holy Vitalius (for that was this monk's name) kept on in his intention to get no praise from men, and to go on saving souls.
"I work during the day," he said, "and at night I am free. It's time now for me to go. A certain lady is waiting for me."
What of his monastic state? People everywhere were condemning him and mocking him.
"Am I not clothed with a body like you?" he asked them. "Is it only monks that God is angry with? They are just human like everyone else."
"Well, why don't you take just one woman, abba," someone said to him, "and take off your monastic clothing, so that God will not be blasphemed because of you, or souls scandalised."
"I am taking no notice of you," he shouted, making himself out to be very annoyed. "Just leave me alone. I am not going to change my ways simply so that you won't be scandalised. I am certainly not going to take a wife and have to manage a house, and spend my days in misery. If you want to be scandalised, be scandalised, and go bang your head against a wall. Why should you be making demands on me? Has God made you judges over me? Go and mind your own business. You don't have to account for me to God. He alone is the judge, and his the holy day of judgment, when he will render to all of us according to what we have done."
Some of the church guardians who had heard tales about him on all sides told the patriarch about him. That holy man, not wanting to discredit abba Vitalius, hardened his heart and would not believe them. He remembered the case of the eunuch. He remonstrated forcefully with those who brought these accusations against Vitalius.
"Don't blacken the name of monks," he said. "Haven't you heard what the Emperor Constantine of holy memory did with certain accusations given him to read? It was during the second Synod of Nicaea, that some who had no fear of God brought disgusting accusations in writing, to their own disgrace, before that blessed Emperor, some of them clerics, some of them monks. Constantine, that saint of God, had both accuser and accused brought before him and listened to them both. When he found that many of the accusations were true, he ordered a candle to be lit and burned all the evil tales that had been put into writing.
"'If I had seen with my own eyes,' he said, 'any priest or anyone wearing the monastic habit committing some sin, I would have enfolded him in my cloak and hidden him so that no one could see.'
"In the case of that servant of God the eunuch, you thought all sorts of evil things about him, and drew my soul into grievous sin."
This silenced them and he dismissed them.
Vitalius the servant of God meanwhile kept on with his programme. But he did pray that after his death God would reveal to someone in a dream that he was not guilty of the things which were scandalising people, for he realised that people said it was scandalous thing for a human being to be doing the things which he was accused of and not receiving any punishment for it. But he did persuade many of the women to feel ashamed of themselves, especially when they saw him lifting up his hands at night and praying for each one of them. Many of them gave up prostitution altogether, some took husbands and lived modestly, some renounced the world entirely, and vowed themselves to celibacy. Right up to the time of his death, no one knew that it was because of his prayers and admonitions that these shameless women gave up their life of prostitution.
One morning at daybreak, when he was leaving the leader of these women, a certain dissolute man was going in for the purpose of having sex, and when he saw the holy Vitalius going out he slapped his face.
"You disgraceful traitor to Christ," he said. "How much longer are you going on with your wickedness?"
"Believe me," he replied, "you will soon be getting such a slap from me, the lowest of the low, that all Alexandria will gather round you as you cry."
It was very soon after this that Saint Vitalius  died peacefully in his cell without anyone knowing. Now his little cell was near the Gate of the Sun quite close to the church of S. Metra. When people began to gather there for worship so near his cell several of those women came too.
"Come on," they said to each other. "Abba Vitalius is celebrating again."
Vitalius was certainly still looking after them as they gathered together, for as he was lying dead in his cell unbeknownst to anyone, as we have said, a demon in the shape of a deformed Ethiopian came and slapped the face of the man who had slapped Vitalius.
"Take that as a present from abba Vitalius," he said. And the man fell down frothing at the mouth.
As Vitalius had prophesied, nearly all Alexandria began to gather at this scene of violence which the demon had instigated, mainly because many people had heard the sound of the slapping as if it had been the flight of an arrow. The injured man came to his senses after an hour or two, and began to tear his garments and shout and run towards Vitalius' cell. 
"I have done you wrong Vitalius, you servant of God!" he cried. "Have mercy on me."
Everyone who heard him came running. Outside the holy man's cell the demon left him, throwing the man down before them as they watched. They all went into the cell and found the holy man in a kneeling position, as if praying as he gave up his soul to God, and on the floor was written: PEOPLE OF ALEXANDRIA, JUDGE NOTHING BEFORE THE TIME, UNTIL THE LORD RETURNS. The man vexed with the demons confessed openly what he had done to the holy man, and everything concerning the holy Vitalius was told to the most blessed patriarch John, who came down with his clergy to where the body of the holy Vitalius lay. When he saw what was written there he rejoiced
"Truly," he said, "humble John by God's help has escaped. For it could easily have happened that it would have been me who was slapped, instead of the man with the demon."
Then all the prostitutes, including those who had given it up, got men to carry Vitalius' body, and walked before it weeping, carrying torches and lamps.
"We have lost our saviour and teacher," they cried.
And they told everyone the whole story of what Vitalius had been doing.
"He has not been visiting us for anything disgraceful," they said. "We never saw him lying down beside us. He never so much as held our hand. You might wonder why we did not tell everyone what was going on, allowing the whole city to be scandalised, but we all knew what had happened to the one among us who was attacked by a demon, so we were too frightened to say anything."
He was buried with great honour, and the man who had been corrected and saved by Vitalius entered the monastery of abba Seridon in Gaza, and took over the cell of abba Vitalius, where he stayed till the day of his death.
The most holy patriarch thanked God profusely for saving him from sinning against his servant Vitalius. Many people derived great profit from these happenings in Alexandria, and became very friendly towards monks. They had been warned not to condemn anyone by going on appearances only.  By the grace of God the honoured name of Saint Vitalius began to perform many cures after his death. By his prayers may the Lord grant us a wholesome life and mercy in the day when the hidden deeds of humankind will be made manifest. and the secrets of all hearts will be revealed.

Chapter XXXVI
A beggar asked for an alms from him one day and he gave him only ten copper nummi, whereupon the beggar complained loudly and violently because he had not been given as much as he hoped. People with the patriarch felt like knocking the beggar down, but the blessed patriarch vehemently forbade them.
"Leave him alone, brothers," he said. "For all of my sixty years I have been doing things very unpleasing to Christ, so can I not put up with a bit of cursing from this fellow?"
And he ordered his steward to open up his purse and let the beggar take out of it as much as he wanted.

Chapter XXXVII
Whenever this most wise man heard of another almsgiver he would feel very happy, and would take him aside and ask him about it.
"Do you give alms easily, or do you have to force yourself to do it?"
Some of them modestly would not answer him, others told him the truth.
"Believe me, my lord," one of these people said to the holy man, "I don't do any good deeds. But I will tell you what I do. Out of the good things which God and your prayers supply me with, this is the course I follow.

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