Saint Sergius of Valaam () was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

monk and

wonderworker Thaumaturgy is the purported capability of a magician to work magic or other paranormal events or a saint to perform miracles. It is sometimes translated into English as wonderworking. A practitioner of thaumaturgy is a "thaumaturge", "thauma ...

credited with bringing

Orthodox Christianity Orthodoxy (from Ancient Greek, Greek: ) is adherence to correct or accepted creeds, especially in religion. Orthodoxy within Christianity refers to acceptance of the doctrines defined by various creeds and ecumenical councils in Late antiquity, A ...

to Karelian and

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

people. Conflicting church traditions place him possibly as early as the 10th century or as late as the 14th. His feast day is celebrated on

June 28 Events Pre-1600 * 1098 – Fighters of the First Crusade defeat Kerbogha of Mosul at the battle of Antioch. * 1360 – Muhammed VI becomes the tenth Nasrid king of Granada after killing his brother-in-law Ismail II. * 1461 – ...

. Church legends about St. Sergius of Valaam were not committed to writing until the 18th century. In these writings, Sergius is described as an Athonite monk sent by the

Byzantine Emperor This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as le ...

to enlighten the heathen tribes of Karelia with the light of the Christian faith. He traveled along the

trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks The trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks was a medieval trade route that connected Scandinavia, Kievan Rus' and the Eastern Roman Empire. The route allowed merchants along its length to establish a direct prosperous trade with the Empir ...

, passing the Rus' towns of

Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( rus, links=no, Великий Новгород, t=Great Newtown, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət), also known as just Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the ol ...

and

Staraya Ladoga Staraya Ladoga (russian: Ста́рая Ла́дога, p=ˈstarəjə ˈladəɡə, lit=Old Ladoga), known as Ladoga until 1704, is a rural locality (a '' selo'') in Volkhovsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the Volkhov River near ...

. He arrived on the northern shores of

Lake Ladoga Lake Ladoga (; rus, Ла́дожское о́зеро, r=Ladozhskoye ozero, p=ˈladəʂskəjə ˈozʲɪrə or rus, Ла́дога, r=Ladoga, p=ˈladəɡə, fi, Laatokka arlier in Finnish ''Nevajärvi'' ; vep, Ladog, Ladoganjärv) is a fresh ...

, and soon moved to

Valaam Valaam ( Russian: Валаам or Валаамский архипелаг, also known by the Finnish name Valamo) is an archipelago in the northern portion of Lake Ladoga, lying within the Republic of Karelia, Russian Federation. The total area ...

island, where he would spend the rest of his life preaching. A tradition placing his arrival on Valaam as early as 992 would make him a contemporary of Emperor

Basil II Basil II Porphyrogenitus ( gr, Βασίλειος Πορφυρογέννητος ;) and, most often, the Purple-born ( gr, ὁ πορφυρογέννητος, translit=ho porphyrogennetos).. 958 – 15 December 1025), nicknamed the Bulgar S ...

. Another pious legend describes Sergius as a disciple of

Apostle Andrew Andrew the Apostle ( grc-koi, Ἀνδρέᾱς, Andréās ; la, Andrēās ; , syc, ܐܰܢܕ݁ܪܶܐܘܳܣ, ʾAnd’reʾwās), also called Saint Andrew, was an apostle of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is the brother of Simon Peter ...

who reportedly visited

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

in the 1st century AD. However, the earliest record of this saint's activity claims that he arrived in Valaam in 1329. His work was carried on by, among others,

Herman of Valaam Herman of Valaam (russian: Герман Валаамский) is a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church. Herman of Valaam together with Sergius of Valaam are considered to be the founders of the Valaam Monastery. The exact time of the monastery est ...

, who may or may not have a contemporary of Sergius. Saints Sergius and Herman are considered the founders of the

Valaam Monastery The Valaam Monastery (russian: Валаамский монастырь; Finnish version: ''Valamo Monastery'') is a stauropegic Orthodox monastery in Russian Karelia, located on Valaam, the largest island in Lake Ladoga, the largest lake in Euro ...

. Yet another church tradition dates his death to 1353, but there are no medieval documents to validate this claim either. The

archaeological record The archaeological record is the body of physical (not written) evidence about the past. It is one of the core concepts in archaeology, the academic discipline concerned with documenting and interpreting the archaeological record. Archaeological th ...

places the arrival of Christianity in Finland at the 10th or 11th centuries. The date of the monastery's foundation is not clear, as all records of its early history have been destroyed, most of them in the

Russo-Swedish Wars Wars between Russia and Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> ...

. According to an 18th-century church chronicle, the

relic In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...

s of Sergius and Herman were moved to safety in

in 1162 (or 1163), possibly before a major Swedish offensive against

,. In Swedish. Hosted by th
National Archive of Finland
See and ''Diplomatarium Fennicum'' from the menu. roughly a decade after the legendary

First Swedish Crusade The First Swedish Crusade was a mythical military expedition in the 1150s to Southwestern Finland by Swedish King Eric IX and English Bishop Henry of Uppsala. Earliest written sources of the crusade are from the late 13th century. The main sou ...

, to be returned in 1182 (or 1180). The date of the translation, September 11, continues to be commemorated by the

Orthodox Church of Finland The Orthodox Church of Finland ( fi, Suomen ortodoksinen kirkko, lit=Finnish Orthodox Church; sv, Ortodoxa kyrkan i Finland, lit=Orthodox Church in Finland; ) is an autonomous Eastern Orthodox archdiocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Const ...

Notes

References

Valaam Monastery: Cloister history

Saints Sergius and Herman of Valaam / Ortodoksi.net

Sergei ja Herman Valamolainen / Ortodoksi.net / in Finnish
(icon) {{authority control 14th-century Christian saints Burials at Valaam Monastery Christian missionaries in Finland Eastern Orthodox missionaries Greek Christian monks Greek Christian missionaries Saints of medieval Greece Russian Orthodox monks Miracle workers Year of birth unknown 14th-century Byzantine monks Greek expatriates in Russia Greek expatriates in Finland