Gatchina Palace
In the Gatchina Palace, where, as the heir, Emperor Paul I lived permanently, there was one small hall. There, on a pedestal, stood a large patterned chest with intricate decorations. The casket was locked and sealed. A thick red cord was stretched around the posts, blocking the viewer from access to it. It was known that something was kept in this casket, which was laid by the widow of Paul I, Empress Maria Feodorovna.
Gatchina Palace. Sculptures in front of the main entrance. Sculpture "Vigilance"
The Empress bequeathed that the casket be opened and the contents taken out of there only when one hundred years have passed since the death of Paul I. And this should be done by the one who at that moment will occupy the imperial throne in Russia.
“To open to our descendant on the centennial day of my death,” such an inscription, personally made by the hand of Paul I, as if it was on an envelope sealed with the personal seal of the emperor.
"Tower" study of Paul I in the Gatchina Palace
Predictions
Smiling affectionately, Emperor Paul graciously turned to monk Abel with the question of how long ago he had taken tonsure and in which monasteries he had been.
- Honest Father! said the Emperor. “They are talking about you, and I myself can see that the grace of God is clearly resting on you. What do you say about my family, my reign and my destiny? What do you see with perspicacious eyes about my family in the mists of time and about the Russian State? Name my successors on the Russian throne by name, predict their fate.
- Hey, father-king! Abel shook his head. Why do you force me to predict sadness? Your kingdom will be short, and I see your sinful, cruel end. On Sophronius of Jerusalem from unfaithful servants you will accept a martyr's death, in your bedchamber you will be strangled by the villains whom you warm on your royal chest. On Holy Saturday they will bury you... They, these villains, trying to justify their great sin of regicide, will proclaim you insane, will revile your good memory... But the Russian people will understand and appreciate you with their true soul and will carry their sorrows to your tomb asking for your intercession and softening of the hearts of the unrighteous and cruel...
- What awaits my successor, Tsarevich Alexander? “The Frenchman will burn down Moscow in his presence, and he will take Paris from him and call him Blessed.” But the royal crown will seem heavy to him, and he will replace the feat of royal service with the feat of fasting and prayers, and he will be righteous in the eyes of God.
— And who succeeds Emperor Alexander?
- Your son, Nikolai ...
- As? Alexandrane will have a son. Then Tsesarevich Konstantin...
->- Constantine will not want to reign, remembering your fate ... The beginning of the reign of your son Nicholas will begin with a Voltairian rebellion, and this will be a malevolent seed, a seed detrimental to Russia, if it were not for the grace of God that covers Russia. A hundred years later, the house of the Most Holy Theotokos will become impoverished, the Russian State will turn into abomination and desolation.
- After my son Nikolai, who will be on the throne of Russia?
— Your grandson, Alexander II. Destined by the Tsar-Liberator. He will fulfill your plans - he will free the peasants, and then he will beat the Turks and give the Slavs freedom from the yoke of the infidel too ...
The Tsar-Liberator is succeeded by the Tsar-Peacemaker, his son, and your great-grandson, Alexander the Third. Glorious will be his reign. He will lay siege to the accursed sedition, he will restore peace and order.
To whom will he give the royal legacy?
- Nicholas II - the Holy Tsar, Job the Long-suffering like.
He will replace the royal crown with a crown of thorns, he will be betrayed by his people, as once the Son of God. War will be Great War world ... Through the air, people, like birds, will fly, under water, like fish, they will swim, they will begin to exterminate each other with fetid gray. Change will grow and multiply. On the eve of victory, the Tsar's throne will collapse. Blood and tears will fill the damp earth. A peasant with an ax will take power in madness, and truly the Egyptian execution will come ...
- My great-grandfather, Peter the Great, about the fate of my rivers is the same as you. I reckon for the benefit of everything that I now predicted about my descendant Nicholas II, will precede him, so that the Book of Fates opens before him, may the great-grandson know his way of the cross, among his passions and long-suffering ...
Seal, reverend father, what you have spoken, state everything in writing, but I will put your prediction in a deliberate casket, put my seal, and until my great-grandson, your writing will be inviolably stored here. In the office of my Gatchina Palace. Go, Abel, and pray tirelessly in your cell for me, my Family and the happiness of our State.
