Juvian the Chronicler (1880-1957)

Juvian the Chronicler.

The chronicler and librarian of Valaam, humble monk Juvian was at heart a lover of the "desert-dwelling" monastic life. Juvian and made a survey of desert-dwellers living on Valaam from the monastery's inception, discovering ancient sites where these hermits once dwelt. A staunch defender of the old Church Calendar, he also was banished and persecuted for this by the "uncanonical reformers in Orthodox garb", as he called the militant usurpers of Valaam tradition, which today is almost lost. A man of great kindness, he was close to a young pilgrim lad and they often corresponded in letters. Many years later this lad became Patriarch Alexis II of all Russia. Monk Juvian, in his humility, foresaw the importance of pouring a constant stream of Valaam input into the young lad at the time of the severe soviet persecution of monasticism, when even Valaam no longer existed. His writings are voluminous. He wrote on St. John of Kronstadt, World War I, the New Martyrs of Russia, the calendar question, animals, etc., and especially a biography of his own Elder, Antipas II. The tone of his life was that of a truthful man, calm within and extremely balanced, who with a diagnostical precision was able to assess right from wrong.

Text from Valaam Patericon Book of Days
(St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, Platina California)