The Church remembers the Venerable Martyrs of Valaam

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During its centuries-old history, the Valaam Monastery, located near the border of Veliky Novgorod's possessions with Sweden, was repeatedly ruined by the Swedes. Under King Gustav Vasa (1523-1560), the Reformation was carried out in Sweden. During the reign of his son John III, a military detachment of Lutheran converts — who, according to St. Ignatius (Bryanchaninov), "were still burning with fanatical passion for their newly born faith" — pursuing Orthodox Koreans, crossed the ice from the mainland to the island and attacked the monastery.
On February 20, 1578, 18 blessed elders and 16 novices were martyred for their firmness in the Orthodox faith. Their names marked "beaten by the Germans on Valaam elders and servants" were entered into the synod, which later turned out to be in the Vasilievsky Monastery: hierarch Titus, schemonach Tikhon, Monk Gelasius, Monk Serius, Monk Varlaam, Monk Savva, Monk Konon, Monk Sylvester, Monk Cyprian, Monk Pimen, Monk John, Monk Samon, monk Jonah, Monk David, Monk Cornelius, Monk Niphon, Monk Athanasius, Monk Serapion, Monk Barlaam, novices Athanasius, Anthony, Luke, Leontius, Thomas, Dionysius, Philip, Ignatius, Basil, Pachomius, Basil, Theophilus, John, Theodore, John. The Swedish attacks continued. There is no stone on Balaam that has not been imprinted with ascetic blood.
In the XIX century, one of the Valaam monks near the desert of Abbot Nazarius was granted a vision of unknown Chernorizians: "they marched in two rows from a sunny green grove and sang funeral prayers in an ancient banner chant. They walked with folded arms on their chests, in the same way they were radiant and had eyes of unspeakable meekness. It was only when the procession approached the monk that he saw that all the Chernorizians were splattered with blood and covered with wounds. Where they had passed, the grass was not wrinkled. They disappeared just as they appeared, in a green thicket, and the quiet echoes of the funeral chant floated in the air for a long time."
With the blessing of Hegumen Damascene, on the day of the martyrdom of 34 monks, on February 20 (March 4, A.D.), the Divine Liturgy "for their eternal rest" was celebrated annually in the Valaam monastery, with which the cathedral requiem was sung.
They were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church for church-wide veneration at the Jubilee Bishops' Council in August 2000.

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