A NIGHT IN A MONASTERY
Having torn ourselves away from our kind friends at _Ilkeäsaari_ for a
time, and digressed from our story to describe Finnish baths, we must
now own that the prospect of a night in a monastery was very
exciting--more especially when that monastery chanced to belong to
Russia, and to stand alone on an island in the middle of the great
_Ladoga_ lake, which no doubt once joined together the White Sea and the
Gulf of Finland. It is the largest lake in Europe, and celebrated also
for the cold temperature of its water, which, in spite of its vast size,
is always more or less frozen over in winter. It never warms in summer,
and therefore there can be little or no bathing around its shores.
_Sordavala_, where we embarked--of which more anon--is Finnish, staunch
Finnish, while _Valamo_, where we landed, is a Russian monastery;
therefore no love exists between the two centres, and few arrangements
are made for the comfort and transport of strangers, with the result
that a couple of steamers go and come as they like; no one knew when
they would start, and much less when they would return. Nevertheless, on
one eventful Sunday morning, the longest day of the year, we were
hoisted on board the _Baallam_ (the V, true Russian fashion, had turned
into a B) from our little boat below, and seated ourselves comfortably
on the vessel which belongs to the famous monastery. Though we had been
in many ships, manned by many types of sailors, from the swarthy Moor to
the short sturdy Icelander, the agile Italian to the fearless Norseman,
we here encountered a class of sailor we had never seen before.
He was tall and lank and lean; he wore a sort of long gown of black
cloth, green on the shoulders with age, and frayed at the elbows, while
a girdle of plaited wool encircled his waist. He had no collar or cuffs,
but his feet were encased in long sea-boots, which peeped out from under
his petticoats, and his hair--well, his hair hung over his shoulders
almost to his waist, and on his head was placed a high round black-cloth
cap. He was like no class or form of sailor we had ever seen before. He
was something weird and uncanny. His face was neither bronzed by the sea
nor tanned by the sun, but had an unhealthy pallor about it, and his
sunken eyes looked wistfully over a world of which he seemingly knew
nothing. Yet he was a sailor, this antithesis of a Jack Tar, and he was
also--a Russian monk! His hands were none of the cleanest, his clothes
none of the sweetest; but it was not salt water that made them so--it
was oil and age.
We were well armed with an introduction to the _Igumen_ or head of the
monastery, the sort of cardinal or bishop of the island. And we were
also provided with a large basket of provisions, since no one can get
anything at _Valamo_ except such food as the monks eat and cook
themselves, not but that their food is generally good enough as simple
fare goes; but at the precise time of our visit there happened to be a
great fast in the Greek Church, during which it is impossible to secure
even milk and butter, the monks being forbidden such luxuries. The only
things obtainable were black bread, soup made from cabbage, groats, a
sort of buck-wheat porridge cooked in oil, and small beer or tea. On
such diet or on potato soup, the seventy monks and four hundred
probationers live for _six weeks_ in the height of summer, as well as at
Easter and other festivals. Oil is used profusely in cooking at such
periods as a sort of penance. At other seasons milk and butter are
allowed, fish is eaten on Sundays, and more farinaceous and vegetable
foods enjoyed, although strong beer, wine, and meat are never touched.
Knowing the difficulty of getting food of any kind during one of these
strict fasts, and not being particularly devoted to rancid oil, we asked
a friend to be sure and order for us a good basket of eatables, and,
among other things, a fowl.
It may be well to mention that Frau von Lilly accompanied us on our trip
to _Sordavala_, _Valamo_, and _Imatra_, acting as guide, cicerone, and
friend. Being an excellent linguist, and well versed in the manners and
customs of her country, her aid was invaluable; indeed, it is to her we
owe much of the success of our summer jaunt to Finland. At _Sordavala_,
however, we were joined for a few days by a young Finlander, whose
family name is a household word in _Suomi_, and who, though still
youthful, having inherited the wisdom of his ancestors, and kindly
patronising ways, proved such an excellent courier, organiser, and
companion, that in joke we christened him "Grandpapa," finding his
wisdom far beyond his years.
Poor Grandpapa! How we teased the youth, how we imposed upon his good
nature; but through it all he emerged victorious, and has the
gratification of knowing he finally escorted two Englishwomen through
some of the wild untrodden paths of his native land, and shipped them
for home, alive and well, and none the worse for strange
experiences--experiences not unmixed at times with a spice of danger.
