Sergius of Valaam

Holy Venerable Martyr Sergius of Valaam was a monk of the Valaam Monastery, killed by the Swedes on 20 February 1578 together with thirty-⁠three other brethren.

Valaam, lying near the frontier between Novgorod and Sweden, had been plundered many times by the Swedes. Under King John III, son of Gustav Vasa, under whom Sweden had gone over to the Reformation, a band of newly converted Lutherans, pursuing the Orthodox Karelians, crossed the ice to the island and attacked the monastery. Eighteen elders and sixteen novices were killed for steadfastness in the Orthodox faith. Their names, entered in the memorial book with the note "beaten by Germans on Valaam", include the monk Sergius. Beside him are named the hieromonk Titus, the schemamonk Tikhon and the monks Gelasius, Barlaam, Sabbas, Conon, Silvester, Cyprian, Pimen, John, Samon, Jonah, David, Cornelius, Nifont, Athanasius and Serapion, followed by the novices.

A Valaam monk of the nineteenth century saw a procession of black-⁠robed monks, their clothing spattered with blood and their bodies wounded, who looked radiant and gentle and vanished into the thicket without trampling the grass, singing funeral prayers in the old chant. On the day of their death, each year, the Liturgy for their repose was served at Valaam, followed by a common memorial service. They were numbered among the saints of the Russian Church for veneration throughout it at the Jubilee Council of Bishops in August 2000.

Sergius is commemorated, in the new style, 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.