Sergius and Herman of Valaam

THE FATHERS OF ORTHODOX MONASTICISM

The Life of
STS. SERGIUS AND HERMAN OF VALAAM

Their Lives have been lost, and little is now known of the earthly deeds of the two founders of monasticism in the far North, but the great monastic tradition of Valaam, the Athos of the North, which they planted, has come down to our own day and nourished the first saint of America, Father Herman of Alaska.


STS. SERGIUS AND HERMAN OF VALAAM

Commemorated July 28 and September 11

TROPARION, TONE 1

FLEEING worldly fame, O lovers of silence and piety,+ you did come from the East to the quiet refuge of Valaam,+ and there, following the Gospel of Christ in virtues,+ you ascended to the summit of perfection;+ and now, enjoying the vision of God beyond this world,+ O all-blessed Fathers Sergius and Herman,+ pray to God the Lover of men+ that He may save all us who devoutly revere you.


ACCORDING to ancient tradition, the islands of Valaam in Lake Ladoga in the Novgorod region of northern Russia were evangelized by the Apostle Andrew, who blessed the islands and placed a cross on a cliff of the main island. The Orthodox faith was kept alive there down through the centuries until the arrival of Sts. Sergius and Herman. The two Saints came to Valaam even before the Baptism of Russia, for it is known that already in 960 there was a flourishing monastery there with an abbot. They came from Eastern lands and were of Greek descent. Both were priest-monks and missionaries.

St. Sergius, who apparently came first, evangelized the local peoples and settled at the spot where St. Andrew had left the cross. There he led the strictest monastic life, wearing out his flesh by fasting, vigils, and all-night standings, and founded the monastic community of Valaam. During the day he preached the Gospel of Christ, baptized the local inhabitants, and transcribed sacred books. He spent his last days laboring in asceticism in a cave, and was buried with great honor and ceremony by one of the prominent natives whom he had baptized.

His successor, St. Herman who may have been his direct disciple or even have come together with him was like St. Sergius in strictness of life and apostolic labors, and he strengthened the monastic foundation which his predecessor had laid down. According to a 14th century document all three basic types of monasticism existed very early in Valaam: the solitary life of anchoretism, the small groups of brethren living together in skete-life (there were twelve sketes quite early in the area around Valaam), and coenobitism. Both Saints were granted by God the gift of prophesy, seeing future events as present. Both were buried on the site of St. Andrew's cross.

Soon after the death of the founders, the monastery at Valaam was subjected to the raids of local pagan nomads, and the monks took away the relics of the Saints to preserve them. Several times in the following centuries the relics were opened and brought back and forth to and from Valaam, owing to the uncertain conditions of the time. In the 12th century St. John, Bishop of Novgorod, ordered an icon to be done of both Saints from their uncorrupted relics, and icons of the Saints down to the present day are descended from this original icon. When, at the same time, the holy relics were once more brought back to Valaam, the day to commemorate the translation was established, September 11.

The two Saints worked many miracles soon after their death, and they became known especially as protectors for those at sea and for those possessed by demons.

By the prayers of Sts. Sergius and Herman the life, and more than that, the soul, of a Swedish crusader king, a Catholic and persecuter of the Orthodox Church, was saved. In 1371 the monks of Valaam, after a great storm on Lake Ladoga, saved from drowning a man clinging to a piece of wreckage from his ship. It was the Swedish King Magnus II1 who, returning from an unsuccessful attack on Great Novgorod, had been shipwrecked near the shores of Valaam. His companions had been lost, but he himself, by God's Almighty Providence, had been saved. By the prayers of Sts. Sergius and Herman the waves carried him to Valaam monastery. The elders, seeing in the King's misfortune the special Providence of God, Who called him to His enclosure as once He had the persecuter Saul, joyfully received their crown-bearing guest. Acknowledging the vanity of earthly life, in deep gratitude to God and to His Saints for his rescue, he joyfully listened to the monks relate the truths of the Orthodox faith and Church and, bowing to God's Providence, exchanged the royal purple for the plain garment of a monk, being joined to the Orthodox Church and receiving the holy Schema with the name of Gregory. Three days after his tonsure the royal Schema-monk was called by God to eternal rest.

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1. Magnus II Eriksson, born 1316, King of Sweden and Norway from the age of three, noted for suppressing serfdom and being a patron of the Catholic saint Bridget.