Such were our travelling companions, joined later by Grandpapa's
handsome sisters, and a very delightful student, whose father is one of
the best-known men in Finland; to say nothing of a young baron, a
magister, and a General, who accompanied us for a day or two at
different points along our route, and then left us again, to attend
other calls of duty; often our party increased to six, eight, or ten, so
we were always well looked after.
To Grandpapa was entrusted the ordering of a fowl for _Valamo_, for the
party of four.
"What? A whole fowl?" he asked.
"Certainly. Surely you would not provide half a fowl for four people,
would you?"
"No. But I might provide four fowls for one person, which would be more
suitable."
We smiled a sickly smile, at what we supposed to be an attempt at
Finnish humour too profound for our weak intellects to grasp, or perhaps
our smile veiled the hidden sarcasm we felt within at such poor fun.
Grandpapa forgot the fowl; but in his sleep he suddenly awoke from a
dreadful nightmare, during the horrors of which that cackling creature
glared upon him in the enormity of his sin. Next morning he was up
before the chickens' elderly friends, the cocks, began to crow, and ere
they had completed their morning song, well--the stock of the farmyard
was lessened.
Before we steamed away from the little pier, the basket of eatables
arrived, and we went off happy in the possession of a fowl, sardines,
cold eggs, tea, white bread and butter, a large bottle of milk, to say
nothing of a small cellar of birch-bark plaitings which formed a
basket, containing Lager beer and soda water. All this, as written down,
may seem a too goodly supply, but be it remembered we were three healthy
women who had to be provisioned for thirty-six hours; Grandpapa did not
come with us to the monastery.
Two hours' steam over the northern portion of that enormous lake brought
forty islands, which form a group called _Valamo_, in sight, with the
great white and blue-domed Russian church standing out clearly against a
lovely sky. This building took four years to finish. The monks built
nearly all of it themselves, made the bricks, carved the wood, painted
the walls, ceilings, etc., and did all the goldsmith's work for lamps
and altars. It is very massive, very great, catholic in its gaudy style,
but sadly wanting tone. Much may, however, be accomplished by the kindly
hand of time, which often renders the crudest things artistic, as it
gently heals the wounds of grief.
We were struck by the size of the place; close beside the monastery and
large church was a huge building, a sort of hotel for visitors,
containing two thousand beds! They are small rooms and small beds, 'tis
true, but at times of great pilgrimages and Greek festivals they are
quite full. No one pays; hospitality, such as it is, is free; the
visitor merely gives what he likes to the church on leaving. But the
monks, who dispense hospitality gratis, do a roaring trade in
photographs and rosaries, and are very pressing to sell them to
strangers, not that they need be, as the monastery is noted for its
riches. It certainly does not display any sign of wealth on the backs of
its inhabitants, for some of their long coats looked green and yellow
with age, and we were not surprised at their shabby appearance when we
learned that they each only had one coat a year in which to do all their
work, no matter how dirty that work might be. Are they not there to
mortify the flesh and learn economy? What is the want of raiment when
compared with the wants of the soul?
They are given triennially an enormous thick fur coat, cap, and gloves,
so their wardrobes are not large, and some of the men seem to take
little interest in keeping even their few garments clean or tidy.
Beyond this hostelry with its two thousand beds, which was built by the
monks to house their better-class visitors, is yet another large
building for the use of the poorer pilgrims, who sometimes come in
hundreds at a time to do penance at this famous monastery. Besides the
two vast barracks for strangers, are stables for eighty horses, a shed
for sixty cows, large gardens, piers, and storehouses, so that _Valamo_
is really a huge colony, a little world, not entirely inhabited by men,
however, for many of the pilgrims are women, while several of the
scrubbers and cleaners in the hostelries are old wives.
Leaving the boat we walked up a hill, and then up some wide steps,
behind the white stone copings of which purple and white lilac nodded
and scented the air. This staircase was more like one in the famous
Borghesa Gardens at Rome than anything we could have expected to meet
with in the north-east of Europe, mid-way between Britain and Siberia.
