he skete of All Saints, or Bolshoi, is the oldest in
Valaam. Supposedly in its place, 3.5 km from
the monastery, stood the secluded hermitage
of St. Alexander of the Svir. To commemorate the place,
hegumen Nazary built a stone church and cells. The
skete became famous for its hermits: elders Kleopa, Feodor,
Leonid. Among their disciples were hieromonk Varlaam,
adherent of silence and continuous prayer, hegumen to be,
and hieromonk Eufimy, a librarian and the
instructor of father Damaskin, in whose lifetime all
buildings remaining in the skete were erected. Knowing
how harmful for health were natural stone cells, hegumen
Damaskin builds the prior's house, a refectory and
six monks' houses, walls with the Holy Gates, and
a chapel with a fence (designed supposedly by K.I. Brandt,
who was to become St. Petersburg eparchial architect).
The construction work, accomplished in 1842-1844,
was sponsored by F.F. Nabilkov, a merchant from
Fridrichsgam (Hamina). In 1846, A.M. Gornostajev designed
a five-domed two-storey church with a hipped belfry in
the old Russian style with Byzantine and classical elements.
The lower church was consecrated in honour of
All Saints by father Ignaty (Bryanchaninov).
The strict rules of the skete did not allow milk in
non-lenten days before 1894, women could get there
only once a year, on the patron saint's day, All Saints' day.
Part of the church plate, including icons painted by V.P.
Poshehonov, is in Finland now. Today monastic life in
accordance with the old rule is resumed in the skete, on
All Saints'day, 1993, hegumen Pankraty offered liturgy
in the lower church, the first liturgy after fifty years of
"miserable desolation".
Map of Valaam
