Посещение Валаамского монастыря

The storm on Lake Ladoga is magnificent, when in a clear sky, with the sun shining, a gusty wind moves wet hills across the surface of a deep, wide lake. This vast surface is all dotted with azure-colored hills with snow-white, silver ridges. The lake, disturbed by a storm, appears to be animated. During such a storm in 1846, in early September, I was traveling from the Konevsky Monastery to Valaam on a steamship named after the island on which the last monastery stands 430. The wind was very fresh; White clouds quickly rushed under the sky in separate groups, like flocks of birds making their migration in autumn and spring. Majestic is the storm on the open lake; and near the shores it has its own beauty. There the fierce waves are in an eternal dispute with the winds, they are angry, they talk menacingly among themselves, but here they are in rage against the earth, with a daring plan. “Look how the wave climbs onto the shore,” said the Konevsky elder who accompanied me. Exactly, the wave “climbs” onto the shore. This is a direct expression of her action. And with persistence she climbs not only onto the sloping shore, but also onto a huge granite rock, standing vertically above the abyss, which since the beginning of time has calmly looked at fierce storms, as if at children’s games. A wave rises a fathom, two fathoms, along the rock, and, exhausted, falls to its foot in small splashes, like broken crystal; then he begins again his constantly persistent, constantly unsuccessful attempt. Several years ago I saw a storm on Lake Ladoga in cloudy weather. Then the picture loses a lot of its picturesqueness. The waters are colored grey; the foam is not silvery, cloudy and yellowish; the darkness narrows the frame of the spectacle; there is neither that movement, nor that diversity, in a word, there is no that life. The rays of the sun are needed to complete this serious, full of inspiration picture. And how beautiful the sun itself is when it looks from the clear, inaccessible sky at the storm on earth! Valaam Island is undoubtedly the most picturesque place in old Finland. It is located at the northern tip of Lake Ladoga 431. As you drive up to it, you are greeted by a completely new nature, the likes of which someone who has traveled only in Russia has never seen: wild, gloomy nature, attracting the eye with its very wildness, from which inspired, austere beauties can be seen. You see steep, high, naked rocks, proudly emerging from the abyss: they stand, like giants, on the forefront of guard. You see forested steep slopes sloping friendly towards the lake. Then some hermit came out with a waterpot in his hand to draw water, and, placing the waterpot on the ground, he looked out at the vast lake, listened to the talk of the waves, and fed his soul with spiritual contemplation. You see bays fenced off from everywhere by granite, native walls, in which clear, mirror-like waters calmly slumber, while a terrible storm rages in the lake; here the galliot or soyma is hiding from the wreck, waiting in the calm for a fair wind, and the owner of the ship is already looking with indifferent curiosity at the furious, roaring waves of the lake, which recently wanted to destroy his ship, in which he had invested all his property, his entire destiny and that of his family. You sail through winding straits, where often two opposing walls meet so close that they leave only a narrow passage for one galliot. You lower the lot, measure the depth in this ouzin: the depth here is many fathoms. You enter from the north side into a bay that extends far into the interior of the island; you float along this lip: on the right side there is a dense forest on huge stone ledges emerging vertically and overhanging from the dark waters. This forest and these stones are reflected in a thick shadow in the waters of the bay, which is why the waters here are especially gloomy, and the landscape takes on the most menacing appearance. The lip gradually expands and finally forms an oval of considerable size. You turn your eyes away from this extraordinary picture, instilling involuntary horror in your soul, but a pleasant horror that you don’t want to part with; turn to the opposite side: in front of you is a vast monastery on a high, long granite rock, like a light burden on the shoulders of a giant. The rock was previously covered with whitish moss. The monks cleared away the moss; now the granite is free from the gray hairs that hung on his dark brow; he is majestic and formidable in his renewed youth and nakedness. Linden, maple, and elm trees grew from the cracks of the rock; ivy climbs along the rock, and under the rock there is an orchard, above which the green tops of the trees sway and rustle, as if ready to fall onto the garden, but are held back by roots buried far into the rock. A striking, magnificent picture! How nice it is to see a man’s village, his hand, a piece of land, watered with his sweat, decorated with his labors, among the huge masses of wild, powerful nature! You land at the harbor, go ashore: there is a granite staircase along the steep slope of the mountain; along it you rise to the monastery, standing on the top of the mountain, in a vast area. A steep slope leads to this square from the south; to the west, towards the lip, the area is cut off by a steep cliff. The plan of the monastery buildings consists of two quadrangles, one of which is placed in the other. Having climbed the granite stairs to the square, you walk along the alley to the holy gates, located in the outer quadrangle; Opposite these gates are others, in the inner quadrangle. Enter them: in front of you on the right side is the Cathedral Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord, on the top floor; in the lower one - the Valaam wonderworkers Sergius and Herman, where their relics rest in secret. The cathedral is connected through a gallery with the warm Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God; the gallery houses the sacristy. At the other end, which forms the south-eastern corner, is the Church of St. Nicholas. On the left side, opposite the line on which the churches stand, there are the abbot’s cells and some fraternal ones. The brotherly meal and kitchen are against you; and in the line in which the gate is and where, I assume, you are standing are the cells of the distinguished hieromonks. Above the holy gates of the outer quadrangle is the Church of Peter and Paul. In this line, on the left side, there is a hotel; on the right is the confessor’s cell and the extensive storage room (as the storeroom is called in monasteries) of the monastery. In the opposite line is the monastery hospital with a significant number of cells in which all the elderly and disabled are accommodated. At the hospital there is a church, on the upper floor there is the Holy Trinity, on the lower floor there is the Life-Giving Spring. In the line facing the lip, on one side, there is a continuation of the hotel; on the other is the monastery office. In the Eastern line, on the one hand, there is a continuation of the ruins, on the other, there is the monastery library, which is rich compared to other monasteries, having quite a few manuscripts, almost exclusively consisting of the works of the Holy Fathers who wrote about monastic life. For the history of the Valaam Monastery you will not find abundant materials in this library. It was collected at the end of the last and beginning of the present centuries; ancient manuscripts were destroyed, like everything ancient in the Valaam monastery, by fires and the Swedes. There is no building on the entire island, not even a chapel, that is at least a hundred years old. The foundation and existence of the Valaam Monastery reliably dates back to deep Russian antiquity: some