Thomas of Valaam

Holy Venerable Martyr Thomas of Valaam was a novice of the Valaam Monastery and received the crown of martyrdom on 20 February 1578, together with thirty-⁠three other brethren, killed by the Swedes.

The Valaam Monastery, a neighbour of the border between Novgorod and Sweden, was several times destroyed by the Swedes in its long history. In the time of John III, son of King Gustav Vasa, who had brought the Reformation to Sweden, a band of Lutherans recently gone over to the new faith, which, according to Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov, they loved with the passion of fanatics, pursued the Orthodox Karelians and crossed the ice from the mainland to the island. On 20 February 1578 eighteen elders and sixteen novices were killed for their steadfastness in the Orthodox faith. Their names were entered in a synodikon, with the note beaten by the Germans on Valaam, elders and servants, and the synodikon later reached the Vasilievsky Monastery. Among the novices Thomas is named, beside Athanasius, Anthony, Luke, Leontius, Dionysius, Philip, Ignatius, Basil, Pachomius, a second Basil, Theophilus, John, Theodore and a second John. The page says nothing else of Thomas. On Valaam there is no stone that has not been marked with the blood of the ascetics.

A monk of Valaam saw in the nineteenth century, near the hermitage of Abbot Nazarius, unknown monks who came in two rows out of a green grove full of sun and sang funeral prayers in the old chant. They had their hands crossed on their breasts, their faces radiant and their eyes of ineffable gentleness, yet all were spattered with blood and covered with wounds. The grass was not trodden where they passed, and the singing died away in the thicket. Every year, on the day of the martyrdom, 20 February (4 March in the new style), the Liturgy for their repose was served at Valaam, with the blessing of Abbot Damascene, with a common memorial service. They were numbered among the saints for veneration in the whole Russian Church by the Jubilee Council of Bishops in August 2000. The Azbyka page also commemorates Thomas on 3 June.