The founders of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Valaam Monastery, the Venerable Sergius and Herman, according to church tradition, were Greek hierophants who came to the possessions of Veliky Novgorod in the 10th century together with the first Orthodox missionaries. Historical information about the founders of the Valaam Monastery is scarce. Often during the time of enemy invasions (XII, XVII centuries), the monastery was devastated, and monastic service was interrupted here for many decades. During the invasions, church monuments and monastery shrines were destroyed, and the richest monastery library and manuscript repository were repeatedly burned and looted.
The lives of St. Sergius and Herman of Valaam have not reached us either. In the 16th century, many historical documents were already lost, as evidenced by the ancient synodic of the Valaam monastery, which was kept in the Staroladozhsky Vasilyevsky Monastery after the ruin of the monastery in 1611. This synodic is the only historical document written in Valaam, which reflects the true knowledge about the founders of the monastery. In the synod, the list of hegumens mentions the Venerable Sergius and Herman.
Church tradition and ancient chronicle monuments became evidence of the monks' monastic feat. The meaning of the monastic life of Saints Sergius and Herman was to enlighten the pagan Karelian tribes with the light of the Christian faith, to establish Orthodoxy in the North of Russia, and to found a monastic monastery, which became a stronghold of Orthodoxy in the early centuries of Christian enlightenment. The ancient Novgorod chronicles report the discovery of the relics of St. Sergius and Herman and their transfer to Novgorod during the invasion of the Swedes in 1163-64.
It was then that the local glorification of the founders of the Valaam Monastery took place and the beginning of the church veneration of St. Sergius and Herman within the Novgorod diocese was laid. Evidence of their church veneration is their presence in the Cathedral of the Novgorod saints, mentions in the service "To All Russian Saints", compiled in the XVIII century, as well as the pro-painting and iconographic original of the XVIII century.
At the beginning of the 18th century, icons of St. Sergius and St. Herman were known. A reminder of the lost lives of the saints is found in numerous lists of the "Valaam Conversation", a monument of church journalism of the XVI–XVII centuries. The beginning of the "Conversation" is undoubtedly an excerpt from the September Mines, which tells about the transfer of the relics of St. Sergius and Herman (Karelian Wonderworkers) from Novgorod to the monastery of the All-Merciful Savior to calm the military danger, apparently in 1182, which is confirmed by the Novgorod chronicle sources. The original place of the exploits of St. Sergius and Herman is indicated on the Holy Island. So says the legend known under Abbot Ephraim in the second half of the XVIII century. This fact is also confirmed by the Swedish atlas, in which the Holy Island is referred to on the map of the island of Valaam as Vanho Valamo – Old Valaam, and a cross is indicated on this island.
The extremely widespread distribution of the "Valaam Conversation", known in many lists of the XVI, XVII, XVIII centuries, testifies to the high spiritual authority of the founders of the Valaam monastery, since it was their spiritual mouths that expressed the position of the non-possessors in the famous church polemics of the XVI century.
In 1611, the monastery was ravaged by the Swedes, and Swedish colonists lived on the island. In 1685, during the reign of Grand Dukes John Alekseevich and Peter Alekseevich, the Swedes wanted to dig up the relics of the saints and abuse them, but the Lord, through the prayers of the saints, soon sent a great illness and relaxation of the members to them, so they were afraid and built a chapel over their relics.
July 11 – commemoration of St. Sergius and Herman, the Wonderworkers of Valaam. In 1755, Abbot Ephraim built a new wooden cathedral church, which had a chapel of St. Sergius and Herman. The traveler, Captain Yakov Yakovlevich Mordvinov, describes the monastery itself as follows: "The monastery is built on kamennaya mountain, the churches, the bell tower and the fence are wooden. A plan has been taken for the entire monastery, and on the plan it says: The Cathedral Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord, with side chapels: on the south side – the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, on the north — the Holy Apostle John the Theologian, on the top from the south - the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, on the north – the holy righteous Zachariah and Elizabeth, on the bottom from the south — the Venerable Fathers Sergius and Herman, the Wonderworkers of Valaam, where the relics of the Venerable There are crayfish made under the bushel, and their picturesque images are placed on their crayfish."
By June 28, 1789, the new cathedral church of St. Sergius and Herman, the Wonderworkers of Valaam, was consecrated by treasurer Innocent and his brethren, where their relics rest under a bushel. In 1817, the Archimandrite of the Konevsky Monastery, Hilarion, composed a service for the Venerable Sergius and Herman, the Wonderworkers of Valaam, and published it in the Synodal Printing House with an instructive word in their memory.
In 1819, on October 20, the Holy Synod ordered the all–Russian veneration of the Saints of Valaam and determined the days of the church celebration of their memory - June 28/July 11 and September 11/24.
The relics of Saints Sergius and Herman still rest under a bushel in the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Valaam Monastery. The evidence of the grace-filled prayerful help of the venerable ones is the numerous miracles revealed by the faith of those who ask and pray.
The founders of the monastery, the Venerable Sergius and Herman, the Wonderworkers of Valaam, did not leave us their lives, which undoubtedly existed, only brief mentions have been preserved in chronicles and ancient manuscripts. But the Venerable Sergius and Herman never left their brotherhood. For thousands of years, they have continued to witness their invisible presence, protecting the Valaam Monastery with their prayerful intercession.