historical facts lead to this conclusion. The Monk Abraham, founder and archimandrite of the Rostov Epiphany Monastery, came as a pagan to the Valaam monastery in 960 after the Nativity of Christ, was baptized there and tonsured into monasticism 432. The Sophia Chronicle says: In the summer of 6671 (1163 after the Nativity of Christ), the relics of our venerable Fathers, Sergius and Herman of Valaam were transferred 433. Another chronicler mentions that in 1192, Abbot Martyrius built a stone church on Valaam Island 434. Local tradition, supported by these and similar meager information that has reached us, recognizes the Monks Sergius and Herman as Greek monks, contemporaries of the Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Duchess Olga. If we take into account the determination with which the ancient monks strove for the deepest solitude, the convenience that Valaam Island provides now, all the more so then, for such solitude, we must agree that the resettlement of Greek monks here does not contain anything strange and unrealizable. In all the historical gaps in which the existence of the Valaam Monastery is manifested from time to time, it is clear that its monks led a very strict life, that there were a hostel and hermits, and all the monks were in charge of the abbot. Here in the fourteenth century the Monk Arseny Konevsky lived for some time, who made a long journey to the Holy Mount Athos and laid the foundation for the Konevsky Monastery. The Monk Alexander of Svirsky came here as a young man in the second half of the fifteenth century: he initially worked in a hostel, then remained silent on the Holy Island, in a cramped cave, it is unknown whether it was natural or carved into the rock. Holy Island - stone mountain; it rises from the lake, ends to the north with a high cliff, and belongs to a group of small islands, with which the main island is surrounded in different places, like a planet with its satellites. In the first half of the fifteenth century, the Monk Savvaty of Solovetsky lived here for some time, who later moved for deep solitude to the White Sea, to the far north, to the deserts of Solovetsky Island, hitherto uninhabited. He was looking for the same thing there and with the same courageous selflessness that the Greeks Sergius and Herman were looking for on the Valaam island, finding their Athos and their Olympus too crowded, although this crowd was made up of the faces of monastics 435. More than once the Valaam Monastery was devastated by the Swedes; more than once his monks fell under the edge of the sword, and the ground, watered with the sweat of prayer, was watered with the blood of the martyr; More than once holy churches and monastic huts burned, set on fire by the hand of the enemy or by carelessness. But the locality of the Valaam monastery, its varied amenities for all types of monastic life, soon renewed the black population there. Balaam was appointed and consecrated to the place of worship, as if by nature itself. An ancient legend, but it seems to have a basis, says that in that distant time, when this country was in the darkness of paganism, idols were worshiped here 436. When you look at these dark, deep waters, at these dark, dense forests, at these proud, mighty rocks, at this whole majestic picture, constantly changing and incessantly picturesque; when you read the deep poetic inspiration in it, compare the meager terrain of the surrounding Finland with the luxurious terrain of Valaam, you will say: “Yes, here the hard-hearted and warlike Scandinavian had to change his abusive, harsh thoughts and feelings to reverence; here the soul had to be filled with everything that elevates the human soul to the highest sensations delivered by religion.” The same legend brings here the holy Apostle Andrew, who, according to Nestor’s legend, came from Kyiv to Novgorod, and returned by sea to southern Europe, where his martyr’s crown awaited him in Achaia. It says that the Apostle reached Lake Ladoga along the Volkhov River, reached Valaam through the lake, converted the priests who lived there to Christianity, and founded the Christian Church. This legend calls Sergius the companion of the Apostle - after his departure, the mentor of these countries in Christianity. What's so tricky? “Their words went forth into all the earth, and their words into the ends of the world” (Ps. 18:5), Scripture testifies to the travels of the Apostles. Their works did not belong to just one people, but to all humanity; Their caring attention, the love of their hearts, were attracted not by education, not by civil order and power - they were attracted by the misfortune of fallen man, whether he was a Scythian or a Barbarian, a Jew or a Greek (Col. 3:11). Why not come to the holy Apostle Andrew to our forefathers, the Slavs, and the neighbors of the Slavs, the Scandinavians? Why not visit a place consecrated for public worship, and plant there the knowledge of God and true worship? Why not admit the thought that God Himself inspired the Apostle with this lofty, holy intention and gave him the strength to fulfill it? The wildness, the little-known nature of the country, the distance, the difficulty of travel cannot be a sufficient, even any strong, reason to reject this legend. A little later than the times of the Apostles, whole armies walked along these paths: why should the Apostle, led by the right hand of God and the zeal of the Apostles, not pass through them? Now the legend is not dark, not dubious, but true, purely historical. Monastic life on Valaam and the Eastern confession of the Christian faith in that country flourished much earlier and stronger than what a traveler could conclude with a superficial visit to the region, with a short glance at it. We need to take a closer look, we need to sacrifice enough time, listen carefully to the stories of both Valaam monks and coastal residents, and from them extract information worthy of being included in the tablet of history, worthy of the attention of modern education, the memory of educated posterity. Monastic life developed so much on the Valaam Island that it spread its shoots across the lake to the opposite shore, on which Serdobol now stands. On the other side there were twelve monasteries founded by Valaam monks, under the control and spiritual leadership of the abbot of Valaam. The inhabitants of the shores professed the Eastern Orthodox faith, borrowing its knowledge from the Valaam monastery; Orthodox churches stood along the shore all the way to Kexholm. The Korels of this shore of Lake Ladoga were Orthodox, just as the Koreles of the opposite shore, the inhabitants of the Olonets province, are now Orthodox. Both have the same language, with the slightest change, which does not interfere with understanding each other, talking with each other; They also had the same faith. But the unfortunate time came - the Finns leaned towards the teachings of Luther. In the places where Orthodox churches stood, where Orthodox services were performed, where the Divine Liturgy united heaven with earth, Lutheran kirks now stand, resounding only with the meager sermon of a cold pastor. He, telling the people in his sermon only superficial, learned information about the Redeemer and His moral teachings, speaks every time, as it were, a gravestone word over the lost true living faith and Church of these people and places. In addition to oral traditions, which unanimously testify to the fact, there is also living evidence of it. These are entire villages of Finns, thousands of Finns who still profess the Orthodox faith. For them, Divine services are celebrated in the Slavic language, according to our church books, by our priests, who deliver only teachings to the people in their native language, Finnish. Was it difficult for the Swedes, with this simple-minded