Passing under an archway we found ourselves in a huge courtyard; just
opposite to where we stood was the refectory. On the right the church,
Or rather two churches, for the one is really built over the other,
appeared looking very imposing. All around the quadrangle were the
cells. Each monk had one for himself, as well as a novice to attend on
him, such are his privileges; in the other cells two novices are housed
together, and have to take it in turns to keep their small and
comfortless abode clean and tidy.
It was a wondrous sight that met our view. The mid-day meal was just
over when we arrived, four hundred and seventy men were streaming out
of the dining-hall. How strange they looked, each man clothed in a long
black robe like a catholic priest, and each wearing his beard unshaven
and his hair long, for, in imitation of our Lord, they let their hair
grow to any length, never touching it with steel; the locks of some few
fell almost to their waist, but, as a rule, a man's hair does not seem
to grow longer than his shoulders, although cases have been known where
it has reached the knee. Strange to say, at _Valamo_ most of the monks
had curls, and a lovely sort of auburn seemed the prevailing colour of
their hair. If they had only kept it nicely, the wavy locks and pretty
warm colour would have been charming, but in most instances it was dirty
and unkempt. Their faces and hands were as dirty as their coats, and
altogether the idea that cleanliness is next to godliness seemed to be
totally wanting in that island; still there were exceptions, and two of
them luckily fell to our lot.
We stood on the steps of the church transfixed. It seemed such a strange
scene. It was no religious ceremony, merely the return of the monks and
novices from their mid-day meal in the refectory, but yet the spectacle
was fascinating.
Out of the door came the great _Igumen_; his face was kindly, and his
locks hung over his shoulders. His cloth hat almost covered his eyes,
and his long black veil fell behind him like a train. A crucifix and a
cross lay upon his breast, and he walked with the stately tread of a
Pope. He was followed by his monks clad in the same high straight cloth
hats--like top hats in shape but minus the brim--from which also fell
black-cloth veils. When in church long-trained skirts are added by the
monks, who remain covered during most of the service; every one else
uncovering.
On walked the _Igumen_ with lordly mien, monks, novices, and pilgrims
bowing and crouching before him, some of them kneeling and touching the
ground with their foreheads many times, others kissing his hands, or
even the hems of his garments. Each and all were pleading for some holy
privilege.
The lower grades followed the priests respectfully. Novices of the
monastery kissed the ordinary monks' hands, for the latter of course are
holy and worthy of much reverence, or the monks and novices fell upon
one another's necks as they did in the old Bible days. We thought at
first they were kissing, but we soon saw their lips merely touched first
one shoulder and then another, a more usual salutation than a handshake
in the monastery. Such obeisance from man to man was wonderful, and the
overpowering delight in the faces of the pilgrims was striking, as they
accomplished the deeds of reverence they had come so many hundreds of
miles shoeless to perform. Sometimes as many as three thousand pilgrims
arrive in one day.
To the great _Igumen_, as he neared his door, we gave our letter of
introduction; he quickly glanced at it, then, turning to a handsome
young novice standing near, spoke a few words, and, with a wave of his
hand, a sweet smile and distant bow, passed on.
Forward came the young man. He was about six feet high, thin and
lithesome, very cleanly and gentlemanly in appearance, with the most
beautiful face imaginable, the sort of spiritual countenance one finds
in the old masters when they strove to represent St. John, and his soft
auburn hair fell on his shoulders with a round curl at the end. He was a
type of a beautiful boy, twenty years of age perhaps.
Doffing his black cloth cap, he said--
"Vielleicht die Damen sprechen deutsch?" (Perhaps the ladies talk
German?)
"Gewiss" (certainly), we answered, only too delighted to be addressed in
a language we knew amongst those Russian-speaking folk.
Then he continued, "If you allow me I will show you our homes. The
_Igumen_ has put me entirely at your disposal."
He spoke so charmingly and so fluently, we could not refrain from asking
him where he had learnt to speak such excellent German.
"My mother is German," he replied, "but my father is Russian, and,
therefore, I must belong to the Orthodox Church." Of course, it is a
known fact that if the father belongs to the Greek Church all the
children must belong to that church, and once Greek always Greek.
He seemed to have a sad look in his eyes as he said this, and we asked
if he liked being in the monastery. "Of course. Certainly. It is quite
of my own free will."
