The Pskov-Pechersky Monastery invites workers for the spring-summer period

Through the works of the brethren of the Valaam Monastery: “On obedience” The word obedience speaks for itself: obedience means obeying. The main thing is to treat this spiritually.

Our contacts

Email Phone/answering machine: +7 (812) 902-86-05

Employee questionnaire

Before writing a letter or calling, please read the following text.

If you don't get through, please leave your name and phone number on our answering machine and we will call you back. Please give your phone number slowly, clearly, in numbers.

Regulations on workers

If you want to live and work for the glory of God for some time in the Valaam Monastery, please read the “Regulations on Workers” adopted in our Monastery.

We accept working men and women throughout the year

. Including in winter. In order to come to us as a worker, you must fill out a worker form.

If you have already worked with us as a worker, please do not forget to indicate this with a tick in the application form.

Due to the fact that the number of places in the monastery hotels intended for working men and women is limited, arrivals have been introduced for the period of the pilgrimage season. This is done so that the largest possible number of people can come. The minimum duration of stay is two weeks. Those wishing to come during the pilgrimage season must coordinate their arrival and departure dates with the arrival schedule

(see below).

Outside the period covered by the arrival schedule, arrival and departure dates must be agreed upon with the Deanery Service

.

You must take with you a passport, medical insurance, work and casual clothes, personal hygiene items, funds for return travel, medications for the flu, colds and chronic diseases, if any. There is virtually no medical care on the island, and the pharmacy is very limited.

Workers live in hotels separately from pilgrims. Men and women are separated. Clean bed linen is provided. Food and accommodation for workers - free of charge.

The monastery cannot accept minor children as workers, including those accompanied by adults.

The monastery can unilaterally limit the length of stay of a worker suffering from a passion for smoking to one visit.

Information for employees

Status

• Currently, the monastery accepts
  workers.

Rules

When visiting a monastery, observe order and rules in the place of residence of those who have decided to undertake a monastic feat, and who respect hospitality as one of the most important Christian virtues.

• Violation of the rules may raise the question of further stay in the monastery.

To live in the monastery, you must receive the blessing of the abbot and have a passport. Reception of guests and workers is free of charge, to the glory of God. The monastery provides a place in the pilgrimage hotel and food, according to the monastery Charter.

When you come to the monastery, remember that here they ask for a blessing for everything and strictly fulfill it. It is forbidden to leave the monastery without a blessing.

You cannot laugh or talk loudly, smoke, shoot videos, take photographs or use the phone; you are prohibited from wearing shorts, T-shirts, or sportswear. Conversations are only about spiritual things, they don’t talk about worldly life.

You cannot go to other cells, except when directed by the abbot. Upon entering another cell, they say aloud a prayer: “Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us.” And they don’t come in until they hear the answer: “Amen.”

Errors in each other's work are covered with love. Mutual discontent between the brethren, encountered during general obediences, is endured patiently and humbly. This acquires experience in spiritual life and love for one's neighbor.

Unlike in the world, handshakes are not accepted when greeting. Instead of “thank you,” it is customary to say: “Save, Lord.”

Confession of the brethren and pilgrims is performed at the all-night vigil. Separately, at a time agreed upon with the abbot, a spiritual interview can be held.

Schedule

The pilgrim must follow the daily routine, come to the temple on time for services and for the common fraternal meal, and ensure cleanliness and order in the cell. Due to the early start of the service, the monastery has a night rest from 22:00.

• 04:00-05:00 — Cell rule
• 05:00-09:00 — Midnight Office, Matins, 1, 3 and 6 Hours, Liturgy
• 9:00-11:00 — Personal time
• 11:00 — Meal
• 11:30-17:00 — Obediences
• 17:00-18:00 — Rest
• 18:00 - 9th hour, Vespers
• 19:15 - Evening meal (there is no evening meal on Wednesday and Friday (except for continuous weeks)
• 19:30 — Lesser Compline
• 20:00-22:00 — Personal time

After Compline, from 20:00 there is a time of silence in the monastery (all business and conversations stop). Everyone should be in their cells and engaged in spiritual work.

On Sundays and holidays Divine Liturgy at 09:30.

On the eve of holidays and Sundays, All-night vigil at 20:00.

meal

At the table at the meal they are silent and listen to the reading of spiritual teachings.
Pilgrims are blessed to drink tea. The teahouse is open: on weekdays - 15:00-16:00, 19:30-20:00, on Sundays and holidays - 13:00-20:00. Share:

Schedule of arrivals for working men and women for 2021

(changes in the arrival schedule are possible due to the epidemiological situation)

Trips marked with an asterisk (*) are subject to mainland connections.

Types of jobs

If you think that you can work as a secretary, PR manager, copywriter or designer of a monastery website, then you are sorely mistaken. Physical labor is what you will have to face. By the way, it is precisely because of hard work that some monasteries set restrictions on age and health.