faith, to introduce Lutheranism here? They only had to expel or kill the Russian priests, and force the Lutheran pastor to mask with his preaching a terrible loss, which due to time and the fact that it was not fully understood, was forgotten. I hope that this information will be enjoyable for many! Hardly many people know that Orthodoxy is still alive in the depths of Finland, that it is not newly implanted - it has lived there since ancient times, a remnant of the common ancient Christian religion that replaced paganism. Many of today's coastal Finns retain their love for the Church of their ancestors, who were torn from it by deception and violence. They would like to return to its saving bosom; but no voice calls them, and they are mechanically drawn to Luther’s pickaxe, as if by the ongoing action of violence. When did the unfortunate transformation take place? – The religious fate of the Finnish coast is in union with the fate of the Valaam monastery, from which, apparently, religious life has always flowed, as from the heart, for this entire country, flourished and diminished, depending on how much or little strength the Valaam monastery imparted to it. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Swedish commander Pontus de la Gardie, who caused so much harm to Russia, destroyed the Valaam monastery; he betrayed churches and cells to flames, monks to the edge of the sword; some fled, taking with them the relics of the holy founders of the monastery. The left bank of Finland suffered a similar fate: Orthodox churches were burned; clergy killed or expelled; Lutheranism was widespread among the inhabitants, whose followers still breathed a fanatical passion for their newly born faith, which was preparing to wash itself in the blood of the Thirty Years' War. It is worthy of note that the villages that have preserved the Orthodox faith are not located on the very shore of Lake Ladoga, not on the path of the conquerors, but deeper in Finland, behind the mountains, behind the swamps, behind the natural fences of the country: they hid there, they were saved from the gaze and religion of the Protestants. At this time, many Finns fled to Russia to preserve the faith: you meet their Orthodox descendants in the Novgorod and Tver provinces. When Providence with the weapons of Peter the Great punished the Swedes for the fact that they, having entered Russia as allies, treacherously trampled on the Law of God and the rights of the people, from allies they turned into enemies and conquerors: then the Valaam monastery moved back, together with Korelia, under the shelter of its native Russian state, having been orphaned under a foreign power for about a century. Since 1717, at the call of the victorious emperor, the monks of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery came to the ashes of the former Valaam monastery; a church of God was built there again and cells were erected. During the reign of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, the entire structure, which was wooden, was destroyed by fire. The Empress resumed the monastery at government expense. The structure, as before, was erected wooden. I saw a drawing of this monastery; I liked it. In my opinion, the wooden structure goes to a desert monastery, such as Valaam. Monastic huts console the eye with their humility when they are cut down from wood! They are convenient for monastic activities: they preserve health, which is instilled here by the damp climate, sharp winds, the food itself, exploits, the disposition of the spirit, which refines and wears out the flesh. There would be a large stone cathedral church in the Valaam Monastery, which would combine a warm and cold church on two floors, a stone fence that would protect the inside of the monastery from the winds: but the cells could be wooden, standing at a fair distance from one another, for safety in case of fire, they would surround the church on all sides. This arrangement is wonderful: with the conveniences it provides, it depicts that the inhabitants of such huts, facing the church of God, have the sole purpose of serving God, recognized themselves as strangers on earth, recognized their only need - God, and therefore they set up their tabernacles around His Tabernacle. This is how the building is located in the Glinskaya desert, in Beloberezhskaya, in the Optina monastery, and some others. The restoration of the Valaam Monastery was carried out slowly, with meager success. It remained sparsely populated for a long time. Lovers of solitude were not attracted there for the reason that to restore the monastery, monks were used, unsatisfied with the knowledge of monastic life. Solitude alone is not enough for the moral and spiritual well-being of a monastery, although solitude is one of the main, basic conditions for this well-being. When solitude, spiritual guidance and instruction for the brethren is necessary; without them, all the benefits provided by solitude itself are destroyed. On the contrary, spiritual guidance and edification transfer the benefits of solitude to monasteries located among villages and crowded cities. Thus the monasteries located in and around Constantinople flourished; they produced standard-bearing Fathers, equal in spiritual talents to the Fathers brought up in barren deserts 437 . Metropolitan of St. Petersburg, Gabriel, astutely noticed the main, fundamental need of the Valaam Monastery. To satisfy it, in 1785 he summoned Elder Nazarius, famous for his spiritual knowledge and experience, from the Sarov Desert, and entrusted him with the abbot of the Valaam Monastery. The Metropolitan accepted the holy monastery under special archpastoral protection, and provided it with assistance both through government orders and material resources. The Valaam Monastery quickly began to emerge and expand, filling itself with those who had accepted and those wishing to take monastic vows. Both the hostel and the monastery were established; both desert dwellers and hermits appeared. Hegumen Nazarius himself had a hermit's cell; he retired there, sometimes for whole weeks, to look more closely into himself, to look more closely for the person in himself, then, from his own living experiences and observations, to draw instructions for his subordinates, to guide them to the correction of morals and prosperity indicated in the Gospel. Father Nazarius, tonsured and a student of the Sarov Hermitage, was filled with the impressions of this monastery, and carried them out with servile precision in the Valaam Monastery. The buildings in the Sarov desert are all made of stone, and he began to erect a stone structure in the Valaam Monastery. The inner quadrangle was built by him, the outer one by his successors. The generosity of Emperors Pavel Petrovich and Alexander Pavlovich provided material food for the monastery; it is first-class in degree, and is governed by an abbot, who is elected by the brethren and approved by the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg. In terms of its structure, in monastic terms, the Valaam Monastery is a faithful snapshot of the monasteries of the primal Christian Church. It has monastics of all kinds of the Eastern, Orthodox Church; has a hostel, and a monastery, and hermits, and hermits. The main monastery, which we talked about, houses the dormitory itself. The monks who live in it participate in common divine services, in a common meal, have common, identical clothes, and work in private and general obediences. Let's count the types of obedience. The first obedience is the service of the rector, which is entrusted to him by the entire brotherhood, which is blessed, in which he is confirmed by the diocesan bishop. This is not the leadership of this world. This is a light burden and a heavy one at the same time. These