Anthony of Valaam

Holy Venerable Martyr Anthony of Valaam was a novice at Valaam Monastery and died a martyr on 20 February 1578, together with thirty-⁠three other brothers.

Valaam Monastery, near the border of Novgorod with Sweden, was devastated by the Swedes several times. After the Reformation in Sweden, a band of soldiers newly converted to Lutheranism crossed the ice from the mainland to the island in the time of King John III and attacked the monastery. On 20 February 1578 eighteen elders and sixteen novices were killed for their steadfastness in the Orthodox faith. Their names, entered with the note "killed by the Germans on Valaam, elders and servants", were preserved in the synodikon of the Vasilyevsky monastery; among the novices appears Anthony, together with Luke, Leontius, Thomas, Dionysius, Philip, Ignatius, Basil, Pachomius, Theophilus, John and Theodore.

Every year, on the day of their martyrdom, the Divine Liturgy and a memorial service were celebrated for them at Valaam, on 20 February (4 March by the new calendar). They were canonized for veneration throughout the Church at the Jubilee Council of Bishops in August 2000 and are also commemorated in the Synaxis of the Saints of Valaam, on 22 August.