Elder Abel: main predictions for Russia. The prophecy of monk Abel: the death of three Russian emperors and the death of the empire Paul 1 and monk Abel

In Orthodox publications of the 19th–21st centuries you can find biographies of the monk Abel (in the world of the peasant Vasily Vasilyev), who lived at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. In many of them, the monk Abel appears before us as a true Christian ascetic, who possessed the gift of prophecy and suffered from the authorities for his predictions. A number of sources refer him to the ascetics of piety and even to the reverend fathers. Some authors believe that his predictions were and continue to be important for the historical destinies of Russia.

What do we know for sure about this man? Before trying to answer this question, without considering the works of those authors who wrote about Abel, based on various kinds of information about him, let us consider the published primary sources of information about the life of the monk Abel.

Monk Abel

1. Published primary sources of information

1) Memoirs of Abel’s contemporaries

These are brief memoirs of A.P. Ermolov, recorded from his words by a certain relative of his, the famous poet and hero of the war of 1812 D. Davydov, the memoirs of the famous historian M.V. Tolstoy, “Notes” of I.P. Sakharov, as well as the memoirs of L. . N. Engelhardt. Separately, it is necessary to point out a brief mention of the predictions of Abel by St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov).

2) Documents and their fragments

A) An article entitled “The Soothsayer Abel. New authentic information about his fate”, published in the magazine “Russian Archive” in 1878, represents, according to the anonymous author, “an extract from the” archival “Case of the peasant Vasily Vasilyev, who is in the Kostroma province in the Babaevsky monastery under the name of Hieromonk Adam , and then called Abel, and about the book he composed. Started on March 17, 1796, 67 sheets.”

The article provides: 1) Extracts from a secret letter from Governor General Zaborovsky to Prosecutor General Count A. N. Samoilov in connection with the arrest of the monk Abel dated February 19, 1796. 2) Protocol of the interrogation of Abel dated March 5, 1796 in the Secret Expedition. Investigator A. Makarov. 3) A court decision to imprison Abel in the Shlisselburg fortress. 4) Rescript from Emperor Paul to Prosecutor General Prince A.B. Kurakin on the release of Abel from the Shlisselburg fortress dated December 14, 1796. 5) Excerpts from Abel’s letters to Emperor Paul, Prince A.B. Kurakin, Metropolitan Ambrose. 6) Excerpts from letters from Metropolitan Ambrose of St. Petersburg to Prosecutor General Obolyaninov dated March 19 and May 29, 1800 and from other letters and documents.

It should be noted that this author, outlining the life path of the monk Abel, provides some information about him without references to documents. The reliability of this information is problematic due to the fact that it is not always infallible. Thus, the author incorrectly indicates the year of death of the monk Abel - 1841 (p. 365).

B) In another anonymous article “Foreteller Monk Abel” in the magazine “Russian Antiquity” for 1875, the following works of the monk Abel were published: 1) “The Life and Suffering of the Father and Monk Abel” (with notes containing “some mystical fabrications” (p. 415 –416)), written, according to the author of the article, apparently by himself. Let us note that a number of historians who wrote about Abel did not raise doubts that the authorship of the “Life” belonged to Abel. 2) A fragment from the treatise “The Life and Vitae of our Father Dadamius,” which is a version of the presentation of the “Life” of the monk Abel. Dadamius was the name with which Abel sometimes signed his letters. This new name (“Dadamei”), according to Abel, was given to him by “the spirit.” According to the author of the article, in this case he has no doubt that this work belongs to Abel. 3) An excerpt from Abel’s treatise “The Book of Genesis” - an interpretation of the first book of the Bible. 4) The author points to a notebook in his possession that belonged to Abel, where “on 28 pages there are various symbolic circles, figures with letters of the Slavic alphabet and abacus, with them there is a brief interpretation.” Two of this kind of symbolic tables from another similar notebook of 64 pages are published on pp. 428–429, and Abel’s interpretation of them is on pp. 427 in a footnote.

The author also points to Abel’s treatises at his disposal: 1) “The Legend of the Being that is the Being of God and Divinity,” 2) “Genesis Book One,” 3) “The Church Needs of the Monk Abel,” as well as 12 letters from Abel to the Countess P. A. Potemkina for the years 1815–1816 and Abel’s letter to V. F. Kovalev, manager of Countess P. A. Potemkina’s factory in Glushkovo. Excerpts from letters to Countess P. A. Potemkina are given.

IN) Another issue of the magazine “Russian Antiquity” publishes documents collected by N.P. Rozanov: 1) Presentation of the contents of the Consistory certificate to St. Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow about the monk Abel dated 1823. 2) Order of St. Philaret on the assignment of monk Abel to the Vysotsky Monastery in Serpukhov dated October 6. 1823 3) Copies of Abel’s letters to a certain Anna Tikhonovna and spiritual father Dorimedont, 1826. 4) Presentation of the report on Abel’s escape from the Vysotsky Monastery and presentation of the contents of other documents.

3) Publications of historians based on the analysis of documents

A) M. N. Gernet’s book “History of the Tsar’s Prison” (Vol. 1), which sets out some information about Abel, extracted from the “Case of the peasant Vasily Vasilyev, who was in the Kostroma province in the Babaevsky monastery” (Archive of the era of feudalism and serfdom. VII . No. 2881) (P. 109) and documentary data from the archives of the Spaso-Euthimius Monastery in Suzdal (P. 174).

B) Important information about the date of Abel’s death is given in the work of A. S. Prugavin, who first published secret documents about prisoners of the Savior-Euphemius Monastery in Suzdal.

As for unpublished documents, we will point out, in addition to the “Case of the peasant Vasily Vasilyev, who was in the Kostroma province in the Babayevsky Monastery,” and excerpts from Abel’s “Book of Genesis” (Central State Archive of the October Revolution. F. 48. Item 13).

2. Arrests and predictions. Documentary data

Little is known about the life of monk Abel from published documents. According to the research of M. N. Gernet, based on the analysis of documents, “he (Monk Abel) came from peasants and was a serf of Naryshkin. Having received his freedom, he became a monk and made a pilgrimage to Constantinople. He was not only literate, but also a writer of mystical religious manuscripts. During interrogation, he testified that he had a vision: he saw two books in heaven and wrote down their contents<…>In the manuscript, “copied from the heavenly book,” they found both a deviation from Orthodoxy and a crime against “Majesty.” The verdict and decree of Catherine indicate that the author of the manuscript is subject to the death penalty, but, by the mercy of the Empress, he is sent to eternal imprisonment in the Shlisselburg fortress. From here Paul freed him. He spent the time from May 1800 to March 1801 in the Peter and Paul Fortress, from where he was exiled to the Solovetsky Monastery, but in the same year (October 17, 1801) he was transferred from prisoner to monk.” Finally, Nicholas I “imprisoned Abel in the Spaso-Efimevsky Monastery.” Thus, according to the data cited by Gernet, Abel was imprisoned at least three times, and his imprisonment was carried out at least twice by the highest command.