He laid great emphasis on _my own free will_, but, somehow, there was a
ring in his voice that made us feel there was more force than truth in
the assertion, and, being urged by curiosity, we led the conversation
back to the same theme later in the day.
He took us to the guest's apartment first. We passed under a large
archway, where, bidding us wait a moment, he ran on to a couple of
priests, who were sitting like sentinels at either side of a
staircase, and, after some parley with them, returned and explained he
had arranged for us to have room No. 25.
We discovered subsequently that all the women's rooms were on the first
floor, and those of all the men on the second; husbands and wives
invariably being separated.
Our guide courteously asked us to follow him, and, accordingly, down a
long and somewhat dark corridor we wandered to No. 25. The walls of the
gallery were plainly whitewashed, and ornamented only by an occasional
small picture of a saint, before which most passers-by paused and
crossed themselves.
No. 25 proved to be but a tiny room, a sort of long cupboard, containing
three little wooden beds, two chairs, and one stool, which latter served
as a wash-hand stand; there was besides a small table in the window, and
positively nothing else. It could not have been more sparsely furnished,
and it could not have been smaller, for there was only enough space to
pass up and down between the beds. It savoured of a ship's cabin, yet it
was the honoured guest-chamber of a monastery where hospitality coupled
with strict simplicity reigned.
Ere leaving us with the most gracious of bows, our new friend explained
he would return anon.
At once we unpacked our small bundle, and arranged our luncheon basket,
so that on our return, in an hour's time, after visiting the gardens,
for which our novice had gone to fetch the key, we might have something
to eat.
When we re-entered our tiny chamber for that festive meal, we asked
Brother Sebastian, who had meantime charmed us by his gracious kindly
ways, if he would join us.
He looked sadly and wistfully at the viands, ere he answered, "No, thank
you, Gnädige Frau--I must not."
There really seemed no harm in feeding the poor ill-nourished monk, so,
spite of the refusal, we begged him out of sheer humanity to change his
mind, and have some of our precious chicken.
"I ought not to eat with strangers," he replied. "A little tea and
bread, however, I will take, if you please; such small luxuries are
allowed in fasting time, but I must not have any sardines or fowl, or
cheese, or butter, or milk, thank you," he continued, as we handed each
in turn.
It seemed as though we had been reckoning without our host. Where, oh!
where, was the much-discussed chicken? Each parcel we opened proved to
be something else, and we looked from one to the other amazed. Grandpapa
was not there to ask, but Grandpapa had told us the story of his dream,
a mere phantasy of crowing chanticleers, and we began to fear he had
never ordered that chicken at all.
We were really getting more than anxious when the last parcel--a very
small one--lay in its white paper at the bottom of that basket.
Even Brother Sebastian began to share our anxiety and sorrow, as he
consolingly told us no meat, fish, or fowl was to be procured for love
or money on the Island. Slowly and sadly we undid that little parcel,
and lo! happily sitting on the white paper were three small pigeons.
"No chicken, but small pigeons," we exclaimed--"how ridiculous; why,
they are so tiny there is nothing on them."
Yet it turned out the creatures were not pigeons but the typical fowls
eaten in Finland during the month of July. Almost as soon as the baby
chicken has learnt to walk about alone, and long before he is the
possessor of real feathers, his owner marks him for slaughter; he is
killed and eaten. Very extravagant, but very delicious. A Hamburger fowl
or a French poussin is good and tender, but he is nothing to be compared
with the succulent Finlander, whose wishing-bone is not one inch long.
Having devoured a whole fowl for my dinner, I brought away the small
bone as a memento of a ravenous appetite--unappeased by an entire spring
chicken.
Brother Sebastian smiled at the incident, and we tried to persuade him
to change his mind and join us; he looked longingly at the modest
dainties which seemed to bring back recollections of the days when he
lived in the world, and enjoyed the pleasures thereof, but he only
said--
"Besten Dank, meine Dame, but my conscience will not let me eat such
luxuries. I cannot take more than the Church allows in fast times--the
tea and bread is amply sufficient, for this is white bread, and that is
a delicacy I have not tasted for years; all ours is black and sour. I
should like to eat a sardine, but my conscience would kill me
afterwards, you see."
As we did not wish to kill the unsophisticated youth, we pressed him no
further.
