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'''Valaam Monastery''' is a [[monastery]] of the [[Church of Russia]] located in Karelia in northwestern Russia on the island of Valaam in Lake Ladoga. The monastery was an outpost of evangelism in the north of Russia. In the 1790s the monastery provided the group of eight missionaries that was sent to Alaska in the North American northwest to evangelize the natives for Orthodox Christianity. This group of [[monasticism|monastics]] included [[Herman of Alaska|St Herman]] and [[Juvenaly of Alaska|St Juvenaly]].
==History==
In the sixteenth century, Karelia became the battleground between Swedish and Russian forces as the Swedes pushed their borders eastward. Situated in Lake Ladoga, Valaam Monastery was in the midst of these struggles. In 1578, [[monk]]s and [[novice]]s were beaten to death by the (then) Lutheran Swedes. After another attack, the monastery was depopulated between 1611 and 1715. The buildings were burnt to the ground, and the Karelian border between Russia and Sweden was drawn through the lake. As the eighteenth century continued, the monastery recovered. Buildings were restored and built as the monastery prospered. By the beginning of the twentieth century the monastery had become very wealthy with about twenty smaller sketes under its control.
In 1793, the [[abbot ]] of Valaam Monastery, Nazarius, was tasked by Catherine II with recruiting missionaries for the Russian colony in Alaska. A group of eight monks was assembled and departed Valaam on [[December 25]], 1793 for Alaska. After a long journey through the length of Siberia the group arrived in Kodiak, Alaska on [[September 24]], 1794.
In 1809, Sweden ceded Finland to Russia, which became an autonomous Grand Duchy. As the monastery was located in the Grand Duchy of Finland, when Finland gained its independence in 1917 Valaam became part of the [[Church of Finland]]. The Finnish Church became autonomous under the [[Church of Constantinople]]. During the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union in 1940, the [[monk]]s from the monastery were evacuated to Heinavesi, Finland. With the end of the war the border was moved westward so that all of Lake Ladoga was within the Soviet Union. Having lost their former home, the monks who had moved to Finland formed the [[New Valamo|New Valaam Monastery]] at Heinavesi. It is the only monastery in the Finnish Church.