ramen must bear the infirmities of the entire brotherhood. What strength must be in these ramen! What kind of generosity, what kind of self-sacrifice a rector needs to have, what complete oblivion of his “I” is necessary, so that this angular and sharp letter does not hurt, much less kill, any of his neighbors. The second obedience is the obedience of the vicar, who is already elected by the rector from the council of the brethren, and confirmed by the diocesan bishop. The viceroy is the chief assistant to the abbot in all areas of monastic administration. The third obedience is that of the treasurer, who has oversight of the monastic sums; the fourth is the sacristan, who is in charge of the sacristy. The sacristan is followed by the confessors; Apart from them, none of the hieromonks can accept either the brethren or visitors to the monastery for confession. Like the vicar, the treasurer, sacristan and confessors are approved by the diocesan bishop and, together with the vicar, constitute the so-called “council”, or “senior brethren”, invited by the rector to a meeting and to participate in some of the most important matters, submitted to the discretion of the diocesan authorities, who in such cases makes an order to the rector with the senior brethren. Further obediences: a series of priestly services performed by all hieromonks, except the viceroy and treasurer, and by hierodeacons. Sextons are chosen from among the monastics and novices of the purest and most humble lives. Those capable of church reading and singing are appointed for choir obedience. Some hieromonks and hierodeacons participate in choir obedience in their free time from priestly service. For other obediences, monks and novices are appointed. Let us also mention these obediences in order to acquaint the reader, if possible, with the organization of the monastery. Some of the brothers are engaged in sewing the church sacristy and clothing for the entire brotherhood; others sew shoes; others are in the kitchen, bread, prosphora and meals; some are engaged in carpentry, blacksmithing and plumbing work, others fish; still others work in gardens, orchards, and fields; some wash laundry; in a word, the Valaam hostel satisfies most of its requirements. Each such individual activity is called “obedience.” Judging by the need, some obedience is corrected by one brother, while others are corrected by many. So at the library, at the pharmacy, at the cellar, there is one, already tested brother. In the kitchen, in the laundry room, in the laundry room, and in other similar areas, there are several brothers, of which the main one is usually called the “master” in the Valaam hostel, and the others are his “helpers.” There are obediences called “general”, such as: preparing firewood, harvesting hay, threshing bread, planting, watering and harvesting garden vegetables. For these general obediences, brethren are used who are incapable of private obediences, for which, as is clearly seen from what has been said, more or less knowledge of the task entrusted is required. When someone wishing to enter the monastery is accepted, he is first sent to general obedience, where his character, skills and behavior are more easily examined; If he subsequently turns out to be capable of some kind of private obedience, he is assigned to the number of assistants and, after many years and trials, a separate part corresponding to his knowledge or craft is entrusted. All the brethren, especially the “novices” (those who have recently entered the monastery are called novices), are in frequent contact with their confessors; It is on this relationship that the moral well-being of the younger brotherhood is based and maintained; in those who have succeeded, it is further supported by attentive reading of the Father’s writings and diligent attendance at Divine services. The librarian issues, by order of the abbot, books that correspond to everyone’s mental state. Brothers who are in obedience are present on all holidays at all church services; on the other days of the week they come to Matins and, having listened to it until the Six Psalms, go to their labors, and after the evening meal they participate in the general evening rule. The divine service is conducted according to church rules - it consists of matins or all-night vigil before the holiday, two liturgies - early and late, vespers and the rule, which is performed after dinner and consists of reading prayers for the future, a memorial service, and several bows. The chant used is “znamenny” or the so-called “pillar” - old Russian. The tones of this tune are majestic, drawn-out, mournful; They depict the groans of a soul repenting, sighing in the country of its exile for a blessed, desired land of eternal joy, pure, holy pleasure. So! these very tones, and not others, should be heard in this monastery, whose very buildings have the image of a prison, intended for sobs, for crying about one’s captivity, for deep thoughts, for thinking about eternity. These tones are in harmony with wild, austere nature, with huge masses of granite, with dark forests, with deep waters. These tones either drag on mournfully, sadly, like a desert wind, then gradually disappear, like an echo among rocks and gorges, or thunder suddenly. They then, with quiet sorrow, bring a complaint about sinfulness, express languishing and consuming grief due to the sinful burden, then, as if from the unbearable weight of this burden, from the blows of sin, they begin to cry out and call for the help of heaven: then they thunder! The majestic “Lord, have mercy” is like a desert wind: it is so mournful, touching, drawn-out! The fallen man felt, with the help of solitude and self-contemplation, his fall, saw it in himself, became convinced of it, and indulged in incessant groaning in the hope of pardon. The song “We sing to you” ends with a drawn-out, shimmering sound that gradually fades away, disappearing imperceptibly under the arches of the church, just as an echo is lost in the airy space. When the brethren sing at Vespers, “Lord, I have called to You, hear me,” then the sounds at first seem to come from a deep abyss, then with speed and thunder they burst out of it, rush to the sky, carry there a thought and desire, fiery as lightning: then they thunder! The artist will find in Valaam’s singing many rough spots and shortcomings in performance, but he also recognizes in it the complete predominance of reverence and piety, an extraordinary energy that both touches and shakes the soul. Everything here should be important, grandiose. Everything fun, light, playful would seem strange, ugly. Do not be afraid of this legend, a true story. Don’t think that only misfortune can live here. No! And here there is a consolation: the consolation of those who cry, announced in the Gospel. There are seven separate churches in the Valaam monastery. Of these, the cathedral stands out from all others in its beauty and interior decoration; in the iconostasis, its lower tier of icons is covered with silver vestments. The multiplication of the number of churches, which is why there is not a single one, not excluding the cathedral, that could accommodate everyone living in the Valaam monastery, the colorful painting of the cathedral church and meals serve as examples of the original, unrefined by education, taste of the Russian person, a resident of Europe and a neighbor of Asia. Instead of such a number of churches, it would be much better if one vast building contained warm and cold churches, as is the case in the Konevsky Monastery. There could also be a church at the hospital. In this way, the currently unsatisfied essential requirement of the monastery would be fully satisfied, namely that all the brethren and visitors could be seated in the church and take part in the Divine