In 1934, he was called upon to fulfill his military obligations, which he did by joining the 9th Cavalry Regiment, but the young Oustinow had no wish to remain in the world - his only desire was to withdraw to a [[monastery]].

In 1939, trudnik Rostislav was tonsured [[tonsure]]d to the rassophore with the name Vitaly, and a year later, he was tonsured to the minor schema.

In 1941, in the city of Bratislava, Fr Vitaly was ordained by [[Metropolitan ]] Seraphim of Berlin and Germany to the rank of hieromonk and assigned to minister to two towns on the Polish border.

World War II forced the monastic brotherhood to flee from the approaching Red Army. Fr Vitaly found himself in Berlin, where, together with [[Archimandrite ]] Nathaniel, he developed a broad mission among the Russian refugees and prisoners of war. The second onslaught of the Reds forced the two young clergymen to move to Hamburg, where another field of activity opened up for them: to save thousands of refugees from forced repatriation to the USSR. A good knowledge of various languages, especially of English, along with tireless energy, allowed Fr Vitaly and Fr Nathaniel to save the lives of many Russians.

Settling in Hamburg, Hegumen Vitaly began to establish church life at the Displaced Persons camp Fischbeck. A barracks [[church ]] was immediately set up there with a daily round of services, psalm-reading courses and even a year-long theological course for 12 youths. At the same time, Hegumen Vitaly gathered together a small monastic group, which began to publish church service books and even a newsletter, Pochaevskije listki .

From 1947 to 1951, Archimandrite Vitaly was the rector of the London [[parish]]; in 1951, on the feast day of SS Peter and Paul, he was consecrated [[bishop ]] and sent to Brazil. Soon the young bishop opened his own print shop and established a small orphanage for boys, where they were taught them the daily cycle of services.