Peasant Vasily Vasiliev was born in 1757 in the family of a farmer from the village of Akulovo. In the footsteps of his father, the guy, having barely learned to read and write, decided not to go and went to waste fishing. There was one more reason for making this decision - he was forced to marry an unloved girl, who, however, gave birth to Vasily (after short visits to his native land) three children.
The vow must be kept
According to historians, while working at the shipyards of Kherson, Vasily contracted cholera and made a vow: if he remains alive, he will devote the rest of his life to serving God. As it appears. The Almighty listened to the prayer. As a result, the recovered carpenter went on foot to St. Petersburg, where his master Lev Naryshkin served as chamberlain at the imperial court. He, having penetrated into the request of his serf, gave Vasily his freedom, and after a short wandering he found shelter in the Valaam monastery, taking tonsure with the name Adam.
In 1787, a vision came to him: the Lord God told him about the secrets of the future and ordered him to convey these predictions to the people. And after taking the tonsure, Adam went on a nine-year journey, as a result of which he ended up in the Nikolo-Babaevsky monastery of the Kostroma diocese.
And here, in a cell by a candle, he set out on paper the first revelation: how long the Empress Catherine II had to live. He gave the manuscript to his boss, Bishop of Kostroma and Galician Pavel. He, having familiarized himself with the contents of the letter, went into a rage: even he, the "Apostle Paul", was not free to predict the fate of the rulers of the empire. After that, the enraged lord informed the governor.
As a result, Adam ended up in the capital, where, in a Secret Order, Prosecutor General Samoilov, after Catherine II, having learned her future, fainted, changed more than one pair of bloody gloves, personally knocking out heresy from the uncut. After that, by the highest decree, Adam was sent to the casemates of the Shlisselburg fortress. However, he did not stay there for long - 10 months. Until the moment when Catherine II suddenly died as a result of an apoplectic stroke, practically keeping within the period of stay on earth allotted to her by the prophetic wanderer.
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"Kind" Pavel
After the death of the empress, her son Paul I ascended the throne. Having learned about the soothsayer, he demanded that the prophet appear before his eyes. What the conversation was about in private remained a secret, but the disgraced defrocked did not return to prison. From now on, a new monk Abel appeared in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. However, the amnestied did not stay here for a long time and moved to the more familiar Valaam monastery.
Having settled in a secluded skete, after a while he presented his benefactor with a “gift” - he wrote a “book” in which he predicted the death of Paul I: “Your kingdom will be short. Against Sophronius of Jerusalem, in your bedchamber you will be strangled by the villains whom you warm on your chest. In addition, there was a clarification: the last year of life will be the number of letters on the pediment of the residence under construction - the Mikhailovsky Castle.
It is clear that such a revelation enraged the autocrat, and he ordered Abel to be imprisoned in the casemates of the Alekseevsky Ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress. Alas, the prediction came true this time too. On the night of March 11-12, 1801, Paul I was killed in a palace coup at the age of 47. Alexander I, his son, decided not to spoil his mood, having learned about the date of his death, and ordered to send the monk to hell, namely to the Solovetsky monastery.
It seems that here visions regarding the fate of the new monarch did not visit Abel. Maybe he just realized the perniciousness of such predictions for himself. But it was here, in a gloomy cell, in 1803 that he wrote another "book" about "how Moscow will be taken and in what year", in which he predicted the seizure of the Mother See by Napoleon's troops in 1812. Alexander, who learned about this opus after the event had taken place, not only ordered the release of the monk from imprisonment, but gave him his freedom - a passport, a residence permit in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra and the right to freely move around the empire. Yesterday's prisoner did not fail to take advantage of this mercy and went on a journey to the holy places, visiting Constantinople, Athos and Jerusalem as a pilgrim.
Herald of trouble
Having returned to Russia, the wanderer was in no hurry to return to the holy monastery, since in Moscow he found a high-ranking patroness Countess Praskovya Potemkina. Then it was fashionable to keep the poor with you. Therefore, Abel was full, dressed and shod. However, even after the death of the countess, the monk did not remain without the attention of the dignitaries of high society. Therefore, he, assigned this time to the Vysotsky monastery in Serpukhov, preferred to travel to Moscow and travel to the estates of wealthy landowners in its district to spending time in a cell.
Naturally, such a guest was greeted with open arms - everyone expected new divinations from him. For example, rumors circulated around Belokamennaya that it was Abel who predicted the Decembrist uprising in 1825. But this popularity of the monk went sideways. At the beginning of 1826, Countess Kamenskaya, a lady of state and widow of a field marshal, turned to the soothsayer with the question: "How soon will the coronation of Nicholas I?"
The countess hoped that, as is customary on such solemn occasions, the new monarch would present his entourage with gifts. In particular, she wished to receive the Order of St. Catherine, I degree. However, Abel replied: "The coronation will not please you." Apparently, well aware of the palace secrets and intrigues, he knew that Kamenskaya's invitation to the solemn ceremony would not be sent. The fact is that at that time the countess was in disgrace: a riot took place in her estate, as a result of which the manager was killed, and this became public. But Abel's statement among the broad masses was interpreted unequivocally: "The coronation will not take place at all!"
Upon learning of this, Nicholas I ordered the troublemaker to be arrested and roughly punished. The soothsayer, who foresaw this, hastened to hide. It was only in 1827 that the fugitive was detained in his native village of Akulovo. By imperial command, the fugitive monk Vasily Vasiliev was sent for further detention to the detention house of the Suzdal Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery, which at that time was the main prison for the guilty clergy. There, in 1841, the hero of our story ended his life, and his body was buried in the monastery cemetery.
Around the personality of "Russian Nostradamus" controversy continues to this day. The only reliable document in this story is the third-person, but clearly autobiographical story "The Life and Suffering of Father and Monk Abel", which was published in 1875 by the magazine "Russian Starina". But not one of the "books", manuscripts with prophecies, has so far been found. There is evidence that Abel accurately predicted the date and year of his death.
There are versions that the known predictions were not the only ones. Like, the soothsayer told about many more unpleasant moments of the future of the Russian Empire. For example, about the lost Crimean and Russian-Japanese wars and even about the fate of the last Russian emperor. As Maria Geringer, the chief chamber-frau of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, testified in her memoirs, in the cache of the Gatchina Palace there was a package sealed personally by Pavel I. He made the inscription “Reveal our descendant on the centenary day of my death” on it.
Allegedly, the papers contained other predictions of Abel. Nicholas II fulfilled this requirement. But what was in the message remained a mystery, although, according to Goeringer, the emperor left the office gloomy and thoughtful. It is possible that he got acquainted with his future. The further fate of these papers also remained unknown.
Magazine: Mysteries of History No. 32, Sergey Uranov