For the fast, the feast, and the daily rule
Know what today asks of you.
Today's fasting rule on your lock screen. Morning and evening prayers from the Church's own books. Every feast, on your parish's calendar — old or new. Quiet, correct, and made by people.
Free to start. Vigil+ is $2.99/mo, $19.99/yr, or $39.99 once — yours forever.
Why this exists
Half the year is a fast — and you're keeping it with a fridge magnet.
Counting Wednesdays, Fridays, and the four great fasts, an Orthodox Christian keeps some form of the fast nearly half the days of the year. And every one of those days starts with the same small question: what kind of day is today?
The apps that answer it haven't been redesigned in a decade, lock the answer behind a monthly subscription, or have started generating their content with AI. Meanwhile parishes are receiving the largest wave of converts in American Orthodox history — people learning the rhythm from zero, with no grandmother to ask.
Vigil is one quiet tool: the day's rule at a glance, the daily prayers from public-domain translations the Church has used for a century, and the feasts of your parish's calendar. Guidelines, not law — your priest's word always comes first.
The daily shape
Three moments. Every day. Kept.
7:04 AM
Before your feet hit the floor
The lock-screen widget has already answered the morning question: fast day or not, and what kind. Breakfast is decided before the phone is unlocked.
12:30 PM
At the lunch table
Someone ordered pizza. One glance confirms the rule; one plain sentence covers the rest. The app never asks you to perform the fast — only to know it.
9:50 PM
Before the icons
The evening prayers open to tonight's rule and hold the page for you — text, or a quiet voice at prayer pace. Seven minutes, unhurried.
What you get
Everything the day asks. Nothing it doesn’t.
The fast, before you unlock
A lock-screen widget answers the morning question — fast day or not, and what kind — before your feet hit the floor. Strict, wine-and-oil, fish-permitted: one glance.
New Calendar or Old — one toggle, and every feast and fast lands on the right day. Feast-eve reminders the night before, the way the Church actually keeps time.
Guidelines, not law — every fasting screen says so, because your priest’s word comes first.
Wednesday, November 18
7:04
Fast day
Nativity Fast · Day 4
No meat or dairy — fish is fine today.
Saint of the day
Plato of Ancyra
Nativity
37 days
Widget preview
Morning and evening prayers
The beginner's rule through the full daily rule, prayer by prayer, with unhurried audio. Texts from the Hapgood Service Book and the Horologion — translations the Church has prayed for over a century.
A life worth reading with your coffee, not a paragraph of trivia. Drawn from traditional sources and reviewed by people before it ships.
Hapgood 1906 · Orloff 1897
In their words
Kept by converts and cradle Orthodox alike.
“I found Orthodoxy on YouTube and walked into a parish knowing nothing. The widget answers the question I was embarrassed to keep texting my sponsor: what kind of fast is today?”
Daniel M.
Catechumen, 8 months
“My yiayia had the calendar in her head. I don't. This is the first app that gets both calendars right and doesn't bury the fast under fifty features.”
Anna K.
Orthodox for 24 years
“The evening prayers finally stuck because the app just... starts them. No feed, no streaks yelling at me. Bought lifetime the same week.”
James T.
Received at Pascha 2025
“Deleted the AI one after it paraphrased a prayer at me. Vigil uses the actual texts and tells you to ask your priest. That's the whole review.”
Silas P.
Convert, 3 years
“Every other app quietly assumes the New Calendar. Vigil asked which one my parish keeps in the first minute. Sold.”
Elena V.
Old Calendar parish
Early-access readers, shared with permission. Vigil does not seek or publish clergy endorsements.
Pricing
Honest prices.
And a way to never pay again.
Today’s fast and the saint of the day are free, forever. Vigil+ unlocks the widgets, the full prayer rules with audio, and the whole calendar — on whichever terms suit you.
Monthly
$2.99
per month · auto-renews
For catechumens testing the water. Cancel any time in your App Store settings.
Download on the App StoreAnnual
MOST CHOSEN$19.99
per year · ≈ $1.67/mo · auto-renews
A third the price of the subscription apps it replaces. The whole year’s fasts and feasts, one quiet line item.
Download on the App StoreForever
PAY ONCE$39.99
once · no renewal, ever
Buy once. Pray always. Costs what the other apps charge for a single year — and it’s yours for good.
Download on the App StoreSubscriptions auto-renew until cancelled in your App Store settings, at least 24 hours before the period ends. The lifetime purchase never renews. Prices in USD; billed via your Apple ID. Terms · Privacy
Buy once. Pray always.
Free to start today. Vigil+ from $2.99 a month — or $39.99 once, yours forever. Either way: no ads, no feed, no chatbot. Just the day, kept.
Download on the App StoreHonest answers
What you might be wondering.
Is Vigil a substitute for my priest or parish?+
No, and it never will be. Fasting practice varies by jurisdiction, parish, and person — Vigil shows the common traditional guideline and says so on every fasting screen. Your priest's guidance always comes first. Think of Vigil as the fridge calendar, made glanceable — not a spiritual director.
Which calendar does it follow — Old or New?+
Both. You choose your parish's calendar during setup (New / Revised Julian, or Old / Julian), and every feast and fast in the app moves accordingly. You can switch any time in Settings. If you're not sure which your parish keeps, that's a great first question for your priest — the app defaults to New Calendar until you change it.
Where do the prayers come from?+
From public-domain translations the English-speaking Orthodox world has prayed for over a century — principally Isabel Hapgood's 1906 Service Book and Nicholas Orloff's 1897 Horologion, with the Psalter from the King James tradition. We modernize only spelling and punctuation, never the translation itself. No prayers are written by us, and none are generated by AI.
Is any of this AI-generated?+
No text in Vigil is AI-written. The prayers are historical public-domain translations reproduced faithfully, and every explainer and saint's life is reviewed by people before it ships. One honest disclosure: the optional audio narration is synthesized speech reading those historical texts aloud — no AI ever writes or paraphrases a word of them.
Is this a subscription?+
Only if you want it to be. Vigil+ is $2.99/month or $19.99/year (both auto-renew until cancelled in your App Store settings, at least 24 hours before renewal), or $39.99 once — a lifetime purchase with no renewal, ever. Today's fast and the saint of the day stay free forever either way.
What does the free version include?+
Today's fasting rule with its explainer, and the saint of the day — free forever, no account required. Vigil+ adds the lock-screen and home-screen widgets, the full morning and evening prayer rules with audio, the complete feast calendar with the Old Calendar toggle, and feast preparation guides.
Which jurisdiction's fasting rules does it show?+
The common traditional guideline (the monastic standard most calendars print), clearly labeled — with the differences it can't settle flagged as questions for your priest. Vigil deliberately doesn't referee between jurisdictions.
Is there an Android version?+
Not yet. Vigil is iPhone-first so the widgets could be done properly. If it earns its keep, Android is the natural next step.