These thirty-four Venerable Fathers of the Monastery of the Transfiguration at Valaam on Lake Ladoga bravely offered their lives for the holy Orthodox faith, on 20 February 1578.
They were massacred by a company of converts to Lutheranism, who, after beleaguering the monastery, had vainly tried to make them renounce Orthodoxy.
Since the day of their martyrdom an office of commemoration has been celebrated for them each year in the katholikon of the monastery.
The names of these holy confessors and martyrs are: Hieromonk Titus and Tikhon, and the monks Gelasius, Sergius, Barlaam, Savvas, Conon, Sylvester, Cyprian, Poemen, John, Simon, Jonas, David, Cornelius, Niphon, Athanasius, Serapion, and the novices Athanasius, Luke, Leontius, Thoma, Dionysius, Philip, Ignatius, Basil, Pachomius, Basil, Theophilus, John, Theodroe, and John.
Their memory was officially recognized by the Patriarchate of Moscow in August 2000.