The most detailed documents have been published related to the circumstances of Abel's first imprisonment in 1796. Some important materials from the 1796 case will be specifically discussed below. It is important to note that, according to historians, at this time there is not a single case of falsification of investigative materials by security agencies, similar to the known falsifications of the NKVD-KGB in the twentieth century.

As for subsequent conclusions, the published documentary materials concerning the causes and circumstances of these events, as well as the life of Abel in general, are very scarce. We present what we know from published documents in connection with the circumstances of these arrests.

Abel’s secondary imprisonment in May 1800 followed the discovery of a certain “book” and “sheet” written by himself under scandalous circumstances during his presence in the Valaam Monastery (report of Metropolitan Ambrose of St. Petersburg to Prosecutor General Obolyaninov). After familiarizing themselves with the contents of this leaflet, the Obolyaninovs received the highest order (from Paul I) to imprison Abel in the Peter and Paul Fortress. As the anonymous author of the article in the “Russian Archive” writes, “Abel’s prediction about the death of Paul the First probably dates back to this time.” There is no evidence of this prediction and information about the true reasons for bringing Abel from the Valaam Monastery to St. Petersburg and his imprisonment this time in published documents.

In March 1801 (after the death of Paul I and the accession of Alexander I), Abel was transferred by order of Metropolitan Ambrose to the Solovetsky Monastery for imprisonment, where no later than October 17 of the same year, by decree of the Holy Synod, he was released and became one of the monastics of this monastery. Based on published documents, it is impossible to determine either when Abel left the Solovetsky Monastery or the circumstances of his departure. According to the same anonymous author, “released, Abel wrote a third book foreshadowing the capture of Moscow by the enemy, for which he was again imprisoned for many years in the Solovetsky Monastery.” Unfortunately, this information is not supported by the anonymous author with any documentary references.

He further writes that in 1812 Abel was removed from the Solovetsky imprisonment by the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, Prince Golitsyn. Abel’s release followed the order of Emperor Alexander I of November 17, 1812, after which, as this anonymous writer writes, he began to lead a wandering life, “lived in the Kursk province with the famous rich man Nikanor Ivanovich Pereverzev, and settled in Moscow, in the Sheremetyevo hospital, then at the Trinity of Sergius.”

Placed by order of St. Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, in the Serpukhov Vysotsky Monastery on October 24, 1823, Abel escaped from it in 1826 and lived again in the world, which was the reason for his forced imprisonment in the prison of the Spaso-Efimievo Monastery “for humility” by order of Nicholas I in the same year; here the monk Abel died in 1831 (for the problem associated with the date of his death, see below).

If we summarize the available published documents as a whole, then among them there is no reliable data about Abel’s predictions that came true. This kind of information, however, could be withdrawn during publication in the 19th century for censorship reasons.

3. Predictions and arrests. Memoirs of contemporaries

The memoirs of contemporaries give us the following picture of the life and predictions of the monk Abel.

1) Prediction about the death of Empress Catherine II and the details of her death. First arrest

In the stories of A.P. Ermolov we read: “Once at the table of Governor Lump, Abel predicted the day and hour of the death of Empress Catherine with extraordinary faithfulness.” The memoirs of D. Davydov also talk about the exact prediction (day and hour!) of the death of Catherine II. Davydov's text repeats word for word the text of Ermolov's stories. In the memoirs of M.V. Tolstoy we read: “After that he (Abel) left the island of Valaam and moved to the Nikolsky Babayevsky Monastery, here he compiled and wrote his first prophetic legend: in it he predicted the death of Empress Catherine II, for which he was immediately demanded to St. Petersburg and imprisoned in the casemate of the Peter and Paul Fortress. The prediction soon came true.” We find similar information about Abel’s prediction of the death of Catherine II and his subsequent placement in the Peter and Paul Fortress in the memoirs of L. N. Engelhardt, with the only difference that, according to Engelhardt, the arrest took place after a personal meeting with the Empress. However, we do not find any direct evidence of this prediction in the memoirs of contemporaries. As we will find out later, Abel, in connection with his prediction about the date of death of Catherine II, was imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress, and not in the Peter and Paul fortress. This prediction itself, as will become clear later, was false in its content and did not come true, or we are dealing with several of his predictions about the time of the empress’s death, mutually exclusive in content.

2) Prediction of the death of Paul I. Second arrest

In Ermolov’s stories we read: “Having returned to Kostroma, Abel also predicted the day and hour of death of Emperor Paul. Conscientious and noble police officer, Lieutenant Colonel Ustin Semenovich Yarlykov<…>hastened to inform Ermolov about this. Everything that Abel predicted literally came true.” We read the same thing literally in the memoirs of D. Davydov. In Engelhardt’s memoirs we read: “After the death of the empress (Catherine), the emperor ordered, freeing him, to present him to him; Then he predicted to him how long his reign would last; the sovereign at that very moment ordered him to be imprisoned again in the fortress.” The circumstances of Abel’s second imprisonment were completely different, as we saw above when analyzing the documentary materials. In the memoirs of M.V. Tolstoy - “At dinner with the Kostroma governor Lumpa, Abel predicted the time and details of the death of Emperor Paul. The soothsayer imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress was soon released with the same rights.” As it turned out above from the documents, Abel was placed in the Peter and Paul Fortress under Paul I and from there he went not to freedom with the same rights, but in conclusion to the Solovetsky Monastery, where he remained for some time, perhaps about six months in prison.

There are no direct eyewitness accounts of Abel’s predictions in the memoirs about the circumstances of the second arrest. The contradictions in the content of the memories with each other and with documentary facts are obvious.

3) Prediction about the war with Napoleon. Third arrest

“A few years later, Abel again made a prophecy about the entry of Napoleonic hordes into Russia and the burning of Moscow. For this prediction, he was imprisoned in the Solovetsky Monastery, but from there he managed to be released, using the patronage of Prince A. N. Golitsyn, the constant patron of Quakers, Illuminati, Masons and other mystical persons,” wrote M. V. Tolstoy. L.N. Engelhardt: “A year before the French attack, Abel appeared before the emperor and predicted that the French would enter Russia, take Moscow and burn it. The Emperor again ordered him to be imprisoned in the fortress. After expelling the enemies, he was released.” As follows from the documents, Abel was released in 1812 not from the fortress, but from the Solovetsky Monastery. “Monk Abel, who predicted the capture of Moscow by the French, said that the time would come when the monks would be driven into several monasteries, and other monasteries would be destroyed,” wrote Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov). Finally, we repeat once again that, according to the anonymous author of the article, Abel predicted the capture of Moscow by the French long before the invasion, for which he was sent to Solovki for many years of imprisonment (see above). Again, in the memoirs of contemporaries we do not find a single direct evidence of the prediction and we discover contradictions in the information provided and inconsistency of the information provided with the facts.

4) Prediction about the death of Alexander I, the uprising on Senate Square on December 14, 1825 and the accession of Nicholas I

“He (Abel) submitted a petition to be admitted to the Serpukhov Vysotsky Monastery, where he entered on October 24, 1823. Soon Abel's new prediction spread throughout Moscow - about the imminent death of Alexander I, the accession to the throne of Nikolai Pavlovich and the riot of December 14. This time the soothsayer was left without persecution. His last prophecy came true, just like the previous ones,” wrote M.V. Tolstoy. According to Engelhardt, “since 1820, no one has seen him (Abel), and it is not known where he went.” There is no mention of this prediction in the memoirs of Davydov and Ermolov. Once again we see contradictions in information and a lack of direct evidence.

