Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery on Valaam Island in the Testimonies of Natalia Statsenko and Princess Alexandra Obolenskaya (1916 and 1933)

Abstract

The article contains some evidence of visits to the Valaam Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Savior, published for the first time: a description of a Petrograd schoolgirl Natalia Statsenko’s trip made in 1916, and diary entries of Princess Alexandra Obolenskaya, who came to Finland from Paris in 1933, and who would later become nun Blandina, one of the organizers of the Orthodox skete of the Kazan Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos in Moisenay-le -Grand near the city of Meulan in France. The skete temple was subsequently painted by Fr. Gregory Krug. Written as a study essay, report on the excursion “From the school bench to the quiet pier of St. Valaam” was performed by a 6th grade student of the gymnasium probably on the Subject of the Law of God. Children’s reviews of Valaam were very rare, moreover, this work “in terms of its content and presentation could be called an outstanding and talented one”, as Priest N. Ladygin put. The irregular diary entries “To Myself” dedicated to the stay of the future nun Blandina in Sweden, as well as her Finnish impressions of life in the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery add many vital and important details both to clarify the history of her own ascetic life and to complete the well-known descriptions of Valaam everyday life in the interwar decades.

Keywords

• n. v. statsenko
• princess a. v. obolenskaya (nun blandina)
• spaso-preobrazhensky valaam monastery
• orthodoxy in finland
• orthodox pilgrimages in russian emigration