Editing Valaam Monastery (section)

==History==

It is not clear when the monastery was founded, as the cloister is not mentioned in documents before the 16th century. Dates from the 10th to the 15th centuries having been suggested. According to one tradition, the monastery was founded by a 10th-century Greek monk, [[Sergius of Valaam]], and his Karelian companion, [[Herman of Valaam]]. [[Heikki Kirkinen]] dated the foundation of the monastery to the 12th century.<ref>"Ortodoksinen kirkko Suomessa, ed. by Fr.Ambrosius and Markku Haapio (1979) p. 274–175</ref><ref>"Orthodoxy in Finland; past and present" edited by V.Purmonen (1984) p.38</ref> Contemporary historians consider even this date too early. According to the scholarly consensus, the monastery was founded at some point towards the end of the 14th century.<ref>Virrankoski, Pentti: "Suomen historia I" (2002) p. 87</ref>  John H. Lind and Michael C. Paul date the founding to between 1389 and 1393 based on various sources, including the "Tale of the Valamo Monastery",<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Okhotina |first=Natalia |date=1993-01-01 |others=Includes an English translation of the manuscript by John H. Lind |title=The Tale of the Valamo Monastery |url=https://www.academia.edu/35708312 |journal=Ortodoksia |issue=42 |pages=89–135}}</ref> a sixteenth-century manuscript discovered in 1989, which has the monastery founded during the archiepiscopate of [[Ioann (Archbishop of Novgorod)|Ioann II]] of Novgorod.<ref>John H. Lind, "Sources and Pseudo Sources on the Founding of the Valamo Monastery", Scandinavian Journal of History 11 No. 2 (1986): 115–133; Idem, "Consequences of the Baltic Crusades in Target Areas: The Case of Karelia". In Alan V. Murray, ed. ''Crusade and Conversion on the Baltic Frontier, 1150–1500''. (Aldershot, UK, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2001); Michael C. Paul, "Secular Power and the Archbishops of Novgorod before the Muscovite Conquest", ''Kritika. Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History'' 8, No. 2 (2007: 254–55.)</ref>

The monastery was a northern outpost of the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] against pagans and, later, a western outpost against the [[Catholic Church]] from [[Tavastia (historical province)|Tavastia]], [[Savonia (historical province)|Savonia]] and [[Karelia (historical province of Finland)|Karelia Province]]. The power struggle between [[Russia]]ns and [[Sweden|Swedes]] pushed the border eastwards in the 16th century; in 1578 the monastery was attacked and numerous monks and novices were killed by the [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] Swedes. The monastery was left desolate between 1611 and 1715 after another attack by the Swedes, with buildings being burned to the ground and the Karelian border between Russia and Sweden being drawn through Lake Ladoga. In the 18th century the monastery was magnificently restored, and in 1812 it came under the Russian [[Grand Duchy of Finland]].

[[File:Walamo - Pehr Adolf Kruskopf - Finland framställdt i teckningar - 73.jpg|thumb|Illustration in [[Finland framstäldt i teckningar]] edited by [[Zacharias Topelius]] and published 1845–1852.]]

In 1917, [[Finland]] became independent, and the [[Finnish Orthodox Church]] became autonomous under the [[Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople]]; previously, it had been a part of the [[Russian Orthodox Church]]. Valaam was the most important monastery of the Finnish Orthodox Church. The liturgic language was changed from [[Church Slavonic language|Church Slavonic]] to [[Finnish language|Finnish]] and the liturgic calendar from the [[Julian calendar|Julian]] to the [[Gregorian calendar]]. These changes led to bitter decades-long disputes in the monastic community of Valaam.

[[File:New Valamo monastery main church, summer.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[New Valamo]] monastery in [[Heinävesi]], Finland.]] 
The territory was fought over by the [[Soviet Union]] and [[Finland]] during [[World War II]]. Due to the [[Winter War]], the monastery [[Evacuation of Finnish Karelia|was evacuated]] in 1940, when 150 monks settled in [[Heinävesi]] in [[Finland]]. This community still exists as [[New Valamo]] Monastery in [[Heinävesi]]. Having received evacuees from the [[Konevsky Monastery]] and [[Pechenga Monastery]], it is now the only monastery of the Finnish Orthodox Church, alongside the [[Lintula Holy Trinity Convent]] located just 14&nbsp;km away. From 1941 to 1944, during the [[Continuation War]], an attempt was made to restore the monastery buildings at Old Valaam, but later the island served as a Soviet military base.

Since the original Valaam Monastery was bequeathed back to the Orthodox Church in 1989, it has been enjoying the personal patronage of [[Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow]], who frequented the cloister as a child. The monastery, whose buildings have been meticulously restored, has gained significant legal power over the island in a push to return to a state of spiritual seclusion. After years of fruitless legal proceedings with the monastery, many residents of the island chose to leave, though a few still remain. The present Father Superior of the community is Bishop Pankraty (Zherdev) of Troitsk.