Sergius and Herman of Valaam

Venerable Sergius and Herman of Valaam are regarded, according to tradition, as the founders of Valaam Monastery and enlighteners of Karelia. They are associated with the Christianization of the Karelians and the Finns. The Church commemorates them on 28 June by the old calendar (11 July on the new style). A Ukrainian source also gives 24 September, the day of the translation of the relics from Ladoga to the monastery after its restoration in 1718.

The exact events of their lives remain uncertain, and the sources do not agree: tradition places them either in the tenth century or in the fourteenth. According to church tradition, Sergius and Herman were Greek hieromonks who came in the tenth century to the lands of Novgorod the Great together with the first Orthodox missionaries. According to the Ukrainian source they settled on the island of Valaam in 1329. The brotherhood gathered by them was a light of Orthodoxy in that region. The Karelians began again to look on Christianity with trust, whose authority had been undermined in the thirteenth century by the Swedes, who forced Catholicism by the sword. Venerable Sergius and Herman passed to the Lord about 1353.

The relics of Venerable Sergius and Herman rest to this day under the ground in the Transfiguration cathedral of the Valaam monastery. Witness of their blessed prayerful help are the numerous miracles that have taken place for the faith of those who ask.