service. This is not how the builders of the monastery reasoned. Their zeal required separate churches of St. Nicholas, the Apostles Peter and Paul, and the Life-Giving Source. And these churches stand without divine services, which are held in each only once a year, on the feast of the church. But even on the church holiday of a separate Church of the Holy Trinity, the service of God cannot be celebrated in it due to extreme cramped conditions; she is being treated in the cathedral. At the end of the Liturgy, everyone immediately goes to the meal, where the food is simple, but healthy, satisfactory, according to the instructions of the church charter, that is, on holidays, fish, on ordinary days with butter, and on Wednesdays and Fridays, on weekdays during Lent, without fish and without butter, from only plants. During the meal, there is deep silence and the sonorous voice of the reader announces to the assembled brotherhood the selflessness, virtues, and exploits of the holy saints of God. Dinner occurs after Vespers: during it, soul-edifying reading is also performed. On the days of great holidays, an hour before Vespers, common tea is served with the meal, which the Valaam old men called “consolation.” It is touching to see how the decrepit old people, barely able to walk, who came to infancy, rush to this consolation, with wooden cups in their hands; their cold blood yearns to be revived by boiling water. There is a lot of simplicity and patriarchy in the customs of the Valaam Monastery. Pleasantly and touchingly, these customs recall our native antiquity, Russian antiquity, in which the observer often encounters the simple-minded and the sacred united. The sacristy of the monastery is decorated with generous contributions from the sovereign Emperor Alexander Pavlovich, who had a special affection for the Valaam monastery, which in 1819 he deigned to make happy with his visit. In 1844, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich visited her, and in memory of his visit, he granted her rich vessels. In the middle of the site formed by the inner quadrangle of the monastery buildings, where some special, quiet, reverent feeling lives, the monks erected a marble monument with an inscription. The inscription announces to contemporaries and preserves for posterity the events: the visit of the monastery by Emperor Alexander Pavlovich and Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich. The inscription in the cathedral church indicates the place where Alexander the Blessed stood during the Divine Service, not burdened by the duration of the monastic Divine Service. The inscription in the hotel indicates the chambers in which the Emperor stayed. A marble quadrangular stone with an inscription, surrounded by flowers, stands in the garden on the spot from which Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich took views of the monastery. Exactly the same stone was placed on the other side of the bay, in the forest, under a dense canopy of spruce and pine trees, on the spot where the Grand Duke finished his drawing begun in the garden, from where the view of the monastery is especially majestic and picturesque. By placing these stones and carving these inscriptions on the stones, the Valaam monks expressed the feeling of their hearts, that feeling of love and devotion to the kings and the royal house, which has distinguished our clergy throughout all centuries of Russian history. The clothing of the Valaam monks, like their food, is simple but satisfactory. It and the materials for it are stored in a ruin. Rukholny - a series of rooms in which cloth, napkins, linens, threads, leather, sewn linen, ready-made cassocks, cassocks, mantles, fur coats are stored, and all this - in significant quantities. Rukholny has a book in which he records what was given to which of the brothers. Worn out clothes are returned to waste and new ones are issued instead. Those entering the monastery from the world are provided with the necessary underwear, clothing and shoes. The Valaam waste store can supply up to a hundred people with everything they need at any time. Such reserves for all branches of economy are necessary in the Valaam Monastery, due to the large number of its brotherhood, due to its remoteness from cities, and finally because in the spring, when the ice breaks, and especially in the fall, when it freezes, communication with the shore is difficult and even impossible for a long time. The lake between Serdobol and Valaam freezes, but not earlier than half of January; Until that time, countless blocks of ice wander in different directions throughout the entire body of water, and a ship that would decide to enter the lake must certainly be surrounded and covered in ice. The monastery library has all the books needed to obtain complete information in monastic life. In addition to those printed in Slavic and Russian, there are many handwritten ones. Let us list the noteworthy manuscripts. The first place among them, due to its rarity, should be occupied by the “Acts” of St. Theodore, abbot of the Constantinople Studian monastery, or “His Conversations to the Brethren.” This book is of considerable length. Its benefits are recognized by the Church: the church charter stipulates that on certain days of Great Lent it should be read in church during church services 438. This decree concerns the monasteries themselves. The Studite's conversations breathe with the love that he had for his brotherhood: he calls them his fathers, and mentors, and brothers, and children; His teaching is unusually simple, accessible to everyone, and is especially suitable for communal monks, as its exclusive subject is the various duties and circumstances of community life. There are handwritten books of the Fathers who described the feat of mental prayer. These are: Gregory Palamas, Callistus Antilikudi, Simeon the New Theologian, St. Nilus of Sorsky, Russian writer. There are books for the guidance of the inhabitants of the monastery, hermits and hermits: these are the Patericon, the book of the famous mentor of the silent ones, Isaac of Syria; the book “Flower Garden” by Hieromonk Dorotheus, a Russian writer who, as can be seen from the book itself, lived during the time of the patriarchs 439. In this very extensive article, the priest says among other things that in dormitories one must certainly follow the tradition of the Holy Fathers, the founders of the monastic dormitory; those who transgress the tradition of the Holy Fathers will not see the light of Christ. The priest bequeaths to those who intend to re-establish a monastery that he should apply for a “blessed letter from His Holiness the Patriarch” and protect the monastery with the “blessing of the Patriarch.” The flower garden was especially respected by domestic monks who practiced the most sublime monastic feat. The famous Solovetsky ascetic Jesus of Golgotha ​​learned the Jesus Prayer from this book; The Monk Joasaph of Kamensky, the Vologda Wonderworker, learned the Jesus Prayer from it, as can be seen from his handwritten life. The last circumstance shows that the priest lived during the time of the first Patriarchs and reached the turmoil of our country, as can be concluded from the brief indications of modernity found in his book. Extracts are made here from a book printed in Grodno in 1687 by the Orthodox, twenty years after the overthrow of Patriarch Nikon, in compliance with the ancient spelling. That the book was printed by Orthodox Christians is proven by the testament read in it: to approach His Holiness the Patriarch for a blessing, which the schismatics would never have allowed. We recognize this remark as necessary: ​​the spelling of the book, as experience has shown, can cast doubt on the orthodoxy of the book, with a superficial look at it, especially