St. Sergius and Herman of Valaam Images for Necklace

The founders of the Savior-Transfiguration Valaam Monastery, St. Sergius and Herman, according to the church tradition, were Greek priests who came to the possession of Veliky Novgorod together with the first Orthodox missionaries in the tenth century. Historical information about the founders of the Valaam Monastery is scanty. The ecclesiastical legacy of the Reverend became the evidence of the monastic exploit of the Reverend and ancient chronicles.

Not once in times of enemy invasions (XII, XVII centuries) the monastery experienced devastation, for many decades the monastic ministry was interrupted here. At the time of the invasions, church monuments, monastic shrines were destroyed, the richest monastery libraries and the repository of manuscripts were burned and plundered many times. The life of St. Sergius and Herman of Valaam was lost.

The meaning of the monastic life of St. Sergius and Herman consisted in enlightening the light of the Christian faith of the pagan Karelian tribes, in affirming Orthodoxy in the North of Russia, at the base of the monastic monastery, which became the stronghold of Orthodoxy in the early centuries of Christian enlightenment. This is evidenced by the ancient lives of the Monk Abraham of Rostov, which tells of his stay in Valaam, about the existence of an Orthodox monastery in the 10th century.

Ancient Novgorod chronicles report the discovery of the relics of St. Sergius and Herman and their transfer to Novgorod during the invasion of the Swedes in 1163-1164. Perhaps, it was then that the local glorification of the founders of the Valaam Monastery took place, and the reverend Sergius and Herman began the church reverence. The reminder of the lost life of the Reverend is found in numerous lists of the "Valaam Conversation" - a monument of church journalism of the XVI-XVII centuries. The beginning of the "Conversations" is undoubtedly an excerpt from the September Mines, which tells of the transfer of the relics of the Reverend Sergius and Herman ("Karelian Miracle-Workers") from Novgorod to the monastery of the "All-Merciful Savior" for "mitigating the military danger", apparently in 1182 , which is confirmed by the Novgorod chronicles sources. Extremely wide distribution of the "Valaam conversation", known in a variety of lists of the XVI - XVIII centuries, testifies to the high spiritual authority of the founders of the Valaam monastery, since it is their spiritual lips that set forth the position of "non-possessors" in the famous polemics of the 16th century.
In 1819 the Holy Synod prescribed the all-Russian veneration of Valaam saints and defined the days of the church celebration of their memory on June 28 (July 11) and September 11 (September 24).

The relics of St. Sergius and Herman rest and are now under a slumber in the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Valaam Monastery. Evidence of the graceful prayerful help of the Venerable are the numerous miracles revealed by the faith of supplicants and prayers.