As a testimony of this miracle, the Swedish king's grave has been preserved at Valaam down to the present century, and another striking miracle of the last century testifies to the favor which he found with God.


Valaam Monastery during Father Herman's time. An 18th-century engraving.


On the eve of the feast of Sts. Sergius and Herman in 1839, there came to Valaam two Orthodox Finnish peasants who begged Abbot Damaskin to bless the serving of a panikhida over the grave of the Swedish King Magnus. The Abbot and all present were curious to know the cause of such piety toward this royal monk, and one of the peasants then related how he had been gravely ill since the beginning of spring and had lain in bed until June, hardly able to move. The constant needs of his large family tore at his heart, and he foresaw that if he did not soon get well and begin work, his family would die of hunger when winter came. He therefore prayed with his whole heart that the Lord would heal his infirmity and prevent such a misfortune. And then one night in sleep he saw two monks standing before him, whom he recognized from their icons as Sts. Sergius and Herman. They told him: "Your prayer has been heard, and by the intercession of the God-pleasing Swedish King Magnus, your health is returned. Arise and go to Valaam Monastery; there over the grave of this God-pleasing man give praise to God!" "I awoke," continued the Finn, "healed, and I immediately set out on the road to Valaam; on the way I met this man, my neighbor, and he told me that he had had the same vision and been given the same instruction and that he also had been healed. We agreed to come to Valaam together." The Abbot blessed the panikhida to be served for the repose of the Schemamonk Gregory and all lying in the monastery cemetary, and everyone praised God Who is wondrous in his saints.

A whole book was compiled in the 19th century at Valaam of the more recent miracles and appearances of Sts. Sergius and Herman. One of the most striking miracles occurred to Afanassy Demidov, who was taking his young son Basil to venerate the relics of the Saints. Within sight of Valaam a storm overtook them and their boat was broken to pieces against the ice. They managed to get into a small boat, which in turn was dashed against the shore by a frightful wave. When Afanassy came to himself on the shore he saw that his son was missing! Overcome by despair, he dared to castigate Sts. Sergius and Herman, who, having saved so many others, had given no help to his son. But in a moment he repented of his words with tears, begging pardon for his senselessness, and at this moment a great wave washed his son ashore at his feet! But alas! the son was dead, and all the father's efforts could not bring him back to life, and he could only call with tears upon the Saints to return to him his only son and Basil opened his eyes. After a few minutes' – rest, the boy related how he had already sunk to the bottom of the lake when he saw two monks who took him by the hands and brought him ashore. Soon Afanassy came to Valaam and, giving praise to the Lord and His Saints, related to the Abbot and brethren his son's miraculous rescue.

BUT the greatest significance of Sts. Sergius and Herman lies in the monastery which they founded at Valaam, which was to become known as the Athos of the North. By the 14th century there was a written Rule that governed monastic life at Valaam down to the 20th century. Valaam became a vital part of the "Northern Thebaid," whither young ascetics came and from whence they went out to spread the Valaam ideal throughout Northern Russia. A few of the many basic Russian Fathers (canonized Saints) who came from Valaam were: St. Abraham of Rostov, who came to Valaam in 960 and later planted monasticism in Rostov (from whence St. Sergius was later to come); St. Arseny of Konevits, who from Valaam went to Mt. Athos and later founded the Konevits Monastery on the Finnish side of Lake Ladoga; Sts. Savaty and Herman, who in the 14th century founded Solovetsky Monastery on the White Sea, the northernmost Lavra of Russia—in our times the greatest Soviet concentration camp, especially for confessors of genuine Orthodoxy, where in the 1920's and '30's over 90 bishops were imprisoned (some two-thirds of Russia's hierarchy!); St. Alexander of Svir, a cave-dweller at Valaam, who in the 15th century founded the Svir Monastery to the northeast of Valaam, which itself produced saints and was crowned by the martyrdom by Communists of its last six monks (led by Abbot Eugene) who, after digging their own graves on the third day of Pascha asked permission to sing "Christ is Risen" before being shot, and upon being forbidden to do so began to sing anyway, dying with the Paschal hymn on their lips.


Aerial view of the Valaam Holy Transfiguration Monastery in 1938. The central square was built by Abbot Nazary at the end of the 18th century.


