Barlaam of Valaam

Holy Venerable Martyr Barlaam of Valaam is one of the two monks named Barlaam in the synodikon of the monks and servants killed by the Swedes at Valaam in 1578. The monastery, near the border between Novgorod and Sweden, had been plundered several times. In the time of King John III, a band of soldiers only lately turned Lutheran, pursuing Orthodox Karelians, crossed the ice onto the island and attacked the monastery. On 20 February 1578 eighteen elders and sixteen novices were put to death for their steadfastness in the Orthodox faith.

In the synodikon, among those commemorated, are the hieromonk Titus, the schema monk Tikhon, the monks Gelasius, Sergius, Barlaam, Sabbas, Conon and others, a second Barlaam, and fourteen novices. On Valaam there is no stone untouched by the blood of the ascetics. In the nineteenth century a monk saw near the hermitage of Hegumen Nazarius unknown monks walking in two rows out of the thicket, singing the burial service, with radiant faces but spattered with blood and covered with wounds; they vanished into the thicket. With the blessing of Hegumen Damascene, on the day of the martyrdom of the thirty-⁠four, 20 February (4 March in the new style), the Liturgy and a common memorial service were celebrated at Valaam.

They were numbered among the saints by the Jubilee Council of Bishops in August 2000. Saint Barlaam is commemorated on 5 March (a movable date), on 3 June in the Synaxis of the Saints of Karelia, and on 22 August (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Valaam, in the new style.