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RIA Novosti
The revival of Spaso-Preobrazhenskiy Valaam monastery is an example of that in the end good will win, said the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill in the homily after the festive divine Liturgy at Valaam monastery on the occasion of the main feast day of the monastery.
The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church is annually visited Valaam monastery on memorial day its founders St. Sergius and Herman of Valaam (July 11). On this day the monastery was visited by the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to the Patriarch, he first visited the island in 1969, and then it seemed that there was no hope for the revival of an ancient monastery, founded in the first century of Christianity in Russia. In Soviet times, half a century on the Balaam was not a monastic life, temples have been desecrated. The restoration of the monastery began in 1989.
“And the Lord from the ashes revived the monastery, and not just the walls of the monastery, bringing Valaam monastery superficially in a state that was not even in those glorious times past, but — perhaps most important — the abode of living a full monastic life,” the Patriarch said in a sermon after the Liturgy.
He added that this example of the revival of Valaam all clearly shows that, in the end, “evil will be defeated.” He said that often he has to hear the words of people who are in despair because they think that “evil is totally dominated”.
“I am deeply convinced that no despair can not be. Because evil will be defeated, evil prevails temporarily. And sometimes we do not have enough of a lifetime to see how evil is defeated, and sometimes all-taki we and the life witness such a victory”, — said the Patriarch.
“Overcoming the evil that is reality, man is able to increase, to grow, to fight evil, to sow good and truth. And by the end of this fight will be the end of the world, when justice will be fully revealed”, — concluded the Patriarch.