Monastic Martyrs of Valaam Monastery

In the course of its centuries-old history, Valaam Monastery, located near the border of Great Novgorod with Sweden, was repeatedly ravaged by the Swedes. The latter were attracted both by a desire for profit and by a desire to plant the Latin faith in the surrounding lands.

Under King Gustav Vasa (1523-1560), the Reformation took place in Sweden. During the reign of his son John III, a military detachment of Lutheran converts, who, according to St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov), " still breathed a fanatical predilection for their newborn faith," pursued the Orthodox King, crossed the ice from the mainland to the island and attacked the Monastery. February 20, 1578 " 18 old men and 16 novices were martyred for their steadfastness in the Orthodox Faith." Their names with the note "beaten by the Germans on Valaam elders and servants" were entered into the Synodikon, which later ended up in Vasiliev Monastery: Hieromonk Titus, Schema-monk Tikhon, Monk Gelasios, Monk Sergius, Monk Barlaam, Monk Savva, Monk Konon, Monk Sylvester, Monk Cyprian, Monk Pimen, Monk John, Monk Samon, Monk Jonah, Monk David, Monk Cornelius, Monk Niphon, Monk Athanasios, Monk Serapion, Monk Barlaam, the novices Athanasios, Anthony, Luke, Leóntios, Thomas, Dionysios, Philip, Ignatius, Basil, Pakhomios, Basil, Theophilos, John, Theodore, and John.

According to legend, in the XIX century, one of the Valaam monks near the Hermitage of Igoumen Nazarius was vouchsafed a vision of some unknown black-robed monks: "they marched in two rows from a green grove flooded with sunlight and sang the ancient Znamenny funeral hymns. They walked with their hands folded on their breasts, but their appearance was bright, and their eyes revealed an unspeakable meekness. Only when the procession approached the monk did he see that all the black robes were sprinkled with blood and covered with wounds. Where they passed, the grass was not bent. They disappeared just as they had appeared, into the green thicket, and the quiet echoes of the funeral hymns were in the air for a long time."

With the blessing of Igoumen Damascene, every year on February 20, the day of the martyrdom of the 34 monks, Valaam Monastery served the Divine Liturgy "for their eternal rest," and the cathedral panikhida was also sung.

At the Jubilee Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, held on August 13-16, 2000, the 34 Monastic Martyrs were canonized for Church-wide veneration.