5) Prediction about the reign of Nicholas I

“Abel was in Moscow during the accession of Nicholas to the throne; he then announced about him: “The serpent will live thirty years,” wrote D. Davydov. Other memoir writers do not mention this fact.

6) Prediction about one circumstance of the coronation of Nicholas I

“In the spring of 1826, he (Abel) was in Moscow. The coronation of Nicholas I was already being prepared. Countess A.P. Kamenskaya asked him; will there be a coronation and will it be soon?<…>Abel answered her: “You won’t have to rejoice at the coronation.” These words spread throughout Moscow, and many explained them in the sense that there would be no coronation at all. But their meaning was completely different: Countess Kamenskaya was subjected to the wrath of the Sovereign because on one of her estates the peasants disobeyed, outraged by the cruelty of the manager, and the Countess was forbidden to come to the coronation,” wrote M.V. Tolstoy.

Finally, in the “Notes” of I.P. Sakharov, it is only indicated that Abel wrote down his “visions on small notebooks, of which there are many floating around the world.”

Thus, among the memoirs of contemporaries we do not find a single direct evidence of Abel’s predictions. The inconsistency of information given by Abel’s contemporaries, and, on the contrary, their repetition of each other word for word and the discrepancy between the information and real facts indicate a low level of reliability of these sources.

Of all the predictions known from memoirs, only one, the last, had nothing to do with the fate of the powers that be. All of them, except the last two, were published during crisis situations in the history of Russia: 1796 - the end of the reign of Catherine II; 1800 - end of the reign of Paul I; the eve of Napoleon's invasion (possibly a year before the invasion, according to Engelhardt); 1823–1825 - the eve of the uprising on Senate Square. The question is: what were such prophecies that sounded on the eve of dramatic events supposed to contribute to - pacification in the state or sowing chaos?

As we have seen from the memoirs of contemporaries and from published documents, little is known reliably about the predictions of the monk Abel and in general about his personality. And yet, based on the most thoroughly published materials from the case of the Secret Expedition of 1796, his writings and some other materials, it is possible to form a fairly accurate idea of the personality of this man.

4. True face

I'm not a thief or a spy, I'm actually a spirit.

V. Vysotsky

I am the Chairman of the Pound. I always sat. I sat under Alexander the Second “Liberator”, under Alexander the Third “Peacemaker”, under Nicholas the Second “Bloody”... I charge inexpensively: one hundred and twenty rubles a month in freedom and two hundred in prison. One hundred percent increase for harmfulness.

I. Ilf and E. Petrov

The materials of the memoirs testify mainly to the fact that Abel was endowed with the gift of prediction and, perhaps, was a saint of God. However, his own writings and some documents tell a different picture.

1 . Demon's charm. Abel, according to his statements, received his revelations “from above,” hearing voices or seeing visions. What character were they? During his first arrest during interrogation in the Secret Expedition of May 5, 1796, Abel expressed doubts about the Divinity of their nature and at the end of the interrogation he even admitted that the voice that told him about the reign of Catherine II and Paul I was demonic. Thus, it can be argued that even according to his words, his acceptance of the aforementioned “revelation” and the prophetic predictions that he made and disseminated on its basis were at least a manifestation of frivolity on his part. However, during the interrogation he stood up for the authenticity and Divinity of at least one of his “revelations” (see below).

However, in “The Life of Monk Abel,” written by Abel himself, apparently much later, the attitude towards the revelations for which he first came under investigation changes again to the opposite - it is stated that he wrote a book “wise and wise” , which was the reason for his first arrest and imprisonment. Note that the “revelations” received from the voice and recorded in this book were indeed the reason for the arrest.

Metropolitan Ambrose of St. Petersburg, who spoke with him on May 29, 1800, also spoke about the delightful nature of the “revelations” to Abel: “...From the conversation (with him) I did not find anything worthy of attention, except for the insanity in his mind that was revealed in him, hypocrisy and stories about their secret visions, from which the hermits even come into fear. However, God knows.”

As is known from Orthodox ascetic literature, uncontrolled, uncritical acceptance of demonic visions and voices and even simple contact with them often ends in mental damage for the ascetic. The memorandum of Metropolitan Ambrose, quoted above, also speaks of Abel’s mental damage. Abel’s abnormal behavior in the Peter and Paul Prison is indicated by a report from collegiate adviser Alexander Makarov to Prosecutor General Obolyaninov dated May 26, 1800.

Numerous published fragments of his works eloquently testify to the peculiarities of Abel’s thinking - his mental damage. Let's give just a few.

1 ) A fragment from the “Life of Dadamey” is nothing more than a statement of his biography, since the new name Dadamey, according to Abel, was given to him by the “spirit”, who also called him “the second Adam”. The presence of fantastic delusions of grandeur intertwined with heretical distortions of faith is obvious. “He (Dadamius) is in all the firmaments and in all the heavens, in all the stars and in all the heights, in the very essence of them rejoicing and reigning, dominating and ruling in them.”<…>after that he “will reign for a thousand years,” and then “throughout the whole earth there will be one flock and one shepherd in them, then the dead will rise.”

2 ) We see a sad picture of the mixture of gross heresy and delusional constructions of a person who has lost sensitivity to logical contradictions in the text of Abel’s interpretations of the book of Genesis (“Book of Genesis”):

“In the beginning were created firmaments and firmaments, worlds and worlds, powers and powers, kingdoms and states, and then everything else: both creating and reflecting nine real years and two-ten and one spiritual. In real years, think about everything and arrange everything, but in spiritual years, create everything and establish everything.<…>Then create man and above man and above man in every world; and the number of all created people is the same as the number of all worlds: create the God-man in your own image and likeness. Create them husband and wife, give them a name: Gog and Magog, Adam and Eve; Gog and Adam are the husband: and Magog and Eve are his wife; Gog and Magog were first created: and then Adam and Eve were created. Gog and Magog and their seed lived on the earth three thousand and six hundred years before Adam; Gog's land and all his family, all old America and all new America. Adam's land and his entire family, all of Asia and all of Europe and all of Africa - this wretched land<…>Gog and Magog himself lived on earth for all the years of his life, four hundred and two years and four months, then he died and was buried. They all had a hundred and twenty and two children, male and female; and they lived on the earth their entire life, as stated above, for twelve thousand years: their life was simple, in the likeness of cattle and beasts. They were given a natural law, they do everything according to their conscience: but only this generation will be enlightened at the end of the age with faith and piety. Then the entire race of Gogs and the entire race of Adams will die. And other centuries and other generations will arise, and they will live like this forever and unceasingly, and there will be no end to it, so it is. Amen". Note that, according to modern psychopathology, texts of this kind indicate the presence of a severe, so-called paraphrenic delusional disorder of thinking.

