The annals of Valaam
The annals of Valaam. The foundation of the Valaam Monastery dates back to the first times of the Christian enlightenment of Russia, or the ancient "Rus" [pron. "Roos"]. According to ancient chronicles, well before the Baptism of the Russian land in 988 by Saint Great Prince Vladimir equal to Apostles, in the times of the Great Princess Olga, Christian temples appeared in Rus. In the 10th century Great (Veliky) Novgorod, whose property had included Karelian lands and those near Lake Ladoga since long ago, became one of the centers of Christian enlightenment. The monastery tradition has it that the founders of the monastery - Saints Sergiy and Herman were Greek missionaries and came to the vast lands surrounding Ladoga in the first half of the 10th century. This opinion was shared by Church historians who dealt with studies of the ancient history of the Valaam cloister in the 19th century.
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