What a picture we made, we four, in a far-away chamber of the _Valamo_
Monastery with that beautiful boy sitting on the queer coverleted couch.
He told us that three years previously he had "made a fault." We did not
ask of what nature, and he did not say; he only stated that his father
who was a high official in the Russian Army, had, on the advice of the
priest, sent him here to repent.
"Was it not very strange at first?"
"Yes, for you see we live in Moscow, and my father knows every one, and
there are many grand people always at our house. It seemed difficult to
me because most of the inmates here are peasants, and once within the
monastery walls we are all equal; we are all men, and God's servants.
Rank counts as nothing, for no one knows our names except the _Igumen_
himself. When we enter we give up our garments, our money, our identity,
and clothe ourselves as servants of the Church until we leave again, or
take the vows of monks and give up the world for ever."
"How do you become monks?" we inquired, interested.
"We cannot do so till we are thirty years of age--we are novices at
first, and free to go away, but at thirty we can decide to take the
vows, give up all we possess, and dedicate our lives to the Church, if
we desire to do so. Then our name is struck off the police rolls."
"You are lost, in fact?"
"Yes, lost to the world, for although while novices we can get away
occasionally for a time on important business, once we become monks it
is hardly possible to obtain leave of absence. A monk," he continued
proudly, "wears a tall hat, has a room to himself, is waited upon by a
probationer, sits at the upper table, and leads a much easier life as
regards all kinds of work."
He had spoken such splendid German, this fine young fellow with the
sympathetic eyes, through which his very soul shone, that we again
complimented him.
"I used to speak some French," he said; "for we had a French governess,
as children, and always spoke that language in the nursery; but since I
have been here there has been so little occasion to employ it, I have
quite forgotten that tongue. Indeed, in four years--for I have stayed
some months beyond my time of punishment--I find even my German, which,
as I told you, is my mother's language, getting rusty, and I am not sure
that I could write it in _Latenischen-Buchstaben_ now at all."
"What a pity," we exclaimed, "that you do not read French and German so
as to keep your knowledge up to date."
"We are not allowed to read anything that is not in the Cloister
Monastery," he replied, "which for the most part only contains
theological books, with a few scientific works, and those are written in
Russian, Hebrew, Slavonic, and Greek, so I have no chance, you see."
"Do you mean to say you have no opportunity of keeping up the knowledge
you already possess?"
"Not that kind of knowledge. I love botany, but there are no books
relating to botany here--so I am forgetting that also. We never read,
even the monks seldom do."
"But you have the newspapers," we remarked, horrified to think of a
young intellect rotting and mouldering away in such a manner.
"I have not seen a newspaper for nearly four years, never since I came
here. We are not allowed such things."
"But you said you were sent here for only three years' punishment--how
does it happen you have remained for nearly four?"
"Because I chose to stay on; you see I have lost touch with the world.
My parents sent me here against my will, now I stay here against their
will, because they have unfitted me by the life I have led here for that
from which I came."
We listened appalled.
"Will you tell me some news, kind ladies?" he added, the while a
mournful look came into his face, "for, as the _Igumen_ said I might
take you round to-day and stay with you, I should like to hear
something to tell the others to-night."
"What sort of news?" we asked, a lump rising in our throats as we
realised the sadness of this young life. Gently born and gently bred,
educated as a gentleman, for nearly four years he had mixed with those
beneath him, socially and intellectually, until he had almost reached
their level. He lived with those by birth his inferiors, although he
kept himself smart and clean and tidy.
"Oh!" he said, "I remember Home Rule was written about when I last saw
the papers. Home Rule for Ireland like one has in Finland."
Hardly believing in his total innocence of the outer world, we asked--
"Does no one ever really see a paper in this monastery?"
"The _Igumen_ does, I think, no one else; but I did hear, through
visitors, that our young Tzarwitch had been made Tzar lately."
Oh! the pity of it all. Talking to this beautiful boy was like speaking
to a spirit from another world.
We ransacked our brains as to what would interest an educated young man,
whose knowledge of the events that had engrossed his fellows for four
whole years was a perfect blank.
"Have you heard of horseless carriages and flying machines?" we asked.
"No. What are they; what do you mean? Don't joke, please, because every
true word you say is of value to me, you see," he said, in an almost
beseeching tone, with a wistful expression in his eyes.