And, putting the presented writing of Avelevo into an envelope, he deigned to write on it with his own hand:
"To open to Our Descendant the centennial day of My death." On March 11, 1901, on the centenary of the martyrdom of his sovereign great-great-grandfather, Emperor Pavel Petrovich of blessed memory, after the funeral liturgy in the Peter and Paul Cathedral at his tomb, the Sovereign Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich, accompanied by the Minister of the Imperial Court, Adjutant General Baron Frederiks and other persons of the retinue, deigned to arrive at the Gatchina Palace to fulfill the will of his ancestor in Bose.
Pavel I was killed on the night of March 11-12, 1801. Thus, the lot to open the mysterious casket fell to Emperor Nicholas II.
“On the morning of March 12, 1901,” recalled Ober-kamer Frau Empress Maria Geringer (nee Adelung, granddaughter of General Adelung, tutor of Emperor Alexander II), “both the sovereign and the empress were very lively and cheerful, getting ready to leave the Tsarskoye Selo Alexander Palace to Gatchina - to reveal the age-old secret. They were preparing for this trip as for a holiday. interesting walk, which promised them to deliver outstanding entertainment. They left merry, but returned pensive and sad, and they said nothing to anyone, not even to me, with whom they had the habit of sharing their impressions, about what they found in that casket. After this trip, I noticed that on occasion the sovereign began to remember 1918 as a fatal year both for him personally and for the dynasty.
Gatchina Palace. Sculptures in front of the main entrance. Sculpture "Prudence" or "Two-faced Janus"
The soothsayer Abel predicted: “He (Nicholas II) will replace the royal crown with a crown of thorns. There will be a war, a great war... Through the air, people will fly like birds, under the water, like fish, they will swim, and they will begin to exterminate each other with foul-smelling gray. On the eve of victory, the royal throne will collapse, a peasant with an ax will take power in madness. And whether there will be. The Angel of the Lord is pouring out new bowls of calamity so that people come to their senses. Two wars, one more bitter than the other. New Batu in the West will raise his hand. People between fire and flame. But it will not be destroyed from the face of the earth, as if the prayer of the tortured king is sufficient for him.
stray shot
Another episode is connected with this story, which, according to contemporaries, took place on January 6, 1903 in Jordan near the Winter Palace. With a salute from guns from the Peter and Paul Fortress, one of them turned out to be loaded with buckshot. The buckshot hit the windows of the palace, and the sovereign and his retinue standing nearby remained unharmed. However, according to eyewitnesses, Nicholas II did not raise an eyebrow at the same time. Although the incident threatened him with death. He only asked:
Who commanded the battery?
When his name was called, he sympathetically and regretfully said: “Oh, poor! How I pity him." The king understood that a severe punishment awaited an officer for a misconduct.
Nicholas was asked how the incident had affected him. He replied:
Until the age of 18, I am not afraid of anything.
As a result of the shooting, there was only one victim, who received the lightest wound. It was a policeman by the name of ... Romanov!
As the elder of Optina Pustyn Sergei Nilus, who told this episode, notes in his book “On the Bank of God’s River”, “the charge that was aimed and intended by malicious intent for the royal Romanov, touched Romanov, but not the one he was aimed at: the times and deadlines did not run out - far was still before 1918.
Departure of the royal family from the Winter Palace
So what was there?
Of course, as soon as mysterious history with the casket it became known, in St. Petersburg they began to wonder: what was there? It was suggested that it contained the prediction of the famous seer monk Abel, who foresaw the sad fate of the royal dynasty.
Abel, and earlier a Tula serf Vasily Vasilyev, lived in the Solovetsky Monastery and was a monk of "high life, was perspicacious, and distinguished by the simplest disposition." He initially predicted the death of Catherine. And then the fate of Paul I. When Paul asked him:
What awaits me and my reign?
Your kingdom, - as if Abel answered, - is like nothing: neither you will be glad, nor will they be glad to you, and you will not die your own death.
For such an ominous prediction, the emperor Abel was immediately put in a fortress. But then they remembered him again. Emperor Alexander summoned him. And Abel predicted that the French would burn Moscow. And again he found himself in a fortress. However, when his prediction came true again, the king wanted to forgive him. They rushed to look for the seer, but they did not find him. Abel disappeared ... According to other sources, he died in captivity.
It is easy to guess that, having learned from the opened envelope about Abel's prediction about the fatal year for the dynasty in 1918, the mystical-minded Nicholas II was sure that everything would be so. This, by the way, can explain many of his actions, including the decision to abdicate, which was called "strange" and "illogical." The king was convinced that he could not change anything. He once said to his prime minister Stolypin: “No, believe me, Pyotr Arkadyevich, I have more than a presentiment, I have a deep confidence in this: I am doomed to terrible trials but I will not receive my reward here on earth…”.