However, judging by Abel’s correspondence with Countess Potemkina and other letters, we do not find anything like that in his letters. It is possible that we are dealing with letters written in a state of remission of processes called in psychiatry fur-like, or recurrent schizophrenia. For these forms of disorders, alternation of light intervals and periods of rather gross exacerbation of symptoms is typical. In the recurrent form, during light intervals, a person suffering from this form of mental disorder can behave like an absolutely healthy person.

It seems that a less probable, although not excluded, explanation for the above-described features of the thinking of the monk Abel, reflected in his writings, may be an attempt by him to purposefully create an image of himself as a seer-fool. The presence of genuine foolishness is excluded by the presence of gross heretical distortions of the teachings of the Church both in the above fragments and in his other writings.

2 . False prophecies. We have reliable evidence that Abel was a false prophet, that is, he gave prophecies in the name of God that did not come true. Let's give examples.

1 ) In both versions of the autobiography - in “The Life and Sufferings of the Father and Monk Abel” and in the text of “The Life and Life of our Father Dadamius,” written by him, there is a precise indication that Abel-Dadamius should live 83 years and 4 months. In the studies of historians M. N. Gernet and A. S. Prugavin, who analyzed archival data about prisoners of the Spaso-Euphemius Suzdal Monastery, the exact date of Abel’s death indicated in the documents of the monastery is given - 1831. Abel’s date of birth is 1757. Thus, he lived 74 years, and not 83, as he said in his prophecies.

2 ) Prosecutor General Prince Kurakin, in a letter addressed to Emperor Paul I, wrote that Metropolitan Gabriel of St. Petersburg reproached Abel for his predictions about his future bishopric.

3 ) According to the protocol of interrogation in the Secret Expedition dated March 5, 1796, Abel testified that the following details of the reign of Emperor Paul I were revealed to him “with a voice like Moses the seer of God,” which he was ordered to bring to the attention of the Empress and which he, it seems, introduced and in his prophetic book, the contents of which he disseminated: “When her (Catherine II) son Pavel Petrovich reigns, then the whole Turkish land will be subjugated under his feet, and the Sultan himself, and all the Greeks, and they will be his tributaries; and 2nd, tell her, when this is conquered and their false faith is destroyed, then there will be one faith and one shepherd throughout the whole earth, as it is written in the Holy Scriptures<…>Now go and tell Pavel Petrovich and his two youths, Alexander and Konstantin, that the whole earth will be conquered under them.” The purpose of writing the book was to convey the contents of this “prophecy” to the empress and heir. The contradictions between its content and historical events that took place later are self-evident.

4 ) During interrogation in the Secret Expedition on March 5, 1796, it was found out that Abel predicted in writing that “a son (Paul I) would rise up against her (Catherine II). The defendant’s attempts to prove that he wrote one thing and meant something else led nowhere, the “prophet” ended up in the Shlisselburg fortress, and the “prophecy” was not fulfilled.

5 ) The protocols of the same interrogation in 1796 indicate Abel’s prophecy, the content of which was received by him “from above”; He especially insisted on the Divinity of this “revelation” even in the face of the formidable investigator of the Secret Expedition. We quote Abel: “His mother (Paul I), Ekaterina Alekseevna, our most merciful Empress, reigned for 40 years: for this is what God revealed to me.” Meanwhile, the years of her reign are well known: 1762–1796 - that is, a total of 34 years of reign.

Thus, we see signs of a situation that in Old Testament times was punishable by death. The prophet who dares to say in My name what I did not command him to say, and who speaks in the name of other gods, put such a prophet to death. And if you say in your heart: “How can we know a word that the Lord has not spoken?” If a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, but the word does not come true and is not fulfilled, then it was not the Lord who spoke this word, but the prophet who spoke this out of his boldness - do not be afraid of him.(Deut 18:20–22).

3 . Heresy. According to the report about Abel from Lieutenant General Zaborovsky to Count A. N. Samoilov dated February 19, 1796, “an interrogation was made on him, but without great success, except for the dark testimony about a certain Jew Theodore Krikov, whom Abel recognized as the Messiah and whom he saw in Orle." During the interrogation carried out somewhat earlier by the Right Reverend Paul, Bishop of Kostroma and Galich, Abel called himself “the forerunner of Gog.” Bishop Pavel also testified to Abel's faith in the already accomplished coming of the Messiah expected by the Jews in the person of a certain Jew Theodore Krikov and about his journey to meet with Krikov in the city of Orel. Bishop Paul qualified Abel's views as heresy.

Thus, in general, Abel’s attitude towards Christianity appears before us as vague, and some connection between his views and Judaism becomes almost obvious. The conductors and disseminators of quasi-Jewish ideas at that time, as is known, were the Freemasons. Note that among the works composed by Abel there was a table of “Planets of Human Life” - judging by the name, one can assume that astrology was not alien to him. Some similarity between Abel’s views and the views of the Freemasons is also indicated in the article about him in the “Russian Biographical Dictionary”.

His above comments on the Old Testament history of the origin of mankind are obviously heretical in nature. There is clearly a gross violation of the dogma of original sin. Abel's eschatological prophecies also diverge from the Orthodox tradition - chiliastic ideas are evident in different versions. The views of the monk Abel on the origin of the human race and the future destinies of mankind are reminiscent of some Talmudic legends.

4 . Anti-government orientation of predictions. The predictions of the monk Abel, which were widely publicized, according to the memoirs of contemporaries (see above), sounded quite rarely, and related almost exclusively to future events in the political life of the state. At the same time, the temporary There is a connection between the appearance of these prophecies and crisis situations in the history of Russia. The anti-government nature of his predictions, which could serve as a weapon in the psychological anti-government struggle, cannot but be striking. In 1796 or a little earlier, he published in samizdat in the form of a prophecy a direct political provocation against Catherine II (“a son (Paul I) will rise against her (Catherine II)”) and a prediction about the future prosperity and triumph of Orthodoxy under Paul I (see . higher). During the interrogation in the Secret Expedition on March 5, 1796, the seditious version of the fall of Peter III as a result of a conspiracy on the part of Catherine II (“the emperor fell from his wife”), set out in the “book” of Abel, was discussed and, as was then believed, he distributed it.

If you believe the memoirs of D. Davydov, in 1826 he called Nicholas I the word “snake”. All this suggests that Abel could be used by interested parties to create certain moods in society - whether he “prophesied” himself or whether rumors about his “prophecies” were purposefully spread before the events or after the fact.

It was precisely this politically oriented nature of his predictions that greatly worried government officials. For example, during the interrogation on March 5, 1796, and even after the sentencing, everything related to the above-mentioned provocative prediction of Abel was again discussed in detail and the question of Abel’s connections with other persons was repeatedly raised. Active activities on the part of the Freemasons at that time to influence Paul I and their reliance on him in political plans are well known (the Novikov case). Historians testify to the active participation of Freemasons in all political crises, during which and in connection with which Abel’s predictions were spread.

He was a prophet who predicted the main events of the 19th and 20th centuries. The seer Abel also predicted the death of the Romanov dynasty.