since such a look will very easily hide its essential meaning, for which the writer called it Tsvetnik 440. Let us make some extracts from the last book, making it easier to understand the Slavic language by translating it into Russian, both on the moral and ascetic merit of the book, and especially because the writer is our compatriot, forgotten by us. Only some hermit reads and re-reads this inspired book, filled with precious spiritual advice. Let the voice of the holy monk be heard for us from the tomb where our oblivion buried him. It is fitting for this voice, broadcasting deep truths, to be heard from the strict Valaam monastery. “Oh, my beloved reader,” this is how the holy monk begins his book, “if you want, I will show you something more honest than pure gold, and silver, and valuable beads, and precious stones! There is nothing you can do to find and buy the Kingdom of Heaven, future joy and peace, except with this. This is solitary reading and listening with attention and diligence to the holy books of Divine Scripture. It is impossible, impossible for anyone to be saved who does not often read the Divinely inspired Holy Scripture. Just as a bird without wings cannot fly to a height, so a mind without books, with its own thoughts alone, cannot figure out how to obtain salvation. Reading in solitude and listening with attention and diligence to the holy books of Divine Scripture are the parents and the beginning of all virtues and every good deed: because all virtues are born from them, begin from them. Solitary reading and listening with attention and diligence to the holy books of Divine Scripture, for the purpose of action and one’s salvation, gives rise to every virtue, serves as a source of blessings, drives away from us every sinful and evil passion, every sinful lust, desire and action, our own and demonic. The Holy Fathers recognize solitary reading and listening with attention and diligence to the holy books of the Divine Scripture as the elder and king over all virtues.”... By Divine Scripture, the priest means not only the holy books of the Old and New Testaments, but also the writings of the Holy Fathers; in this case he expresses himself in the same way as the Monk Nil of Sora. Such a beginning is of extraordinary, precious importance: with it the priest recognizes the need to relentlessly adhere not only to the dogmatic, but also to the moral tradition of the Church; with this he enters into a union of like-mindedness with all the ascetic holy writers of the Eastern Church. All of them unanimously affirm that for an infallible procession through monastic deeds, it is necessary to be guided by the writings of the Holy Fathers, that this is the only way of salvation remaining to us after the decline of spiritual mentors. From the very first words, the holy monk puts the reader on the right, holy, safe, prescribed and blessed paths of the Church, gives his student the character of a definitive son of the Eastern Church, introduces him into spiritual communion with the holy monks of all centuries of Christianity, removes him from everything alien, from everything counterfeit. How excellent is the character of a son of the Eastern Church! How simple, majestic and holy he is! The Protestant is coldly intelligent; Roman - enthusiastic, captivating, carried away; the son of the Eastern Church will be imbued with holy truth and gentle peace. The first two characters are earthly; the latter came down from heaven and is before our eyes in the Gospel. This character is cultivated in an Orthodox Christian by reading the Holy Scriptures and the works of the Holy Fathers; a Christian, imbued with this reading, becomes a confidant of the Truth and a partaker of the Holy Spirit given by It. The priest took a shrewd look at contemporary monasticism; the remark he made preciously: “I was often surprised, he says, how the holy ancient Fathers in a short time achieved salvation, came to perfection, found grace, but in modern times there are few who are saved! But this is how all the Holy Fathers achieved perfection and salvation, found grace, were honored with the gift of miracles: they followed with all their souls all the words and commandments of the Lord, tried most of all to keep them, always had them in their minds... Firstly, we must preserve the commandments of Christ, because the Holy Gospel is the mouth of Christ, speaking to us daily, and then preserve the traditions of the Holy Fathers, fulfill the works commanded by them, with these works to strain our bodies... Without fulfilling the commandments of the Lord, holy, sacred and luminous, our traditions and rules are vain... He who does not keep the commandments of the Lord damages and destroys his great works, and is deprived of perfection, salvation and grace. He who does not keep the commandments of the Lord and does not make room for grace within himself cannot come to perfection and receive grace. Someone who practices physical exploits and neglects the commandments of the Lord is alien to spiritual wisdom! Nothing of ours is unpleasant to God without fulfilling the commandments of the Lord. Just as the Holy Fathers carefully and steadily preserved them: so we must preserve them as much as our strength allows...” 441. Most heartfelt instruction! I wish every monk who cares about preparing himself a blissful eternity would write it down on the tablets of his heart in indelible writing! The beautiful soul of the holy monk spoke from the abundance of his heart, and often poured out with spontaneous, captivating eloquence. In some places it would have been graced by the pages of the best writers. How elegant are the following lines: “When we work out the immortal belly, we should not be afraid of adversity, scarcity of bodily needs, or death itself. The Lord said: “Don’t worry about those who say, ‘What are the pits,’ or ‘What are we drinking,’ or ‘What are we going to wear with? The pagans of this world are looking for all of these,” the unbaptized, who do not know God: “For your Heavenly Father knows that you demand all of these. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:31-33). So He made a promise! I, He says, am your food and clothing; I will serve you in your weakness, like a father and mother, and a sincere friend. I will deliver everything you need and work for you with My grace. Only you believe in Me whole-heartedly and undoubtedly, serve Me firmly, and hope that I can fulfill what I have promised.”442 The words of the God-inspired David were fulfilled over the holy monk, who said: “My lips will vomit out singing, when Thou hast taught me Thy justification” (Ps. 119:171). When Divine grace itself, having settled in the heart, begins to teach it the law of the Spirit, then a person becomes inspired. His thoughts and feelings come to life with the new life of the Spirit, his conversation bears the stamp of the most sublime poetry. These are many passages in the holy monk’s writings, including the beginning of the 11th chapter, where he speaks to his soul: “My beloved soul,” he says: “Do not put off year after year, month after month, time after time, day after day, do not spend them in vain expectation! So that you don’t have to sigh with all your heart, look for someone who can participate in your grief, and not find him. Oh! How much then will you begin to torment, how much you will cry, weep and complain, it is useless to repent! You can do good today: don’t put it off until tomorrow! You don't know what tomorrow will bring. Will some disaster befall you this night! You don't know what the day brings, what the night brings. My soul! Now is the time to endure tribulations! Now is the time to fulfill the commandments of the Lord and the virtues of the Fathers! Now is the time for crying and sobbing, tears - giving birth to sweetness and joy! Oh, my soul! if you truly want to be saved, love sorrow as before you loved pleasure; live by dying daily. Our life soon passes and disappears, like the shadow of a cloud produced by the sun. The days of our life flow like smoke in the air.”