Qualla: New Valamo https://qualla.com/new-valamo en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:36 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/u/e/h/7/new-valamo-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: New Valamo https://qualla.com/new-valamo New Valamo: Introduction https://qualla.com/new-valamo/ Photo credit Riva, CC BY-SA 2.5. The monks arrived at a mansion in Heinävesi, eastern Finland, homeless and searching. It was 1940, and 190 of them had been evacuated from their centuries-old monastery on the islands of Valaam in Lake Ladoga as Soviet forces advanced during the Winter War. They were looking for a sign, and they found one: an icon of St. Sergius and St. Herman of Valaam, the monastery's legendary 12th-century founders, already hanging in the Papinniemi estate. The monks took this as divine confirmation. They stayed. New Valamo has been the spiritual heart of Finnish Orthodox monasticism ever since -- the only monastery for men in the Finnish Orthodox Church, and one of the most visited religious sites in the country.

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Image: Riva | CC BY-SA 2.5

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/e/h/7/new-valamo-wp/ueh7-new-valamo-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full New Valamo: An Exile's Inheritance https://qualla.com/new-valamo/ Photo credit Dave_S. from Witney, England, CC BY 2.0. The Valamo monastic tradition traces its roots to the late 14th century, when it was established on the Valaam archipelago in the northern reaches of Lake Ladoga, in what is now the Republic of Karelia in Russia. After Swedish forces left the monastery desolate for over a century...

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Image: Dave_S. from Witney, England | CC BY 2.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/e/h/7/new-valamo-wp/ueh7-new-valamo-an-exiles-inheritance.mp3 0:06 2 full New Valamo: Stone, Fire, and Rebuilding https://qualla.com/new-valamo/ Photo credit Upp75, CC BY-SA 3.0. For decades the monastery made do with the existing estate buildings. Then in 1977, to mark the 800th anniversary of Orthodoxy in Finland, a stone Transfiguration Cathedral was built to a design by architect Ivan Kudrjavzev. It gave the community a proper center of worship for th...

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Image: Upp75 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/e/h/7/new-valamo-wp/ueh7-new-valamo-stone-fire-and-rebuilding.mp3 0:06 3 full New Valamo: Whisky, Wine, and Monastic Enterprise https://qualla.com/new-valamo/ Photo credit SeppVei, CC0. Orthodox tradition holds that a monastery should support itself fully, and New Valamo has taken that principle in unexpected directions. Over 160,000 visitors come each year, making tourism the primary source of income. But the monastery's most surprising enterprise is its distil...

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Image: SeppVei | CC0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/e/h/7/new-valamo-wp/ueh7-new-valamo-whisky-wine-and-monastic-enterprise.mp3 0:06 4 full New Valamo: Icons and Endurance https://qualla.com/new-valamo/ Photo credit Niera, CC BY-SA 4.0. The spiritual treasures of New Valamo survived the journey from Ladoga. The monastery's best-known miracle-working icons -- the Mother of God of Konevitsa and the Mother of God of Valamo -- are displayed in the main church, drawing Orthodox pilgrims who regard them as objects of ...

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Image: Niera | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/e/h/7/new-valamo-wp/ueh7-new-valamo-icons-and-endurance.mp3 0:06 5 full