 In 1940, the monks bought an estate named "Hiekka" (‘Sands’) from the Saastamoinen company in Keitele, and the monastery continued to function there until 1956.The monks returned for a brief period during the Continuation War, but withdrew on 19 June 1944, ten days after the Soviet Union began the Offensive on the Karelian Isthmus, even though the Soviet troops never conquered the island or the adjacent shoreline on the isthmus.