... The Flower Garden is one of the most sublime ascetic books; with this dignity it approaches the famous book of Isaac of Syria. Two writers of the Russian Church wrote about smart doing, Nil of Sorsky and the priest Dorofey. The book of the first is a very useful guide for beginners in the feat of silence, and the second - for those who have succeeded and are approaching perfection. The teaching on mental prayer is presented “in the Flower Garden” with extraordinary clarity, simplicity, and finality. Everywhere one can see the abundant spiritual prosperity and common sense of the Russian person, simplifying the complicated, expounding the most sublime spiritual teaching with extraordinary naturalness, extremely clearly and - elegantly! In particular, these are his teachings: about purity of heart, mind, and soul, about dispassion, about darkening the mind, about sobriety of the mind, about holy, pure prayer. Due to the sublimity and holiness of these objects, for which there is a time and place, we do not dare to make extracts; Anyone wishing to get acquainted with them is referred to the book itself. The titles of the teachings already say a lot. For such and such spiritual exercises, successful monks move from the community to the life of a monastery and hermit. The skete of the Valaam Monastery is located three miles from the main monastery. The path to it is both by water and by shore. You need to go down from the monastery along the granite stairs to the harbor. Here you get on the boat, and using the same bay that you used to arrive at the monastery, you sail further into the depths of the island, to the monastery. The bay narrows and expands; you constantly see landscapes on both sides, changing in shape, maintaining a gloomy tone. Finally you enter a large oval, surrounded by sloping banks on which many birches, rowan trees, and maples grow; the rocks are almost hidden from you; here and there, in the distance, from behind the spruces and pines, a stone peeks out. The waters of the oval are not gloomy: they pleasantly reflect the blue of the sky. The verdant meadows, dotted and fragrant with countless wild flowers, are a comfort to the eye. There is no wind here, that harsh gusty wind that rarely subsides in the elevated open square where the main monastery stands. Everything here is so hospitable and welcoming! It's easy for you; you feel like you are relaxing. And it becomes clear to you that wild nature with its terrifying pictures, which you have been constantly looking at until now, has brought your bodily and mental feelings into tension. You climb a sloping meadow along a radiating path, enter the thicket of the forest: in front of you, suddenly, is a secluded monastery. In the middle of the monastery is a stone two-story church in Byzantine style; Around the church there are separate cells of the brethren, also made of stone, and a stone fence. The monastery is in the forest on all sides; there is an extraordinary silence in it. A completely different feeling comes over you when you enter the monastery than when entering the monastery. Everything there breathes life, strict life; here there is some kind of incomprehensible calm, as if the calm of those who have died a blessed death. Divine services are held at the monastery twice a week, on Sunday and Saturday; on other days the brethren remain silent in their cells, engaged in prayer, reading, contemplation of God and handicrafts: and in the church one monk reads the Psalter and commemorates the deceased brethren and benefactors of the Valaam monastery. This reading and commemoration are performed continuously day and night, for which the brethren living in the monastery alternate. Food is offered in a common meal; it is much poorer than the monastic one, almost exclusively plant-based. On Easter and other great holidays, the monastery brethren come to the monastery, participate with the monastery brethren in the solemn Divine service, and eat with them at a common meal festive food, which never exceeds four changes in the monastery itself. Fish soup, another dish of fish, a piece of pie - this is a sign of a great holiday at the meal of the Valaam brethren. Skovrado-yarns are excluded from among their dishes: they recognize them as a delicacy that is not permissible for themselves. Up to twelve brothers, or a little more, live in the monastery. The road from the monastery to the monastery by dry route is also landscaped: it goes along the shore of the bay through groves, over hills and mountains, and the wheels of the carriage often begin to knock on the bare granite. In different places of the island, in deep solitude, at the edge of the forest on a hill, or in a small meadow in the middle of the forest, there are lonely huts of hermits, cut from logs. The number of hermits is not very large. The life of a hermit can only be permitted to those who are most experienced in monasticism, mature in age and spiritual intelligence. Hermits, like the monastery brethren, come to the monastery on great holidays. Visitors to the monastery are accommodated in a hotel. There is also a special shelter for the beggars that this part of Finland is rich in. The poor are allowed to stay on Valaam for two days and enjoy a meal specially prepared in their shelter, and each person is given two pieces of rye bread for the journey. And for this alms the Finnish man strives forty, fifty miles to the Valaam Monastery! In the summer, as soon as the path along the lake is cleared, many dozens of shuttles daily bring beggars along the stormy abyss to the monastery. They leave alone; Others had already arrived to take their place. In winter, as soon as there is ice, whole flocks of them set off on foot on a difficult journey, regardless of the severity of the frost or the distance of the journey. Walking half naked on the ice! There are crippled old men, children, and women with babies. The frozen corpses of these poor people, who were thinking of escaping hunger, killed by frost, are often found on the icy steppe. Finally, it is impossible not to pay tribute to the Valaam Hospital, which serves as a calm haven not only for the worn-out and ailing Valaam monks, but also for the monks of the entire St. Petersburg diocese. At the hospital there is a separate church, a separate meal, special servants and a small pharmacy stocked with the most necessary medicines. The Valaam Island with its small islands is nothing more than a solid stone that rose from Lake Ladoga, the heights of which form rocks, mountains and cliffs, and the depressions form bays, straits, lakes. You will be convinced of this by measuring the depth of the lake. In bays, straits, throughout the entire space between the main island and small islands, this depth is five, ten, in the deepest places - twenty fathoms; but as soon as you drive out onto a clear lake, the depth a hundred steps from the shore already extends to seventy, a hundred fathoms, reaching almost two hundred. The soil is solid stone everywhere, covered with a quarter arshin layer of plant soil, in some places more. Rarely in small quantities, not to a great depth, there is sand and clay. The layer of earth covering the “luda,” as the Valaam monks call their stone, is especially fertile: two orchards have been planted near the monastery, one under the rock on which the monastery stands, the other on the right side of the granite staircase leading from the harbor to the monastery. In these gardens, the apple trees are fresh, juicy, testifying to the goodness of the soil, and the apples, which