A word to the reader
Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Aleksy II.
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I first visited Valaam 50 years ago,
when my parents took me on a pilgrimage to the Old Valaam, and I must say that Valaam
left a very strong impression on me, a nine-year old boy.
Valaam impressed me by its grandeur and
its spiritual life. It was a spiritual archipelago, every inch of its land was hallowed
by deeds, prayers, and labour.
The magnificent Transfiguration Cathedral
was shining with gold, ornaments, bright colours, for the restoration of the upper
church had been just completed, and the cathedral impressed everyone who entered
it.
The Patriarch in Predtechensky skete.
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Everything on Valaam was filled with
wonder: its numerous sketes, its chapels with the objects of worship, they all attracted
pilgrims and kept the spirit of prayer. Everything had a unique character.
I was deeply impressed by the elders,
who treated every pilgrim, irrespective of age and status, with special Christian
love. I keep in my memory the blessed images of schema-Abbot loann and hiero-schemamonk
Jephrem, the confessors of the cloister, ofAbbot Chariton, schemamonk Nikolai, and
schemamonk Pamva, of monk luvian who sent me touching instructive letters.
The fate of Valaam was very hard. Not
once was it devastated, ravaged and razed to the ground, but again and again it rose
from the ruins in all its beauty.
Usually visiting sacred places profaned
and devastated by war, time and the ill will of people, leaves a hard and depressing
feeling. In 1988, fifty years after my first pilgrimage to Valaam, I visited the
Valaam monastery of the Transfiguration of the Saviour once again, and there was
already some hope that the Christian candle would be lit again at this site hallowed
by the devotion of many generations of Russian people, monks, our predecessors. This
hope of reviving the monastery smoothed over all the devastation, all the wounds
inflicted on the cloister within the last fifty years.
Thank God, the monastic life in Valaam
was resumed six years ago. Again prayer is heard in the cathedrals and sketes, again
pilgrims come to the cloister to get the strength to carry their cross and live in
virtue. Again brethren, led by Abbot Pankraty, in selfless devotion revive the northern
sanctum of our land.
Monasticism is a vocation. A monk can
not think only about his own salvation while praying, he must help to save people's
souls, save the world.
Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Aleksy II.
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