In 1579 (Feb. 20) the Monastery of Valaam was totally destroyed by militant Scandinavian Lutherans, and all 34 monks and novices were martyred for their faith, their memory being kept by a special day of commemoration at Valaam down to the 20th century.

It was at this time that the written Life of Sts. Sergius and Herman, which was known to have existed before then, disappeared, and it has never been recovered. At the end of the last century a Finnish scholar, Professor O. Forsstroem, stated that it would be possible to recover valuable material on Valaam, including the Life of the founders, through research in the Novgorod Manuscripts located in the Royal Archives of Stockholm, where much material from Russia was deposited; but to this day such research has not been undertaken. Perhaps at last in our day some enterprising and devout Orthodox Scandinavian may see to this!


At the entrance of the strictest Valaam Skete: St. John the Baptist (1938)


Just before the devastation of Valaam in the 16th century, the monks took care to bury the sacred relics of Sts. Sergius and Herman so deep underground that they would never be dug up, and they remain there to this day. When at the end of the 18th century, the foundations were being dug for the main monastery church of the Transfiguration of the Lord, the tomb of the Saints was by accident partially uncovered; but Abbot Nazary, despite the general desire for this, forbade it to be dug out and opened. His wisdom was proved early in the next century, for when Abbot Jonathan attempted to uncover the relics, the brethren who were digging had no sooner reached the stone slab that covered the actual sarcophagus when a flame enveloped the grave and showed the Divine disfavor of the project, which was immediately abandoned.

Early in the 18th century the monastery was revived at the order of Emperor Peter I, and toward the end of the 18th century it entered a new period of flourishing when Metr Gabriel of Petersburg, the publisher of the Slavonic Philokalia, sent Abbot Nazary from Sarov to become the refounder of its spiritual tradition (1785). Abbot Nazary was in the spiritual tradition of Starets Paissy Velichkovsky, and after him Valaam became one of the leading spiritual centers of Russia, in the same tradition as the famous Optina Monastery with its God-filled Startsi, producing a host of great ascetics, uncanonized saints, down to our own day. Father Herman of Alaska was a true disciple of Abbot Nazary, and it was under obedience to him that he went to Alaska to become like to one of the original founders of Valaam, whose name he bore, by planting the seed of Orthodox monasticism and spirituality in the New World. The chapel today on Spruce Island over the grave of Father Herman is dedicated to Sts. Sergius and Herman.

Right up to the Revolution of 1917 Valaam was flourishing, both spiritually and materially, with over 1500 monks and many sketes and hermitages on the islands of Lake Ladoga. After the Revolution it found itself on the Finnish side of the border and thus it was untouched by the Communist yoke,1 although the monks could see their Orthodox brethren being martyred on the Soviet side of the lake.

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1. However, some Valaam monks who were outside the monastery did win a martyr's crown: Hegoumen Anthony, Hegoumen Ilya, Archdeacon John (Krivonosov), Hieromonk Afanassy, and others.


Valaam, however, was to endure another sort of persecution. The Orthodox Church of Finland, rushing to keep in step with the lawless times, adopted the new (Papal) calendar in the 1920's and forced it upon Valaam. Only a minority of the monks accepted it, and the majority was divided: a great number simply left Valaam (some of them being forcibly evicted by the police) and went elsewhere, while others, led by their holy Elders, stayed to become confessors for Orthodoxy within the walls of the monastery, refusing to have any communion in prayer with the renovationists or to receive the sacraments from them.

Valaam, already wounded spiritually, was not destined long to survive this. During the Second World War it was on the front lines of the war between Finland and the USSR; many buildings were destroyed and the monks fled before the advancing Soviet Army. Many Church treasures were saved, and a New Valaam was founded on a farm in Finland. But no new monks came, and now the last monk of Valaam is dying, and in a matter probably of months historical Valaam will be no more, its last treasures to be distributed by the Finnish Church.

As for the old Valaam, now in the USSR, the fate of almost all the hundreds of monasteries of pre-Revolutionary times has been repeated: at first subjected to the satanic mockery and sacrilege of the godless, when chapels were turned into toilets and everything holy blasphemed, the grounds were later used as a prison for juvenile delinquents, then as a sanatorium for war cripples, and now is a rest home. As in the rest of Soviet Russia today there reigns the abomination of desolation – for as long as God shall permit.