Is it still a myth?
AT modern times the episode with the casket has undergone the most careful study of historians. Studying chamber-furier magazines, historians have established that on the indicated day (March 12, 1901), Nikolai and the Empress did not go to Gatchina. They did not go there the next day either. They were not there the day before.
Moreover, they began to study the situation and descriptions of the Gatchina Palace. But the pedestal with the casket was not found. True, a certain pedestal is visible in one old photo, but there is a vase on it, not a casket. There is also no cord that encloses it, described by the chief chamberlain.
But how then to explain the story told by Maria Geringer? After all, she was a confidant of the Empress, distinguished by a sharp mind, observation and a good memory. Why did she have to come up with such a strange story with a casket? It will probably stay forever historical mystery. Just like the incredible predictions of the monk-seer Abel.
The only fact remains that it was in 1918 that Nicholas II and his entire family were shot by the Bolsheviks in the basement of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg.
Monument to Paul1 on the square of the Gatchina Palace
Prophet in his own country
Abel (Vasily Vasiliev)
03/18/1757, the village of Akulovo, Tula province - 11/29/1841,
Spaso-Evfimevsky monastery, church prison, Suzdal
“His life passed in sorrows and cramped conditions, persecutions and troubles, in fortresses and strong castles, in terrible judgments and in severe trials...”
"The Life and Sufferings of Father and Monk Abel", 1875.
“These my books are amazing and amazing, and those my books of surprise and horror are worthy”
From a letter from monk Abel to Countess Praskovya Andreevna Potemkina.
There were and are prophets in our country, but only: "as you know, our Parnassus is Yelabuga, and the Kastalsky stream is Kolyma." So the Russian Nostradamus had a hard time. But even among them, the monk Abel, who received the nickname "Prophetic", stands out with mystery, tragedy and surprisingly accurate and terrible predictions.
Artist Andrey Shishkin
The life of this monk does not fit into the usual framework of dates of birth and death. Yes, this is not just life, but a real life. As he himself boldly defined it, writing in the 20s of the XIX century, twenty years before his death, "The Life and Suffering of Father and Monk Abel." The audacity is that the lives belong to the saints. So, calling his biography in this way, the monk, as it were, equated himself with the saints. The rebellious and violent Archpriest Avvakum was the first to dare to call his life history a life. But he deliberately went against church reforms and thereby set himself against the church. Monk Abel did not oppose himself to the church; moreover, he always remained a deeply religious person who honored the church.
What united the archpriest and the monk-foreteller was a firm belief in his destiny, a readiness to follow to the end along the path determined from above, accepting torment and hardship. Avvakum - sending curses and thunderous anathemas to the tormentors, Abel - resignedly and patiently. But both did not deviate a single step, not a word from their prophecies. And you have to pay for this at all times. It is no coincidence that the phrase "life and suffering" appeared. Abel's prophecies concerned Russian history for a huge time period - from the reign of Great Catherine to Nicholas II. And perhaps even further. According to some statements - to the very end ...
But first things first. And to begin with, let's open a plump volume of the dictionary of biographies of Brockhaus and Efron: “Abel, a monk-soothsayer, was born in 1757. Peasant origin. For his predictions of the days and hours of the death of Catherine II and Paul I, the invasion of the French and the burning of Moscow, he was imprisoned many times, and in total he spent about 20 years in prison. By order of Emperor Nicholas I, Abel was imprisoned in the Spaso-Efimevsky Monastery, where he died in 1841. Here is what Abel wrote about himself in his "Life", published in the magazine "Russian Antiquity" for 1875.
Empress Catherine II
artist Carl Christinek
“This father Abel was born in the northern countries, within Moscow, in the Tula province, Alekseevsky district, Solomenskaya volost, the village of Akulovo, in the summer from Adam seven thousand and two hundred and sixty and five years (7265), and from God the Word in one thousand and seven hundred fifty and seven years (1757). He was conceived and the foundation of the month of June and the month of September on the fifth day; and the image to him and the birth of the month of December and March at the very equinox: and a name was given to him, like to all people, on the seventh day of March. The life of Father Abel from God is eighty and three years and four months; and then his flesh and spirit will be renewed, and his soul will be depicted, like an angel and like an archangel.
"... In the family of a farmer and horseman Vasily and his wife Xenia, a son was born - Vasily is one of nine children." The dates of birth are indicated by Abel himself according to julian calendar. According to Gregorian - he was born on March 18 - almost "at the very equinox." He predicted the date of his death almost exactly - the seer died on November 29, 1841, having lived 84 years and eight months.