During the reign of Catherine II, a monk-seer lived in the Solovetsky Monastery, his name was Abel. Abel began to prophesy about the death of the empress. The walls, even the monastery ones, have ears - for his predictions, Abel was imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress “under the strongest guard.” After the death of Catherine, who died in exact accordance with Abel’s prophecy, the monk was amnestied by Paul I himself. The Emperor wished to meet with the elder and listen to new forecasts from him. Abel described in detail the death of the emperor, and at the same time the unenviable future of the Romanov dynasty.

"Your reign will be short, and I see your cruel, sinful end. You will suffer martyrdom at the hands of Sophronius of Jerusalem from unfaithful servants; you will be strangled in your bedchamber by the villains whom you warm in your royal bosom. On Holy Saturday they will bury you... They, these villains, trying to justify their great sin of regicide, will declare you insane, will revile your good memory... But the Russian people with their truthful soul will understand and appreciate you and will carry their sorrows to your tomb, asking for your intercession and softening the hearts of the unrighteous and cruel. The number of your years is like counting a beech". (Prophecies of Monk Abel)

The prediction that the Russian people will appreciate Paul I has not yet come true. If a survey were conducted today about the attitude of Russians towards past autocrats, Pavel would certainly be one of the outsiders.

About Alexander I

Abel was released in peace to the Nevsky Monastery for a new monastic vow. It was there, at his second tonsure, that he received the name Abel. But the prophet could not sit in the capital’s monastery. A year after his conversation with Pavel, he appears in Moscow, where he gives predictions to local aristocrats and wealthy merchants for money. Having earned some money, the monk goes to the Valaam Monastery. But even there Abel does not live in peace: he again takes up the pen and writes books of predictions, where he reveals the imminent death of the emperor. Abel is brought in shackles to St. Petersburg and locked up in the Peter and Paul Fortress - “for disturbing the peace of mind of His Majesty.” Immediately after the death of Paul I, Abel was again released from prison. This time Alexander I becomes the liberator. The new emperor warningly sends the monk to the Solovetsky Monastery, without the right to leave the walls of the monastery. There Abel writes another book in which he predicts the capture of Moscow by Napoleon in 1812 and the burning of the city. The prediction reaches the king, and he orders to calm down the imagination of Abel in the Solovetsky prison.

"The Frenchman will burn Moscow down under Him, and He will take Paris from him and call him Blessed. But secret sorrow will become unbearable to Him, and the Royal crown will seem heavy to Him. He will replace the feat of Royal service with the feat of fasting and prayer. He will be righteous in the eyes of God: he will be a white monk in the world. I saw over the Russian land the star of the great saint of God. It burns, it flares up. This ascetic will transform Alexandrov’s entire destiny...". (Prophecies of Monk Abel)

According to legend, Alexander I did not die in Taganrog, but turned into elder Fyodor Kuzmich and went to wander around Rus'.

About Nicholas I

When in 1812 the Russian army surrenders Moscow to the French, and Belokamennaya, as the monk predicted, almost burns to the ground, the impressed Alexander I orders: “Release Abel from the Solovetsky Monastery, give him a passport to all Russian cities and monasteries, provide him with money and clothes.” " Once free, Abel decided not to irritate the royal family any longer, but went on a trip to the Holy Places: he visited Mount Athos, Jerusalem, and Constantinople. Then he settles in the Trinity-Sergeyeva Lavra. For some time he behaves quietly, until, after the accession of Nicholas I, he breaks through again. The new emperor did not like to stand on ceremony, so “for the sake of humility” he sent the monk into captivity in the Suzdal Spaso-Efimovsky Monastery, where in 1841 Abel reposed before the Lord.

"The beginning of the reign of Your son Nicholas will begin with a fight, a Voltairian rebellion. This will be a malicious seed, a destructive seed for Russia. If it weren’t for the grace of God covering Russia, then... About a hundred years after that, the House of the Most Holy Theotokos will become impoverished, and the Russian Power will turn into an abomination of desolation"(Prophecies of Monk Abel)

About Alexander II

After Abel's death, his name was not forgotten. By the end of the 19th century, even a certain cult arose among intellectuals: they wanted to make the monk Abel a Russian Nostradamus. God saved - the letter that Abel gave to Paul I was “waiting in the wings” in the Gatchina Palace. According to the emperor's will, it was to be opened 100 years after Paul's death.

"Your grandson, Alexander II, destined to be the Tsar-Liberator. He will fulfill your plan - he will free the peasants, and then he will beat the Turks and also give the Slavs freedom from the yoke of the infidel. The Jews will not forgive him for his great deeds, they will begin to hunt him, they will kill him in the middle of a clear day, in the capital of a loyal subject with the hands of renegades. Like you, he will seal the feat of his service with royal blood...." (Prophecies of Monk Abel)

About Alexander III

The hundred years expired in 1901. Emperor Nicholas and his family arrived at the Gatchina Palace. According to recollections, they were cheerful and cheerful. However, after reading the letter, Nikolai’s mood seriously worsened.

“The Tsar-Liberator will be succeeded by the Tsar-Peacemaker, his son, and your great-grandson, Alexander the Third. His reign will be glorious. He will besiege the accursed sedition, he will bring peace and order.” (Prophecies of Monk Abel)

About Nicholas II

What I read made Nicholas II think seriously...

« Nicholas II - the holy king, like the long-suffering Job. He will have the mind of Christ, long-suffering and dove-like purity. Scripture testifies about him: Psalms 90, 10 and 20 revealed to me his whole fate. He will replace the royal crown with a crown of thorns; he will be betrayed by his people, as the Son of God once was. The Redeemer will be, he will redeem his people - like a bloodless sacrifice. There will be a war, a great war, a world war. People will fly through the air like birds, swim under water like fish, and begin to destroy each other with foul-smelling brimstone. On the eve of victory, the royal throne will collapse. Treason will grow and multiply. And your great-grandson will be betrayed, many of your descendants will whiten their clothes with the blood of a lamb in the same way, a man with an ax will take power in madness, but then he himself will cry. The Egyptian execution will truly come". (Prophecies of Monk Abel)

About the new turmoil

Perhaps knowledge of fate explains a lot in the behavior of Nicholas II in recent years. His humility before his own fate, paralysis of will, political apathy. The emperor saw his calvary and ascended it. And his fate, like the kings who preceded him, was predicted by the monk Abel.

"Blood and tears will water the damp earth. Bloody rivers will flow. Brother will rise up against brother. And again: fire, sword, invasion of foreigners and an internal enemy, godless power, the Jew will scourge the Russian land like a scorpion, plunder its shrines, close the churches of God, execute the best Russian people. This is God’s permission, God’s wrath for Russia’s renunciation of its God-anointed One. Or else there will be more! The Angel of the Lord pours out new bowls of tribulation so that people will come to their senses. Two wars, one worse than the other. The new Batu in the West will raise his hand. People between fire and flame. But he will not be destroyed from the face of the earth, for he is satisfied with the prayer of the martyred king.". (Prophecies of Monk Abel)

The Jew will scourge the Russian land like a scorpion, plunder its shrines...