It was very touching, and we almost wept over his boyish pleasure at our
description of modern doings. We told him of everything and anything we
could think of, and he sat, poor lad, the while sipping tea without milk
or sugar as though it were nectar, and eating white bread, as if the
most tasty of French confections.
"You _are_ good to me," he said; "you are kind to tell me," and tears
sparkled in his eyes.
"Why, why," in distress we asked him, "do you stay here?"
"It is very nice," he said, but we heard that strange ring again in the
voice of that beautiful boy.
"But to live here is selfish and wrong; you live for yourself, you do
not teach the ignorant, or heal the sick; you bury yourself away from
temptation, so there is no virtue in being good. Ignorance is not
virtue, it is knowledge tempered by abstinence that spells victory. You
are educated in mind and strong in body; you could do much finer work
for your God by going into the world than by staying at _Valamo_. You
ought to mix among your fellows, help them in their lives, and show them
a good example in your own."
"You think so?" he almost gasped, rising from his seat. "So help me,
God! I have been feeling as much myself. I know there is something wrong
in this reposeful life; I feel--I feel sometimes--and yet, _I am very
happy here_." A statement it was quite impossible to believe.
We spoke to him very earnestly, for there was something deeply touching
about the lad, and then he repeated he was free to go if he chose. He
explained that when his penance was performed and he was free to leave,
some months before, he had become so accustomed to the life, so afraid
of the world, that he chose to remain. But that, latterly, doubts began
to trouble him, and now, well, he was glad to hear us talk; it had done
him good, for he never, never before talked so much to strangers, and it
was perhaps wrong for him to do so now. If such were the case, might
Heaven forgive him.
"But come," he finished, as though desirous of changing the subject, "I
must show you our refectory."
We had become so entranced by the boy, his doubts and fears, that we
rose reluctantly to follow the gaunt youth, whose bodily and mental
strength seemed wasting away in that atmosphere of baleful repose.
He showed us the great dining-hall where the wooden tables were laid for
supper. There were no cloths; cloths being only used for great
feast-days, and the simplicity was greater than a convict prison, and
the diet far more strict. Yet these men chose it of their own free will.
No wonder our starving classes elect to live in prison at the country's
expense during the cold winter months, and to sleep in our public parks
during the summer; such a life is far preferable, more free and yet well
cared for than that of the Russian monk.
Little brown earthenware soup plates, with delicious pale-green glazed
china linings, stood in front of every monk's place. Benches without
backs were their seats, and tall wooden boxes their salt-cellars. On
each table stood a couple of large pewter soup-tureens filled with small
beer; they drink from a sort of pewter soup ladle, which they replace on
the edge of the pot after use.
What about germ disease in such a place, O ye bacteriologists? But
certainly the average monk looks very ill, even when presumably healthy!
In the olden feudal days in England meals were arranged in precisely the
same way, as may be seen to-day in College Halls at the Universities or
the London Temple. Here in the Monastery the raised dais at the end was
occupied by the _Igumen_, seated on a chair of state; his most important
monks were next him, then came the lower grades, and below the wooden
salts sat the novices and apprentices.
Three meals a day are served in this hall, a long grace preceding and
closing each, and a certain number of the younger men are told off to
wait on the others, which they have to do as silently as possible, while
portions of the Bible are read out by a monk during each meal from a
high desk.
After leaving the dining-room we went over the workshops, where in
winter everything of every sort is made; these four hundred and seventy
men--if they do not work for the outer world--work for themselves and
their island home. They build their churches and other edifices, make
the bricks and mortar, their coats and clothes, their boots and shoes,
mould their pottery, carve their wooden church ornamentations, shape
them in plaster, or beat them in metal. There are goldsmiths and
joiners, leather tanners and furriers, amongst them, and during the long
dreary frozen winters they all ply these trades. Verily a small body of
socialists, each working for the general good of the little colony.
It is then they make the sacred pictures, the _ikons_ for which the
monastery is famous, which, together with rosaries and photos, are sold
during the summer months to visitors. When these things are disposed of
the monks count their profits and make their bills by the aid of
coloured balls on a frame, such as children sometimes learn to count
with. There are five red balls on one bar, five yellow on another, etc.,
and by some deft and mysterious movement of these balls the monk, like
any ordinary Russian shopkeeper, quickly makes up his bills and presents
his account.