The peasant son had enough work around the house, and therefore he began to learn to read and write late, at the age of 17, working in the waste industry as a carpenter in Kremenchug and Kherson. Although "by specialty" he horse-drawn, but as he himself wrote: "you pay little attention to this." However, there is another reason for his constant long absences to work. He himself later told about her during interrogations in the secret office: Vasily's parents married against his will to the girl Anastasia, which is why he tried not to live in the village. In his youth, he suffers a serious illness. During his illness, something happens to him: either he had some kind of vision, or he made a vow in case of recovery to devote himself to serving God, but, having miraculously recovered, he turns to his parents with a request to bless him to go to the monastery. Probably, he was previously inclined to a different life, again, it is no coincidence that in his own words he was “a simple man, without any learning, and gloomy in appearance.”
count, chamberlain, oberstalmeister
at the court of Emperor Paul I
The elderly parents of the breadwinner did not want to let go, they did not give their blessing to Vasily. But the young man no longer belonged to himself, and in 1785 he secretly left the village, leaving his wife and three children. On foot, feeding on alms, he gets to St. Petersburg, falls at the feet of his master - the real chamberlain Lev Naryshkin, who served at the court of the sovereign himself as an oberstalmeister. With what words the fugitive peasant admonished his master, it is not known, but he received his freedom, crossed himself and set off. The future soothsayer walks through Rus', and gets to the Valaam Monastery. There he takes the tonsure with the name of Adam. After living a year in a monastery, he "takes a blessing from the abbot and goes to the desert." For several years he lives alone, in the struggle with temptations. “May the Lord God let great and great trials upon him. Numerous dark spirits attack the nan." And in March 1787 he had a vision: two angels lifted him up and said to him:
“Be you the new Adam and the ancient father Dadamey, and write if you saw it; and say that thou hast heard. But do not tell everyone and write not to everyone, but only to my chosen ones and only to my saints; write to those who can accommodate our words and our punishments. So say and write. And other such many words to him. ”*
* Quote from the text of "Life", the magazine "Russian Antiquity", 1875, (approx.)
And on the night of November 1, 1787 ("... in the summer of Adam 7295") he had another "wonderful and wonderful vision", which lasted "at least thirty hours." The Lord told him about the secrets of the future, commanding them to convey these predictions to the people: “The Lord ... spoke to him, telling him secret and unknown things, and what would happen to him and what would happen to the whole world.” “From that time Father Abel began to know everything and understand everything and prophesy.”
Silence (Monk on Valaam)
artist Tatyana Yushmanova
He left the hermitage and the monastery and went as a wanderer through the Orthodox land. So the prophetic monk Abel began the path of the prophet and soothsayer. “He went tacos to different monasteries and deserts for nine years,” until he stopped at the Nikolo-Babaevsky monastery of the Kostroma diocese. It was there, in a tiny monastery cell, that he wrote the first prophetic book, in which he predicted that the reigning Empress Catherine II would die in eight months. The newly-minted soothsayer showed this book to the rector in February 1796. And he went along with the book to Bishop Pavel of Kostroma and Galicia, since the rector decided that he had a better dignity and a higher forehead, let him figure it out.
The bishop read and tapped his forehead with his staff. Of course, to Abel, having supplemented his opinion with an expressive phrase that did not reach us in the original, apparently no one dared to write down such a number of swear words. Bishop Paul advised the seer to forget about what was written and return to the monastery - to atone for sins, and before that point to the one who taught him such sacrilege. But “Abel told the bishop that he wrote his book himself, did not write off, but composed from a vision; for, being in Valaam, having come to the church for matins, it would be as if the apostle Paul was caught up into heaven and saw two books there, and what he saw, he wrote the same ... ".