A significant role in the dissemination of warning revelations was played by the prophetic monk Abel (Vasily Vasiliev), who foreshadowed the tragic fate of members of the family of the Russian throne and the entire Russian Empire for the sins of the autocratic government. Historical materials have preserved evidence of him as God’s seer; in his spoken revelations he predicted major state upheavals. For this he had to endure a difficult burden of persecution, punishment and imprisonment.

Of his 80 years of life, he spent over 20 years in prison. Monk Abel, as a true prophet of God, who did not strive in earthly life to acquire material values, had a very difficult time carrying out a worthy prophetic service, but with self-forgetfulness, he completely devoted his life to serving the Lord.

The rulers of the Russian state, having heard about God's prophet, immediately called him to them to receive flattering revelations about their rule, glorifying their power, strength and power. According to how it happened before the fierce wrath of the Lord in the corrupt Jewish government: “For this is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not listen to the law of the Lord, who say to the seers, “Cease to see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy.” tell us the truth, tell us flattering things, predict pleasant things” (Is. 30:9-10).

Despite the faces of the Russian government leadership, Monk Abel showed them exactly those impartial revelations of God that they really deserved. Monk Abel pointed out to the Russian emperors about their sinful lives, pointed out the need for correction and appeal to Heaven, warning that otherwise they would suffer a tragic fate.

People who speak the truth to rulers are not liked in any state. They are either liquidated, or “canned” for a long time in prisons, or, if the sovereign is a civilized person, they are simply deprived of citizenship and sent to tell the truth to other sovereigns. Actually, this is understandable. Well, what to do with people who make predictions to rulers? Predictions indicating the exact day of death, and, moreover, in a completely non-royal place - a toilet. “In the days of the great Catherine, there lived a monk of high life in the Solovetsky Monastery. His name was Abel.

He was perspicacious, and had a simple disposition, and because what was revealed to his spiritual eye, he announced it publicly, not caring about the consequences. The hour came and he began to prophesy: such and such a time would pass, and the Queen would die, and he even indicated what kind of death. No matter how far Solovki were from St. Petersburg, Abel’s word soon reached the Secret Chancellery. A request to the abbot, and the abbot, without thinking twice, sent Abel to the sleigh and to St. Petersburg; - and in St. Petersburg the conversation is short: they took and put the prophet in a fortress ... "This is how they act as prophets in their own country. For his predictions, Abel was imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress “under the strongest guard.”

True, the essence of the prophecy, unfortunately, did not change. After Abel’s prediction, as they say, came into force - Catherine the Great died on that very day and in that very place - the monk was amnestied by Paul I himself. The Emperor wished to meet with the elder and hear new forecasts from him. Abel described in detail the death of the emperor, and at the same time the unenviable future of the Romanov dynasty. Paul I swallowed all this, ordered the elder to give a prediction in writing; This is how a sealed envelope appeared in the Gatchina Palace... Abel was released in peace to the Nevsky Monastery for a new monastic vow. It was there, at his second tonsure, that he received the name Abel.

But the prophet could not sit in the capital’s monastery. A year after his conversation with Pavel, he appears in Moscow, where he gives predictions to local aristocrats and wealthy merchants for money. Having earned some money, the monk goes to the Valaam Monastery.

But even there Abel does not live in peace: he again takes up the pen and writes books of predictions, where he reveals the imminent death of the emperor. The monk does not have the habit of writing on the table, so the entire monastery learns about the contents of the “centuries” of the Russian Nostradamus. After some time, by order of the emperor, Abel was brought in shackles to St. Petersburg and locked up in the Peter and Paul Fortress - “for disturbing the peace of mind of His Majesty.” Immediately after the death of Paul I, Abel was again released from prison. Alexander I is already becoming the liberator of the prophetic monk. The new emperor warns that he sends the monk further away, to the Solovetsky Monastery, without the right to leave the walls of the monastery. There the monk writes another book in which he predicts the capture of Moscow by Napoleon in 1812 and the burning of the city.

The prediction reaches the king, and he orders to calm down the imagination of Abel in the Solovetsky prison. But then 1812 comes, the Russian army surrenders Moscow to the French, and Belokamennaya, as the monk predicted, almost burns to the ground. Impressed, Alexander I orders: “Release Abel from the Solovetsky Monastery, give him a passport to all Russian cities and monasteries, provide him with money and clothes.” Once free, Abel decided not to irritate the royal family any longer, but went on a trip to the Holy Places: he visited Mount Athos, Jerusalem, and Constantinople. Then he settles in the Trinity-Sergeyeva Lavra. For some time he behaves quietly, until, after the accession of Nicholas I, he breaks through again. The new emperor did not like to stand on ceremony, therefore, “for the sake of humility,” he sent the monk into captivity in the Suzdal Spaso-Efimovsky Monastery, where in 1841 Abel introduced himself to the Lord. For 60 years this name did not annoy the House of Romanov, until one fine morning Nicholas II opened the envelope of Paul I.

What did Abel predict?

About Paul I

“Your reign will be short, and I see, sinner, your cruel end. You will suffer martyrdom at the hands of Sophronius of Jerusalem from unfaithful servants; you will be strangled in your bedchamber by the villains whom you warm in your royal bosom. On Holy Saturday they will bury you... They, these villains, trying to justify their great sin of regicide, will declare you insane, will revile your good memory... But the Russian people with their truthful soul will understand and appreciate you and will bear their sorrows to your tomb , asking for your intercession and softening the hearts of the unrighteous and cruel. The number of your years is like counting beech trees.” The prediction that the Russian people will appreciate Paul I has not yet come true. If today we were to conduct a survey about the attitude of Russians towards past autocrats, then Pavel would certainly be one of the outsiders.

About Alexander I

“The Frenchman will burn Moscow down under Him, and He will take Paris from him and call Him Blessed. But secret sorrow will become unbearable to Him, and the Royal crown will seem heavy to Him. He will replace the feat of Royal service with the feat of fasting and prayer. He will be righteous in the eyes of God: he will be a white monk in the world. I saw over the Russian land the star of the great saint of God. It burns, it flares up. This ascetic will bring about Alexandrov’s entire destiny...” According to legend, Alexander I did not die in Taganrog, but turned into elder Fyodor Kuzmich and went to wander around Rus'.

About Nicholas I

“The beginning of the reign of Your son Nicholas will begin with a fight, a Voltairean rebellion. This will be a malicious seed, a destructive seed for Russia. If it weren’t for the grace of God covering Russia, then... About a hundred years after that, the House of the Most Holy Theotokos will become impoverished, and the Russian Power will turn into an abomination of desolation.”

About Alexander II

“Your grandson, Alexander II, destined to be the Tsar-Liberator. He will fulfill your plan - he will free the peasants, and then he will beat the Turks and also give the Slavs freedom from the yoke of the infidel. The Jews will not forgive him for his great deeds, they will begin to hunt him, they will kill him in the middle of a clear day, in the capital of a loyal subject with the hands of renegades. Like you, he will seal the feat of his service with royal blood...”

