Valaam

[Olga]

Valaam Monastery

VIDEO VALAAM

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afVbmvInilM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afVbmvInilM</a>

[Olga]

THE SKETE OF ST.JOHN THE PRECURSOR

    The Predtechensky island with the area of about three square kilometres is at four kilometres from the monastery. Its previous name was Monashesky, probably in honour of an old skete. In early XIX century there lived fishermen.

    n 1855, the chapel of St. John the Precursor was built at the highest point of the island. Soon, hegumen Damaskin brought here the woden church of Transfiguration built by Valaam monks in the Vasiljevsky Staroladozhsky monastery in early XVII century after their own cloister had been destroyed. In 1858, the church was completely restored on the stone foundation according to the design of A.M. Gornostajev. Single-domed church with a high belfry was built in the Russian style and consecrated by St. Petersburg Metropolitan Grigory It was decorated by ancient icons and a bell of Boris Godunov's time. In 1860, father Damaskin consecrated the winter church in the basement, cut in the rock, the church of Three Saints: Vasily the Great, Grigory the Divine, and Ioann Chryzostom. The icons were painted By V. Poshehonov. By the altar, there is a well decorated by grey granite, it was dug in the place pointed by father Damaskin.

    In the ravaged skete nothing remained the way it used to be. Only nature and the cross by the precipice. Now monastic life in accordance with the old rule is being gradually restored in the skete.

[Olga]

THE RESURRECTION SKETE

    The skete is located where the disciple St. Andrew, according to the legend, erected a stone cross. Later there stood a chapel of St. Andrew, renovated in 1846. In early XIX century, in a cave with snakes there lived hieromonk Nikon (1745(6)-1822), in whose name two bays were called: the Large and the Small Nikonovsky bays. In autumn, monastery fishermen lived here in wooden house. In 1896, a famous philantropist I.M. Sibiryakov suggested hegumen Gavriil to build a skete there, and donated 10,000 roubles. The two-storey church was designed by the architect V. I. Barankeev (1850-1902). In 1901 the foundation was laid in a pit cut in the diabase rock by means of explosions and sledge-hammers. The church was erected in a year, and in 1905 the interior finishing was completed. On July 30, 1906, the main Resurrection altar was consecrated by the archbishop of Finland and Vyborg, later Patriarch, Sergy (Stragorodsky).

    The church standing upon the foundation of grey granite is made of Valaam bricks. Its architecture combines the features of classicism, barocco, and Russian style (the 50-step staircase with granite columns). Its eight bells, donated by Moscow philanthropists, could be heard for many miles. The interior of the upper church, full of light, where services were held in summer, reminded of Christ's resurrection, Easter canticles were continuously sang there. The lower church of St. Andrew was consecrated by hegumen Pafnuty, it was designed to resemble the cave of the Lord's Tomb Cathedral in Jerusalem.

    After the outer restoration work was finished, the gilded dome of the Resurrection church, as in older days, provided guidance for the ships arriving to Valaam. Nikonovsky bay, with one of the best piers in Ladoga, is now the main harbour of Valaam. There the monastery guides live, and there they meet pilgrims.

[Olga]

THE GETHSEMANE SKETE

    Following the tradition of pilgrimage to the sacred places connected with the life of Our Saviour, Russian Orthodox people also wanted to see some reminders of the Holy Land in their own country. The Gethsemane skete completed the creation of the "Russian Jerusalem" conceived by hegumen Mavriky. Father Mavriky completed the construction of the New-Jerusalem skete on the Sion mountain. Ladoga and a small Nikonovskoje lake are connected by the channel called Kidron. To the left of it one can see the thirty-metre Eleon mountain with a Russian style five-domed chapel on top.

    At the foot of the Eleon mountain stands the Gethsemane skete. In Gethsemane Our Lord prayed before suffering on the cross. Inside the small wooden chapel of the skete, there used to be only the icon of the Prayer about the Cup. In Gethsemane garden Our Lady was buried. That is why the skete church (built in 1911 by adding an altar to the chapel of 1906) was consecrated to worship the Assumption of Virgin Mary. Its patron saint's day was August 17 (30), the day Our Lady was taken to heaven. The church, like the chapel, was built in the style of mid-Russian wooden churches. The belfry and the middle dome have hipped roofs, the church is richly decorated with carving. Behind it, between fir trees, there are two buildings with monastic cells. From eight to ten people used to live there, including the famous "old style" adept, the last great elder Timon (Mikhail).

