The rich worship life of the Orthodox Church requires extensive liturgical literature. Liturgical texts were translated from Greek into Church Slavonic between the 10th and 12th centuries. Texts were typically translated and copied in monasteries, and it is likely that manuscript books were produced for Valamo's own use early on. Several 15th-century manuscripts bearing the monastery's ownership marks have been preserved in Russian libraries and archives.
Valamo's book collection thus developed from manuscripts related to worship life and monastic asceticism. The wooden monastery was completely destroyed in the 17th century during Swedish military attacks, and the brotherhood was forced to move to monasteries in Inner Russia. The manuscripts traveled with other valuables, but some were lost along the way. Marginal notes in the books tell present-day researchers about the journeys made and the phases of the manuscripts.
From Collection to Library
In the 18th century, during the time of Emperor Peter the Great, the monastery's reconstruction began. The work had to be started from scratch, both materially and spiritually. Nazari (Venerable Nazari of Valamo), known for his asceticism and head of the Sarov hermitage, was invited to lead Valamo Monastery. During the long construction period, the monastery received numerous book donations from Russian rulers, mainly teachings of church fathers, lives of saints, and liturgical books. One of the most significant donors of that time was Empress Elizabeth Petrovna.
The Valamo Library as a proper memory organization emerged in the 19th century when Hegumen Damaskin began to manage the book repository. He organized and cataloged the books starting from 1830. He kept records of both acquisitions and loans and also ensured that borrowers handled the books properly. From 1864 onwards, works were organized according to the classification guidelines issued by the Holy Synod. Hegumen Damaskin was interested in literature and even wrote spiritual poems himself. As his earlier obedience task, he had copied books and manuscripts in a hermitage near the Great Skete. The slow ascetic form of handwriting continued in Valamo long after it had been abandoned in most Russian monasteries.
Hegumen Damaskin significantly expanded the library's collection through substantial purchases. Acquisitions included valuable works, such as Migne's multi-volume Greek Patrology, which contains early Christian literature. He also tried to recover literature that had been scattered during the monastery's evacuation, but not always successfully. Hegumen Damaskin designed new, stone-vaulted, fire-resistant premises for the library, which were completed after his death in 1884.
The second builder of the library in the 19th century was Hegumen Damaskin's successor, Hegumen Jonafan II. He expanded the library's ascetic collection by 1,500 volumes.
Otherwise, the library's subject matter diversified in the 19th century. Alongside liturgical and spiritual literature, non-fiction literature from various fields began to be acquired: works on history, archaeology, hydrology, meteorology, geography, botany, and agriculture. This literature served the development of the multifunctional monastery and its expanding economic structure. Foreign language literature and fiction were also included in the acquisitions.
Original text: Pia Koskinen-Launonen. Text updated by Virva Suvitie.
Valamo Monastery Publishing Activities
Valamo Monastery's publishing activities began in 1863. At that time, on the initiative of Hegumen Damaskin, P. I. Balashev's large-format color lithography album Sobranïe vidov městnostej ostrova Valaama was published. The work depicted views of the Valamo monastery islands and the visit of Emperor Alexander II and Empress Maria Alexandrovna to the monastery.
Publishing activities have continued from the 1860s to the present day. Initially, Russian-language works related to the monastery's history and ascetic life were published. For the first time, the monastery's history was broadly outlined in print. New booklets for pilgrims were written based on the material contained in these works. The authors were often church historians and hagiographers of the time. Some of the works were written by the brotherhood, such as Archimandrite Pimen's portraits of the monastery's ascetics. In addition, several photographic albums were compiled at various times from the monastery's photography studio's images.
Finnish-language publishing began in the 1920s when the monastery's board published the first Finnish-language general overview of Valamo Monastery. In the 1930s, translated spiritual and ascetic literature began to be regularly published in Finnish.
After the evacuation, Valamo's publishing activities experienced a new boom only in the 1980s. By the 2010s, over 200 works had been published in the Valamo Monastery book series. The Valamo Book Club also operates in connection with the monastery, distributing the monastery's publications and other Orthodox literature to its members.
The monastery's library collections hold archival copies of all Valamo Monastery publications. Newer publications can be borrowed from the new collection.
Valamo of Heinävesi, the New Beginning of Valamo Monastery Library
Most of Valamo's library collection was brought to inland Finland when the monastery was evacuated in February 1940. In Papinniemi, the books were stored in the attic of a cart shed, where they remained for almost twenty years. Some of the books were placed in the reference library used by the brotherhood. In 1959, about 14,000 volumes were handed over for safekeeping to the storage library of the University of Helsinki Library (now the National Library of Finland) in Urajärvi. The Slavonic Department of the University of Helsinki Library cataloged the collection. Copies of this card catalog are in the Valamo Library in Heinävesi.
The library's evacuation period ended in 1984 when the library space located in the cultural center was completed. The builder of the Valamo Monastery Library in Heinävesi was the current retired Metropolitan Ambrosius. Based on his acquisitions, the library's new collection has emerged, continuing the ascetic tradition of Valamo of Laatokka Library in the present day. The book and manuscript collection of Valamo of Laatokka was repatriated to the vault of the new library building from Urajärvi in the 1990s and organized according to the classification of the Holy Synod.
Beneath the Byzantine octagon lies a multilingual and multicultural new collection. It encompasses both the core areas of Christian contemplative literature and the contemporary call for a simple, creation-respecting way of life.
Original text: Pia Koskinen-Launonen. Text updated by Virva Suvitie.