About Alexander III

About Nicholas II

“To Nicholas II - the holy Tsar, like the long-suffering Job. He will have the mind of Christ, long-suffering and dove-like purity. Scripture testifies about him: Psalms 90, 10 and 20 revealed to me his whole fate. He will replace the royal crown with a crown of thorns; he will be betrayed by his people, as the Son of God once was. The Redeemer will be, he will redeem his people - like a bloodless sacrifice. There will be a war, a great war, a world war. People will fly through the air like birds, swim under water like fish, and begin to destroy each other with foul-smelling brimstone. On the eve of victory, the royal throne will collapse. Treason will grow and multiply. And your great-grandson will be betrayed, many of your descendants will whiten their clothes with the blood of a lamb in the same way, a man with an ax will take power in madness, but then he himself will cry. The Egyptian execution will truly come.”

About the new unrest in Russia

“Blood and tears will water the damp earth. Bloody rivers will flow. Brother will rise up against brother. And again: fire, sword, invasion of foreigners and an internal enemy, godless power, the Jew will scourge the Russian land like a scorpion, plunder its shrines, close the churches of God, execute the best Russian people. This is God’s permission, God’s wrath for Russia’s renunciation of its God-anointed One. Or else there will be more! The Angel of the Lord pours out new bowls of tribulation so that people will come to their senses. Two wars, one worse than the other. The new Batu in the West will raise his hand. People between fire and flame. But he will not be destroyed from the face of the earth, for the prayer of the martyred king is sufficient for him.”

Abel, the famous monk, nicknamed “The Prophetic”, who predicted the fall of the Romanov dynasty, still remains a very mysterious person. How did he make his predictions and, most importantly, what remained unknown to us, our descendants? Does Russia have a happy future, or...

Abel, known as Vasily Vasiliev, was born in 1757 in the village of Akulovo, Tula province, into the family of a horse-farmer. At the age of 19, he left home, wandered throughout Great Rus' for 9 years, and in the fall of 1785 he humbly asked the abbot of the Valaam Monastery to allow him to live in the monastery. After living for a year in the monastery, Abel asked the good abbot, Abbot Nazarius, to go “to the desert,” settling as a hermit in a monastery.

Various temptations overcame Abel in the monastery, and at the age of 30, after a mysterious vision, he received the gift of prophecy and set out on a new journey “to tell and preach the mysteries of God.” For another 9 years he wandered around the world and finally stopped at the St. Nicholas Monastery in the Kostroma province. In the monastery he wrote “a book of wisdom and wisdom, in which it is written about the royal family.” The abbot of the monastery was seriously frightened and immediately sent Abel, along with his book, to Kostroma, to the spiritual consistory.

Archbishop Paul was even more frightened than the abbot - after all, the book said that “Empress Catherine the Second will soon lose this life and her death will happen suddenly.” The fortuneteller, shackled, away from sin, was sent to St. Petersburg under strict escort.
In St. Petersburg, during interrogations, Abel humbly answered Chief Prosecutor Samoilov: “I was taught to write this book by the One who created heaven and earth, and everything in them...” Samoilov was especially interested in two questions: “Question 1. What did you dare to say in the book his own, as if Emperor Peter III had fallen from his wife? Question 2. Why did you include in your book such words that especially relate to Her Majesty, namely, “Akiba’s son will rise up against her” and so on, and how did you understand them?” To which the seer humbly responded: “For this is how God revealed it to me.” They reported to the empress. But she, who did not tolerate mysticism, did not want to meet the prophet and ordered him to be imprisoned forever in the Shlisselburg fortress.

The prisoner spent 10 months and 10 days in a secret cell - until the death of the empress. In the casemate, he learned the news that shocked Russia, which he had known about for a long time: on November 6, 1796, at 9 o’clock in the morning, Empress Catherine II suddenly died. Exactly to the day, as the prophetic monk predicted.

Emperor Paul, having ascended the throne, immediately summoned Abel. Having removed those close to him, Paul “with fear and joy” asked to bless his reign, and also asked Abel “what will happen to him?” The Life is silent about Abel’s answer. Perhaps, taught by bitter experience and not wanting to go back to the dungeon, Abel kept silent about something, since Paul ordered Abel to be settled in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra and to be provided with everything he needed.

After living for a year in the Lavra, Abel did not calm down, he went again to Valaam, where he wrote a new book, “similar to the first and even more important.” Once again, the frightened abbot reported to St. Petersburg. The book was delivered to Paul I. It contained a prophecy about the imminent violent death of Pavel Petrovich, about which during a personal meeting the monk either wisely kept silent, or there was no revelation to him yet. Even the exact date of death of the emperor is indicated. On May 12, 1800, the angry Pavel ordered the ill-fated Abel to be imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress, in the Alekseevsky Ravelin, where he again spent 10 months and 10 days - until Pavel suddenly died “from a blow.” Emperor Alexander, having ascended the throne, immediately sent the ill-fated soothsayer to Solovki.

But even here the restless monk could not calm down. In 1802 On Solovki, Abel writes the third book, “in it it is written how Moscow will be taken and in what year.” At the same time, the year 1812 is indicated and the burning of Moscow is predicted. Emperor Alexander, not believing Abel, ordered the mad monk to be imprisoned in a monastery prison, promising that he would sit there until his prophecy came true.

Abel spent 10 years and 9 months in a terrible monastery prison. The prisoners there were treated mercilessly, two of them died from cold, hunger and carbon smoke, and good Abel, who decided to intercede for them, the regime was tightened to the point that he “was under death ten times, a hundred times he came to despair.”

When Napoleon captured Moscow, Alexander remembered Abel. The Solovetsky abbot received an order: if the prisoner is still alive, immediately send him to St. Petersburg. Despite the obvious resistance of the abbot, Abel was nevertheless taken to the capital, where the Chief Prosecutor of the Synod, A.N. Golitsyn, talked with the obstinate monk. The conversation was long, its exact content is unknown to anyone, since the conversation took place face to face. According to the monk himself, he told the prince “everything from beginning to end.” Having heard in the “secret answers” the prophetic monk’s predictions, according to rumors, of the fate of all sovereigns until the end of centuries, until the coming of the Antichrist, the prince was horrified and was afraid to present the monk to the sovereign. After a conversation with Prince Golitsyn, Abel was left alone, and the soothsayer himself lost his desire to make predictions. “Now I decided it was better not to know anything, although to know and remain silent,” the monk answered his patron Countess Potemkina.

All subsequent years, Abel wandered, avoiding sedentary monastic life. He visited the Greek Athos, Constantinople-Constantinople, and Jerusalem. He was met either in Moscow or in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, some considered him a prophet, some a charlatan. “Many of my friends saw him and talked to him; he is a simple man, without the slightest information and gloomy; many ladies, considering him a saint, went to see him and asked about their daughters’ suitors; He answered them that he was not a seer and that he only predicted when inspiration told him to speak. Since 1820, no one has seen him again, and it is not known where he went,” wrote L.N. Engelhardt in his “Notes.”