ripen only once every ten years, complain about the climate, about the weakness of the local sun's rays. Large watermelons and melons growing in the gardens of Valaam participate in this complaint; they are very juicy, but their juice is dead: the sun does not heat the sweetness in it. Garden produce is quite good; a significant number of them will be born, sufficient for the entire numerous brotherhood, for many workers living in the monastery, for many visitors to the monastery. Sow a certain amount of rye and oats; but the main supply of bread is bought in St. Petersburg and delivered to the monastery on its galliots. The hay is getting pretty rough. The island abounds in forest; Mostly pine grows here, then spruce; Birch, maple, and linden are found in much smaller quantities. Thanks to them! With the delicate color of their leaves they soften the gloom of the rocks and the dark, eternal green of spruces and pines. In the valleys, where the layer of earth is thicker, the forest is larger; but on the mountains, where this layer is thin, the forest is smaller; he cannot reach the proper height; its roots seek in vain to go deeper into the ground; they are met by “luda”, they creep, intertwine along it to collect the food they need, and do not find it. But on the mountains, one tree grows almost exclusively, the least whimsical and picky on the soil, pine. What else can I say? I look at the waters, at the immense masses of the waters of Ladoga, the ancient Neva, from ancient times glorious for its storms and battles between the Varangian and the Slav; and they, these deep, spacious waters, agree with the secluded island, full of austere inspiration, so that on the island, in the enclosure of the waters, the monastic society will be saved and preserved. They protect it with their space, storms, and ice. In their vast depths they contain and feed countless herds of various fish, betraying them into flattering nets, preparing a dish for the hermits’ meal, in which the whole price is not seasonings, not art, but the abundance and freshness of the supply. When the light monastery boat, with a favorable, pleasant wind, carried me away from Valaam, I was sick. Along with the feeling of illness came many other sensations. My gaze, with an indistinct sadness, in which there was some kind of pleasure, turned to Balaam, riveted on him. I suspect that this was not a look of farewell forever! I silently looked at Valaam from the boat while the boat went through the bay. I raised my head first to this rock, then to another rock: otherwise it’s impossible to look at them, they are so high. Mighty nature, which always terrified me, always looking at me only sternly and sternly, seemed to smile friendly. Or this smile was given to her by the sun, which then sent life-giving rays along the bay, on the waters, on the stones, on the dense forest. The border of the granite cliff on which the monastery stands, surrounded by a lattice, was strewn with brethren. There were mature men here, strengthened by battles with themselves, and young men who had just entered the monastery, for whom a struggle still awaited, and decrepit old men, covered with gray hair, whose heart and mind were already calm, for whom a crown was woven and a grave was dug. It was not enough for them that they warmly received and reassured the stranger: they also needed a farewell, mixed with the sorrow of love, dissolved in a tear of regret about separation. The majestic ringing of the monastery bells was heard, and the gorge of the stone mountains echoed it from different sides with a polyphonic echo. The boat emerged from the bay, as if from a high-walled castle, the cliffs remained in their places, a vast lake appeared in the view, the Serdobolsky shore was barely visible in the distance; in other directions there is no shore - the blue of the waters merges with the blue of the sky. The sails are raised; The boat quickly rushed along the gentle waves. Soon we reached the opposite shore; From there I looked back at Valaam: it seemed to me, on its vast, blue, endless waters, like a planet in the azure sky. And sure enough, he’s so far from everything! It's like he's not on earth! Its inhabitants rose high from the earth with their thoughts and desires! Valaam is a separate world! Many of his monks forgot that any other country existed! You will meet elders there who, since their Valaam, have not been anywhere for fifty years, and have forgotten everything except Valaam and heaven. Spiritual army! blessed inhabitants of the sacred island! May the blessing of heaven come upon you because you have loved heaven! May the stranger's blessing rest upon you because you have loved strangers! May your prayers be heard by God, may your songs of praise be pleasing to Him: because your prayers and songs are full of sacred reverence! Blessed be your barns and your property: for the beggar always finds from you both a circle of bread and a piece of clothing to cover his nakedness! Brethren! you have chosen the good part! Do not look back, do not be attracted again to the world by some vain, temporary pleasures of the world! Everything about him is so shaky, so fickle, so momentary, so perishable! The providence of God has given you a separate village, remote from all temptations, the majestic, inspired Valaam. Hold on to this refuge, undisturbed by the waves of the sea of ​​life; bravely endure invisible storms in it; do not let good zeal cool down in your souls; renew and support it by reading the holy books of the Fathers; run into these books with your mind and heart, isolate yourself in them with your thoughts and feelings - and Valaam, on which you see granite ledges and high mountains, will become for you a step to heaven, that spiritual height from which it is convenient to cross into the abode of paradise. The wanderer who wrote these lines, who poured out his feelings for you and your home in them, the wanderer who more than once visited your monastery with heartfelt concern for it, for its well-being and yours, asks for life in your prayerful remembrance before the grave - and beyond the grave. This steamer is called "Valaam". From the opening of navigation on Lake Ladoga until the stormy autumn time, the ship sails to the Valaam Monastery twice a week, departing each time from Shlisselburg. The island of Valaam is twenty-five versts from the nearest shore, forty from the Finnish city of Serdobol, eighty from the Konevsky Monastery; its circumference is about thirty miles; belongs to the St. Petersburg diocese, and according to civil distribution to the Vyborg province of the Grand Duchy of Finland. Handwritten Life of Saint Abraham of Rostov and Dictionary of Russian Saints. Dictionary of Russian saints. Manuscript from the library of the Valaam Monastery. Perhaps the archives of Finland will, over time, provide information that is more definitive and detailed for the history of Valaam than is provided by currently known sources. The stay of Saints Arseny, Savvaty and Alexander on Valaam are reliable facts preserved in their biographies. In the life of the Monk Svirsky, written by his disciple Hilarion, it is said with sufficient detail and great praise about the asceticism of the Valaam monks, and in the life of the Monk Arseny, that there was a large brotherhood in the monastery. Manuscript from the library of the Valaam Monastery, referring to an ancient manuscript called the “Confession”. Venerable Nilus of Sorsky. Preface to the Words. Church Rules, Monday of Holy Pentecost. Flower garden, chapter 54, about the monastic hostel The flower garden is primarily a collection and explanation of the sayings of the ancient Fathers, without naming these Fathers. You need to know the Fathers in order to find out extracts from them in the collection. You might be interested in: