Vitalius of Mount Athos

Vitalius, born in 1891 in Botoșani county, was a Romanian monk of Neamț, a hidden hermit in the forests around Caracallou Monastery on Mount Athos, where he fell asleep on 14 September 1945. He is named in the Romanian Paterikon, on the testimony of Romanian Athonite monks, and venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.

He had taken his vows at Neamț Monastery and from youth took up the yoke of monastic struggle, surpassing many in fasting, secret prayer, tears and vigil. Yearning for an even higher life, he went in 1938 to the Holy Mountain, where he made himself a small dugout and lived alone as a hermit in the forests around Caracallou Monastery, founded by Peter Rareș. No one knew where he lived, how he prayed and what measure he had reached; sometimes no one saw him for months. Only in summer he worked at Caracallou, from where he received a little food, then withdrew again.

The Athonite fathers who knew him say he was always serene and radiant of face, kept silence perfectly, never spoke about anyone, thought himself the greatest sinner on earth and was a great practitioner of the Jesus Prayer. Sometimes, overcome with tears and the joy of the Spirit, he spoke words of thanks to Jesus for having called him to monastic life and brought him into His Mother's garden, so that he could pray in stillness for the whole world.

Knowing in advance the hour of his end, he told the fathers that in three days, at the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, he was going to God. He confessed, received the Holy Mysteries and on 14 September 1945 he rested in peace. The fathers buried him in the cemetery of Caracallou Monastery.