N.P. Rozanov traced the further fate of Abel using documents. In 1823, he was placed in the Vysotsky Monastery, but a few months after the death of Emperor Alexander, Abel quietly disappeared from the monastery, since “the father archimandrite wanted to send him to St. Petersburg by a false decree to the new sovereign” - perhaps Abel again wrote a new prophecy, which scared him abbot. One way or another, the new Emperor Nicholas, having familiarized himself with Abel’s case, ordered to imprison him in the prison department in the Suzdal Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery, the main church prison. There, in a secluded cell, the “life and suffering” of the monk Abel ended in 1841.

In 1875, the magazine “Russian Antiquity” (No. 2) published “The Life and Sufferings of Father and Monk Abel,” written by him at the beginning of the 19th century, 20 years before his death. At the very beginning of the “Life” the most important prediction of the monk was stated that in 1842. God's grace will descend on the earth and “all his elect and all his saints will reign. And they will reign with him for a thousand and fifty years, and at that time there will be one flock throughout the whole earth and one shepherd among them... then the dead will rise and the living will be renewed, and there will be judgment for all and division for all: who will be resurrected to eternal life and to immortal life and those who will be given over to death and corruption and eternal destruction.” This will happen in 2892.

Alas, this prediction has not yet come true, and God’s grace has not arrived on earth! The seditious books he compiled have not reached us, except for two: “The Book of Genesis” and “The Life and Sufferings of the Father and Monk Abel.” There are no prophecies in either book, except those that had already come true by that time. But, according to the descriptions of contemporaries, other books set out the history of the fall of the Romanov dynasty and even something related to our time. Still, we are left with the testimony of contemporaries.

The Gatchina Palace of the Romanovs could hardly be classified as a well-protected, “security” structure. However, here, in one of the halls, rested a rather voluminous casket, in which throughout the 19th century the “future of the Russian state”, predicted by a certain elder Abel, was kept.

The casket was locked and sealed. A thick red silk cord was stretched around it on four posts, on rings, blocking access to it. Of course, this was hardly a serious obstacle for a curious person. However, everyone knew that the casket contained a certain envelope with the personal seal of Emperor Paul I and with his own inscription: “Open to our descendant on the hundredth anniversary of my death,” and, like well-bred people, they humbly waited for the date.

Paul I was killed by officers in his own bedroom on the night of March 24, 1801. On the morning of March 24, 1901, Emperor Nicholas II arrived in Gatchina. He arrived inspired and in a good mood. The Tsar left the Gatchina Palace in a completely different mood. True, Nikolai did not tell anyone anything about the contents of the casket.

People who speak the truth to the eyes of rulers are not liked in any state. They are either liquidated, or “canned” for a long time in prisons, or, if the sovereign is a civilized person, they are simply deprived of citizenship and sent to tell the truth to other sovereigns. Actually, this is understandable. Well, what to do with people who make predictions to rulers? Predictions indicating the exact day of death, and, moreover, in a completely non-royal place - a toilet.

“In the days of the great Catherine, there lived a monk of high life in the Solovetsky Monastery. His name was Abel. He was perspicacious, and had a simple disposition, and because what was revealed to his spiritual eye, he announced it publicly, not caring about the consequences. The hour came and he began to prophesy: such and such a time would pass, and the Queen would die, and he even indicated what kind of death. No matter how far Solovki were from St. Petersburg, Abel’s word soon reached the Secret Chancellery. A request to the abbot, and the abbot, without thinking twice, sent Abel to the sleigh and to St. Petersburg; - and in St. Petersburg the conversation is short: they took and put the prophet in a fortress ... "

This is how prophets act in their own country. For his predictions, Abel was imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress “under the strongest guard.” True, the essence of the prophecy, unfortunately, did not change. After Abel’s prediction, as they say, came into force - Catherine the Great died on that very day and in that very place - the monk was amnestied by Paul I himself.

The emperor wished to meet with the elder and listen to new forecasts from him. Abel described in detail the death of the emperor, and at the same time the unenviable future of the Romanov dynasty. Paul I swallowed all this, ordered the elder to give a prediction in writing; This is how a sealed envelope appeared in the Gatchina Palace...

After some time, by order of the emperor, Abel was brought in shackles to St. Petersburg and locked up in the Peter and Paul Fortress - “for disturbing the peace of mind of His Majesty.”

Immediately after the death of Paul I, Abel was again released from prison. Alexander I is already becoming the liberator of the prophetic monk. The new emperor warns that he sends the monk further away, to the Solovetsky Monastery, without the right to leave the walls of the monastery.

There the monk writes another book in which he predicts the capture of Moscow by Napoleon in 1812 and the burning of the city. The prediction reaches the king, and he orders to calm down the imagination of Abel in the Solovetsky prison.

But then 1812 comes, the Russian army surrenders Moscow to the French, and Belokamennaya, as the monk predicted, almost burns to the ground. Impressed, Alexander I orders: “Release Abel from the Solovetsky Monastery, give him a passport to all Russian cities and monasteries, provide him with money and clothes.”

Once free, Abel decided not to irritate the royal family any longer, but went on a trip to the Holy Places: he visited Mount Athos, Jerusalem, and Constantinople. Then he settles in the Trinity-Sergeyeva Lavra. For some time he behaves quietly, until, after the accession of Nicholas I, he breaks through again. The new emperor did not like to stand on ceremony, therefore, “for the sake of humility,” he sent the monk into captivity in the Suzdal Spaso-Efimovsky Monastery, where in 1841 Abel introduced himself to the Lord.

For 60 years this name did not annoy the House of Romanov, until one fine morning Nicholas II opened the envelope of Paul I.

WHAT DID ABEL FORECAST?

About Paul I

“Your reign will be short, and I see, sinner, your cruel end. You will suffer martyrdom at the hands of Sophronius of Jerusalem from unfaithful servants; you will be strangled in your bedchamber by the villains whom you warm in your royal bosom. On Holy Saturday they will bury you... They, these villains, trying to justify their great sin of regicide, will declare you insane, will revile your good memory... But the Russian people with their truthful soul will understand and appreciate you and will carry their sorrows to your tomb, asking for your intercession and softening the hearts of the unrighteous and cruel. The number of your years is like counting beech trees.”

The prediction that the Russian people will appreciate Paul I has not yet come true. If today we were to conduct a survey about the attitude of Russians towards past autocrats, then Pavel would certainly be one of the outsiders.

About Alexander I

“The Frenchman will burn Moscow down under Him, and He will take Paris from him and call him Blessed. But secret sorrow will become unbearable to Him, and the Royal crown will seem heavy to Him. He will replace the feat of Royal service with the feat of fasting and prayer. He will be righteous in the eyes of God: he will be a white monk in the world. I saw over the Russian land the star of the great saint of God. It burns, it flares up. This ascetic will bring about Alexandrov’s entire destiny...”

According to legend, Alexander I did not die in Taganrog, but turned into elder Fyodor Kuzmich and went to wander around Rus'.

About Nicholas I

“The beginning of the reign of Your son Nicholas will begin with a fight, a Voltairean rebellion. This will be a malicious seed, a destructive seed for Russia. If it weren’t for the grace of God covering Russia, then... About a hundred years after that, the House of the Most Holy Theotokos will become impoverished, and the Russian State will turn into an abomination of desolation.”