"You must come in one of our pilgrim boats to another of our islands,"
said our friend Sebastian, to which proposal we readily agreed.
What a boat it was! Talk of the old Viking ships that sailed to America
or Iceland, and held a couple of hundred persons. The _Valamo_ pilgrim's
boat did not fall far short in bulk and capacity of those old historic
craft. Six oars on each side, and three or four men at each, with plenty
of room in the well, or at the stern and bows, for another hundred
persons to stow themselves away. We were not pilgrims, and the _Igumen_
had kindly ordered a steam launch to tug us. Some fifty or sixty other
visitors took advantage of the occasion and accompanied us on our "water
party."
It was certainly very beautiful and most unique. Monks in all ages and
all countries have ever seemed to pitch upon the most lovely spots of
mother earth in which to plant their homes, and our friends at _Valamo_
were not behind in this respect.
We were amazed at the beautiful waterways, constantly reminding us of
the backwaters in the Thames. On the banks we passed farms;
splendid-looking creameries, where all the milk was now being made into
butter or cheese for the winter--luxuries denied, as has been said
before, to _Valamo_ during the fasting season.
We came to a primitive pier, where the trees hung right over the sides,
the leaves dipping into the water. It was very secluded, very beautiful,
and wonderfully reposeful. Our path lay through a lovely wood, where
wild flowers grew in profusion, among them a kind of wild orchid with a
delicious perfume, and the small wild arum lily. It is strange that such
rare plants should grow there, when one remembers that for six or eight
months of the year the land is ice-bound. On the island we visited a
small church, within the sacred precincts of which no woman's foot dare
tread, but we had a peep at another chapel where a hermit once lived. He
never spoke to any one for seven years, and slept nightly in his coffin,
in which he was not buried, however, it being necessary to keep the
article for visitors to gaze upon.
On our return we much enjoyed a cup of tea in our cloister chamber,
where the Russian _samovar_ was boiling in readiness. It was not long
ere the sonorous monastery bell tolled six, and every one turned towards
the church for service, which was to last till about nine
o'clock--service of that duration being a daily occurrence. Every one
stands the whole of the time. After nine o'clock the monks and novices
go to bed, but at three A.M. the great bell rings and they all have to
get up again for another service, which lasts for two or three hours
more. Altogether at _Valamo_ about five or six hours out of every
twenty-four are spent in prayer.
During the winter months every one in the monastery has to be present at
both the day and night services, namely, stand or kneel on bare flags in
the church for the time just mentioned. In summer the authorities are
not so strict, and provided all attend the service every night, and the
second one two or three times a week, nothing is said about a couple or
so being missed.
Being a monastery church, all the men stood on one side, the women,
visitors, and pilgrims on the other, during the service at which we were
present. Afterwards, in the Greek Churches in St. Petersburg, we found
that the sexes were not divided in this manner.
It was the first time we had participated at a Russian service, and the
chief impression left on our minds was the endless movement of the
congregation. They were everlastingly crossing themselves, not once, but
two or three times running, and every few minutes they all did it again;
then about every twelfth person would kneel down, and putting his hands
on the floor before him touch the ground with his forehead like the
Mohammedans when they pray to the Prophet, and tell their beads as true
monks tell theirs. One man we watched go down _forty times running_ and
cross himself three times between each reverence! A penance, no doubt,
but a penance unlikely to do any one much good, at least so we could not
help thinking.
Again, a woman, a poor fat old pilgrim, who got on her knees with the
greatest difficulty, remained with her forehead on the ground for at
least five minutes, till we really began to wonder if she were dead; but
at last she rose after some trouble, for we had to help her up, and we
fervently hoped that was the end of her penance, poor old soul. Not a
bit of it; a quarter of an hour afterwards she was down again and when
we left she was still praying. Then a strange-looking sort of priest
came and stood beside us, instead of joining the other men who clustered
round the _Igumen's_ throne or before the altar. After scrutinising him
for some time, surprised at a man standing among the women, we
discovered _he_ was a _she_ come on a pilgrimage to pray. She of strange
garb was an abbess!
The reverence in the Greek Church is far more living than it now is in
the Church of Rome, though outwardly both are so much alike to the
outsider. The Catholic priests cannot marry, while the priests in the
Greek Church may do so.
