Barlaam of Valaam

Holy Venerable Martyr Barlaam of Valaam, the other of that name, is commemorated in the same synodikon of the monks killed by the Swedes in 1578. The calendar gives the two Barlaams under the same title, and in the synodikon both appear among the monks. The story of the martyrdom is that of the whole community: on 20 February 1578 a band of Swedish soldiers, recently turned Lutheran, crossed the ice from the mainland onto the island and attacked the monastery, killing eighteen elders and sixteen novices for the Orthodox faith.

The synodikon, later kept at the Vasilievsky Monastery, records them with the note that they were "killed by the Germans at Valaam, elders and servants". In time their memory was also kept through the vision of a monk of the nineteenth century: monks in two rows, with radiant faces and bloodstained garments, who sang the burial service and vanished into the thicket. With the blessing of Hegumen Damascene, on 20 February (4 March in the new style), a Liturgy and memorial service were celebrated for them.

They were numbered among the saints by the Jubilee Council in August 2000. They are 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.