As a rule, monasteries require:

• carpenters, masons, tilers, plasterers, painters, general workers (carrying heavy loads, digging, unloading);
• blacksmiths, welders, mechanics and car mechanics;
• seasonal workers: in summer and autumn for collecting and processing crops in the monastery garden, in winter for collecting firewood and clearing snow from the monastery territory;
• cleaners, laundresses;
• cooks, kitchen workers (wash dishes, peel and grate vegetables, clean fish, break spaghetti - in monasteries they eat with spoons, stir porridge in a cauldron, sort out cereals and dried fruits from beetles);
• tractor drivers and drivers (if the farm is large);
• workers for gardens and parks, vegetable gardens, flower beds, apiaries, barnyards;
• restorers;
• tour guides (in rare cases - for monasteries where many pilgrims come);
• helpers on holidays (for example, at the bottling of blessed oil - monitor the filling of bottles, stick labels).

The availability of “vacancies” in the profession of interest should be checked with each monastery specifically. Moreover, it is worth contacting the monastery in advance (telephone numbers, email, contact person, website address can be obtained from the diocese) and find out whether there are free places for a particular period. Workers are temporary people in the monastery; they can come for two or three days or a month and a half, and the monastery hotels or guest houses are not rubber.

A worker is not always “assigned” to a certain specialization. Today you will be sent to lay tiles, tomorrow to throw manure, the day after tomorrow to weed potatoes, and then to help in the bakery. Objections, disputes and whims are not accepted and may cause the employee to be sent home.

Joining the brethren of the monastery

Procedure for joining the brethren
What stages must be completed before enrolling in the monastery brethren as a novice?

After a certain amount of time has passed, usually from a year to two years, provided that the worker has a confessor, it becomes possible to enroll him in the brethren of the monastery as a novice. Seeing the worker’s readiness to enroll in the brethren, the confessor nominates his candidacy for consideration by the Spiritual Council of the monastery (which includes the abbot of the monastery and the elder brethren), and after a positive decision, the future novice begins to collect the necessary documents. Official entry into the brethren occurs after the approval of the relevant resolution by His Holiness the Patriarch.

A worker who has arrived at the Valaam Monastery and has a desire to devote himself to monastic feats should no longer have circumstances holding him back in the world, such as elderly parents or family abandoned to the mercy of fate, unpaid debts or prosecution.

Responsibilities

The worker observes the internal regulations, rules and customs of the monastery.

The worker follows the rules of the monastic society and hierarchy - he obeys the abbot, obeys his elders, and does not stand apart. If the abbot orders you to leave the monastery, pack up and leave as soon as possible, without any “warn two weeks before dismissal” and “I’ll go to the labor commission.”

The worker attends all services and participates in the ritual life of the monastery. And this takes no less time than work - about eight hours a day are usually allocated for prayer and worship.

Responsibility for violation of the regime.

6.1. In the event of a single violation by an employee of the provisions of clauses 5.12 and 5.19 of the employee’s regime of stay, or when the employee commits any illegal act qualified in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation as administratively or criminally punishable, or when it is revealed that the employee has concealed information about his illnesses specified in clause 2.8 of the Requirements to the workers, the worker will be asked to leave Fr. Valaam on the nearest vehicle heading to the mainland.

6.2. If a worker repeatedly violates the provisions of paragraphs 5.1, 5.3, 5.4, 5.6, 5.10, 5.13, 5.17, 5.20 of the Worker’s Rules of Stay, the worker will be asked, during a conversation with an employee of the General Secretary’s office or the Dean of the monastery, to state the reasons that prompted him to violate the requirements of the Rule.

6.3. In all other cases, the extent of the worker’s responsibility for violating the worker’s Rule of Stay is determined by the Dean of the monastery based on the results of a conversation with the violating worker.

Organizational events.

Workers are delivered to the island. Valaam cargo monastery ship departing from the pier of the Valaam Monastery in Priozersk, Leningrad Region on the day of arrival at 14:00. The ship travels for about 4 hours. Travel on the ship requires a donation. Workers must independently arrive at the monastery pier in Priozersk no later than 13:30, register at the duty office of the hotel service at the pier, fill out and take with them a worker form (for those who come to Valaam as a worker for the first time) or a regular worker form (for those workers who have already once checked in at the Hotel Service office on the island). If the employee has previously sent his form to the Hotel Service office by fax or e-mail, then there is no need to fill out the form at the berth.

You can get from St. Petersburg to Priozersk by electric train from Finlyandsky Station or by bus No. 859 from Devyatkino metro station (travel time in both cases is about 3 hours). The most convenient way to get from Priozersk station to the monastery pier is by taxi (travel time no more than 10 minutes).

Workers traveling to Valaam from Karelia can use passenger ships traveling to Valaam from the Sortavala pier; travel time ranges from 1 hour to 2.5 hours depending on the type of ship. However, information about the schedule of such ships can be obtained from the duty office of the Hotel Service only the day before, in the afternoon.