[Olga]

HE SKETE OF THE KONEVSKAYA ICON OF OUR LADY

    A road laid in 1863-64 through the woods and among the rocks, leads from the western gates of the Bolshoi skete to three picturesque lakes. The largest one is Igumenskoje (Hegumen's). Hegumen Damaskin lived there in 1827-1834 in wooden cell. Now only the largest larch (thirty-two metres high and one meter thick) and the foundation remind of the hermitage.

    n 1870 hegumen Damaskin decided to build a skete in honour of Konevskaya (Acathistus) icon at the site where his hermitage stood once. With that icon, in 1393, St. Arseny was blessed in Athon to establish a monastery of Our Lady in the North of Russia. The icon is distinguished by two pigeon nestlings in the hands of Our Lord signifying purification offering for a male Child. St. Arseny founded the Konevsky monastery, which gave the icon its name. The icon was especially worshipped in St. Petersburg, Novgorod, and Ladoga region. Since 1956 the miraculous icon is in the New Valaam monastery. The copy from the skete is lost.

    The wooden church on the rocky cape between Igumenskoje and Mustajarvi lakes was designed by G.I. Karpov. The modest single-domed church with a belfry is the smallest in Valaam. In mid-1950s all buildings of the skete were pulled down with only foundations left, the church was moved to the main estate and turned into a feed-preparation house for the pigsty. Later, the profaned church was burnt to the ground by fire.

[Olga]

THE SKETE OF SMOLENSK ICON OF OUR LADY

    In the latest Valaam skete there lived only one hermit, hieroschemamonk Ephrem (Khrobosov, in the small schema Georgy; 1871-1947). At the age of twelve he came to Valaam secretly and begged the hegumen to let him stay with the brethren. After twelve years of novitiate he took vows and in four years was ordained. When he served in Moscow, he was invited as a confessor to the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian army, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolajevich. In late June, 1914, the Grand Duke with his family, followed by father Georgy, visited Valaam when archbishop (later Patriarch) Sergy was there, and suggested building a skete on the Skitsky island, where twelve elders would continuously read the Psalter in remembrance of the warriors perished for their Faith, Tsar, and Motherland. The construction work lasted from 1915 to 1917, the church was designed by Grand Duke Peter Nikolajevich in the style of ancient churches of Pskov and Novgorod. The austere church had two helm-like domes. On June 24, 1917, archbishop Sergy consecrated it in honour of the Smolensk icon of Our Lady because the Valaam icon was not worshipped by all Orthodoxy.

    Father Georgy did not forget the idea of the Grand Duke. He settled in the skete and every day, starting at five in the morning, prayed for the heroes perished in the Great War. In 1919 he took vows of great schema. In his modest cell he received pilgrims, and secretly made his spiritual daughter, the Empress's maid of honour Anna Vyrubova, a nun. God made him die far from Valaam, evacuated to Finland. The Valaam icon of Our Lady also came to Finland, and is currently one of the most sacred things in the New Valaam monastery. The Smolenskaya church is in ruins now, but the chapel has been built anew.

[Olga]

THE SKETE OF ALL SAINTS

    The skete of All Saints, or Bolshoi, is the oldest in Valaam. Supposedly in its place, 3.5 km from the monastery, stood the secluded hermitage of St. Alexander of the Svir. To commemorate the place, hegumen Nazary built a stone church and cells. The skete became famous for its hermits: elders Kleopa, Feodor, Leonid. Among their disciples were hieromonk Varlaam, adherent of silence and continuous prayer, hegumen to be, and hieromonk Eufimy, a librarian and the instructor of father Damaskin, in whose lifetime all buildings remaining in the skete were erected. Knowing how harmful for health were natural stone cells, hegumen Damaskin builds the prior's house, a refectory and six monks' houses, walls with the Holy Gates, and a chapel with a fence (designed supposedly by K.I. Brandt, who was to become St. Petersburg eparchial architect). The construction work, accomplished in 1842-1844, was sponsored by F.F. Nabilkov, a merchant from Fridrichsgam (Hamina). In 1846, A.M. Gornostajev designed a five-domed two-storey church with a hipped belfry in the old Russian style with Byzantine and classical elements. The lower church was consecrated in honour of All Saints by father Ignaty (Bryanchaninov).

    The strict rules of the skete did not allow milk in non-lenten days before 1894, women could get there only once a year, on the patron saint's day, All Saints' day. Part of the church plate, including icons painted by V.P. Poshehonov, is in Finland now. Today monastic life in accordance with the old rule is resumed in the skete, on All Saints'day, 1993, hegumen Pankraty offered liturgy in the lower church, the first liturgy after fifty years of "miserable desolation".