We were getting very tired of standing listening to the monotonous
reading of the psalms, watching the priests walking about in their long
black robes, taking their hats off and on, and endlessly kneeling or
bowing to the great _Igumen_ who stood during the whole ceremony on a
carved wooden throne covered with scarlet velvet. The singing was very
unequal. The choirs came in from both sides of the altar twice, and
formed themselves into a half circle on the floor of the church--as
choirs used to do at the representations of the Greek plays of old. We
were well-nigh suffocated with incense and the strange odour that
emanates from a Russian peasant, and had begun to think of those queer
little wooden beds in which we were to pass the night--and what a
contrast the primitive cell was to that gorgeous glittering church--when
we saw our "beautiful boy" beckoning to us.
We followed him out.
"I have bad news for you," he said; "your boat for to-morrow is to leave
to-night--in half an hour."
"Why?" we asked, aghast.
"The other passengers desire to leave to-night and proceed by way of the
_Holy Island_ back to _Sordavala_; they all wish it, so the captain is
going."
"But is there no other boat for us?"
"None to-morrow," he replied.
"But it was arranged to leave to-morrow," we faltered. "We took our
tickets on that understanding; we have unpacked here; we are prepared
for a night in a monastery, and have given up our rooms at _Sordavala_."
"It is of no avail," he said; "the greatest number carry the day here,
and the others all want to go. I have done my best, but it is of no
use."
We rushed to our cloister-chamber, bundled our things into a bag, and
marched off to the boat, sorry indeed to miss our night in the
monastery, and still more sorry to leave that beautiful youth behind on
his island home, an island which rises solitary from one of the deepest
parts of the vast _Ladoga_ lake--rises like a pyramid over a thousand
feet through the water, and yet remains almost hillless on the
surface, though covered with dense foliage. As we glided over the
perfectly still water, we saw the blue domes of the new church in the
sunlight, towering above the woods like the guardian angel of the
island.
We had made friends with several of the monks who spoke a little French
or German, and who came to see us off and wish us a pleasant journey.
They followed our steamer along the banks and waved good-bye again and
again, especially Brother Sebastian, who had spent nearly twelve hours
in our company during that glorious summer day.
What would become of him, we wondered. Would he waste his life among
those men, so few of whom were, socially or intellectually, his equals,
or would he return to the world?
Drops of water make the ocean, and grains of sand build up the universe:
would he, atom though he was, return to his position in society, lead an
honest, noble, virtuous life, and by his influence help his nation?
_Holy Island_ was perhaps more beautiful than _Valamo_, and although so
near to _Valamo_ the natural features were entirely changed. Here the
rocks rose straight out of the water for a hundred feet or more, like a
perpendicular wall, but lying very much deeper under the sea, as the
iceberg does--they were such strange rocks, they looked as if they were
sliced down straight by man's hand, instead of being nature's own work.
We landed and walked along a wonderful pathway, hewn out of the side of
the solid rock, from which we looked sheer down into the water below;
here and there the path was only made of wooden plankings, which joined
one rock to another over some yawning chasm below. Suddenly we came upon
a cave, a strange wee place about fifteen feet long and four wide, where
a holy friar had once lived and prayed, although it was so low he was
unable to stand upright. An altar still remains with its ever-burning
lamp, but the religious element was rather spoilt, when a couple of
monks met us and asked the gentlemen for cigars, though smoking is
prohibited by their sect.
On this island the wild arum lilies we had before noticed grew
profusely, while the vegetation everywhere was beautiful, and yet eight
or ten feet of snow covered the ground all through the long winter. As
we left _Holy Island_, it was past ten o'clock at night, and yet what
could that be? We were far away from land, and still there seemed to be
land quite close to us. What could it mean? It was a mirage. Such a
mirage is sometimes seen on the vast _Ladoga_ lake as in the plains of
Egypt, and vastly beautiful it was. A fitting ending to a strangely
beautiful day we thought, as we softly glided over the water.
It was the longest day of the year, and when at eleven P.M. we neared
_Sordavala_ the sun had not set. Its glorious reflections and warm
colourings stirred our hearts' inmost depths, and bathed us in a sweet
content as we sat silent and awed, dreaming of the strangely pathetic
story of that beautiful boy.