[Olga]

THE SKETE OF ST. NICOLAS THE WONDER-WORKER

    Everyone arriving at the Monastery bay sees from afar the church of St. Nicolas, the defender of the sailing and travelling, the Saint whose prayers sanctify the waters.

    The present church was built in 1853 at the place of the old chapel and lighthouse (1809). The construction was sponsored by a merchant from St. Petersburg Nikolai Solodovnikov. Alexander Dumas, having visited Valaam in 1858, wrote that 'the church is a real treasure both in its artistic beauty and its wealth, it is the creation of the best Russian architect'. It was designed by A.M. Gornostajev (1808-1862), one of the founders of the Russian architectural style. Together with K.A. Ton, the designer of the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, he aspired to renew the national architectural tradition, lost after Peter the Great's reforms. He worked at Valaam a lot. The prototypes of the church of St. Nicolas were Moscow churches of XVI century. It is crowned by a dome which is a symbol of a candle, of a prayer addressed to God. The decorations of 1902 have remained, but the icons, including the most sacred one – a large icon of St. Nicolas, are lost.

    The monks of the skete brought soil themselves and planted a fruit garden, maples, ash-trees, and lilacs. They also performed customs services, as the rule strictly forbade bringing tobacco and alcohol to the monastery. By the customs house, there is one of the stone crosses with pictures of Christ's sufferings, most of which were erected by hegumen Damaskin.

    In 1935, when the skete was visited by the writer B.K. Zaitsev, there was only one monk living there, father Mily. Now, there are already several hermits living in the skete.

[Olga]

THE SKETE OF ST.AVRAMY OF ROSTOV AND THE OBORONNYJE ISLANDS

    The skete of St. Avramy was located on the island of Yemeljanov in the southern end of the Valaam archipelago, in the region of Zhelezniaki. The life of St. Avraamy is an evidence of the old age of the monastery. According to the hagiography, St. Avraamy was born in the time of the adoption of Christianity in Russia, into a heathen family, and was bedridden from his childhood by an illness. Having heard from Novgorod merchants about the God hallowed in the Trinity, the young man prayed to him and suddenly recovered. After that he left for Novgorod monasteries and then for Valaam. There was already a populous Trinity cloister headed by hegumen Feognost there. There St. Avraamy was baptized, took vows, and lived in labour and prayer. Later he baptized the people of Rostov the Great.

    The skete of St. Avraamy, like many others, was founded by hegumen Damaskin. The architect G.I. Karpov turned the old wooden chapel into a single-domed church with a high belfry. Father Damaskin consecrated it on October 9, 1873. There were six monks living in the skete.

    After Finland received independence, the first troops arrived at the archipelago. During the war of 1939-1940, coast artillery was located there. On September 19, 1944, after the armistice, the last Finnish troops left Nikonov and Oboronnyje islands. Some of Finnish fortifications still remain, but the skete is totally destroyed.

    Of special interest is one of the Oboronnyje islands, the small island of Divny (Wonderful), "which is so wonderfully conceived by the Creator that looks like an impenetrable fortress floating in the waters".


   

[Olga]

THE SKETE OF ST. ALEXANDER OF THE SVIR

    Austere, almost vertical rocky shores of the Svyatoi (Holy) island rise as high as thirty metres at about one kilometre from the North-Western end of Valaam. In late XVIII century it was called "the Old Valaam". According to a legend, this was the place where the founders of the cloister lived in their cave, and where the ancient Trinity monastery was located.

    In mid-XIX century, on the initiative of hegumen Damaskin and St. Petersburg metropolitan Nikanor, a skete was founded on the island. The granite monument commemorating the visit of the metropolitan still remains. In 1840-1842 a new chapel was built, and in 1855 it was reconstructed into the church of St. Alexander, supposedly designed by A.M. Gornostajev. It is a log building plated with figured boards, with a belfry and one dome. The iconostasis painted by V. Poshehonov, interior decorations of carved cypress, a part of the Saint's tomb, and ten bells are lost. The hexahedral well and the wooden gallery along the northern shore have remained.

    There used to live eight monks in the skete. In 1930-s, only one monk took care of the buildings and the gardens. The rules of the skete were very strict, monks were not to eat milk products. The service in the church was held on holidays, on working days the Psalter was continuously read there.

http://valaam.karelia.ru/index_e.htm