The bishop was warped by such sacrilege - wow, the gray-footed prophet, he was “caught up” to heaven, he compares himself with the prophet Paul! Not daring to simply destroy the book, which contained "various royal secrets," the bishop yelled at Abel: "This book was written by the death penalty!" But this did not bring the stubborn to reason. The bishop sighed, spat, swore in a temper, crossed himself, remembered the decree of October 19, 1762, which for such writings provided for the removal of monks and imprisonment. But immediately it surfaced in the head of the bishop that "the water is dark in the clouds", who knows, this prophet. Suddenly, indeed, he knew something secret, yet he prophesied not to anyone, to the Empress herself. The bishop of Kostroma and Galicia did not like responsibility, therefore he fused the stubborn prophet from hand to hand to the governor.
governor, lieutenant general,
statesman
The governor, having read the book, did not invite the author to dinner, but gave him a punch in the face and put him in prison, from where the poor fellow, under strict guard, so that he would not embarrass people along the way with unreasonable speeches and delusional predictions, was taken to Petersburg. There were people in St. Petersburg who were sincerely interested in his predictions. They served in the Secret Expedition and diligently wrote down everything the monk said in the protocols of interrogations. During interrogations by the investigator Alexander Makarov, the ingenuous Abel did not refuse a single word of his, claiming that he had been tormented by his conscience for nine years, since 1787, from the day of the vision. He wished and was afraid "about this voice to tell Her Majesty." And yet, in the Babaevsky Monastery, he wrote down his visions.
If not for the royal family, most likely, they would have ruined the seer or rotted in deaf monasteries. But since the prophecy concerned a royal person, the essence of the matter was reported to Count Samoilov, the prosecutor general. How important everything related to the crowned persons was, follows from the fact that the count himself arrived on the Secret Expedition, talked for a long time with the seer, leaning towards the fact that before him was a holy fool. He spoke with Abel “in high tones”, hit him in the face, shouted at him: “How dare you, evil head, write such words against an earthly god?” Abel stood his ground and only mumbled, wiping his broken nose: “God taught me how to make secrets!”
After long doubts, they decided nevertheless to report on the soothsayer to the queen. Catherine II, who heard the date of her own death, became ill, which, however, in this situation is not surprising. Who would be happy with such news? At first, she wanted to execute the monk “for this boldness and violence”, as was prescribed by law. But nevertheless, she decided to show generosity and by decree of March 17, 1796, “Her Imperial Majesty ... deigned to indicate this Vasily Vasilyev ... put him in the Shlisselburg Fortress ... And the above-mentioned papers written by him should be sealed with the seal of the Prosecutor General, stored in the Secret Expedition ".
Abel spent ten months and ten days in the damp Shlisselburg casemates. In the casemate, he learned the news that shocked Russia, which he had long been aware of: on November 6, 1796, at 9 o'clock in the morning, Empress Catherine II suddenly died. She died exactly the same day according to the prediction of the prophetic monk.
Emperor Paul I
artist Stepan Shchukin
Pavel Petrovich ascended the throne. As always, with the change of power, officials also changed. The Prosecutor General of the Senate was also replaced, this post was taken by Prince Kurakin. While examining, first of all, highly secret papers, he came across a package sealed with the personal seal of the Prosecutor General Count Samoilov. Having opened this package, Kurakin found in it predictions written in terrible handwriting, from which his hair stood on end. Most of all, he was struck by the fatal prediction about the death of the Empress that came true. The cunning and experienced courtier Prince Kurakin was well aware of Paul I's penchant for mysticism, so he presented the "book" of the prophet, who was sitting in the casemate, to the emperor. Much surprised by the prediction that had come true, Pavel, quick to make decisions, gave the order, and on December 12, 1796, having struck the imagination of the monarch, smelling of the mold of the Shlisselburg casemate, the predictor appeared before the royal eyes ...
One of the first to meet Abel, none other than A.P. Ermolov left a written evidence of this. Yes, yes, the same Yermolov, the future hero of Borodin and the formidable pacifier of the rebellious Caucasus. But that's later. In the meantime, the disgraced future hero, who served three months on a false slander in the Peter and Paul Fortress, was exiled to Kostroma. There A.P. Ermolov met with a mysterious monk. This meeting, fortunately, was preserved not only in Yermolov's memory, but was also captured by him on paper. “... A certain Abel lived in Kostroma, who was gifted with the ability to correctly predict the future. Once, at the table of the Kostroma governor Lumpa, Abel publicly predicted the day and night of the death of Empress Catherine II. And with such amazing, as it turned out later, accuracy that it looked like a prophet's prediction. Another time, Abel announced that he intended to talk with Pavel Petrovich, but was imprisoned for this insolence in a fortress. Returning to Kostroma, Abel predicted the day and hour of the death of the new Emperor Paul I. Everything predicted by Abel literally came true.
Alexey Petrovich Ermolov
artist George Doe
As already mentioned, the heir to the throne, Paul I, was inclined to mysticism and could not get past the terrible prediction, which came true with terrifying accuracy. On December 12, Prince A. B. Kurakin announced to the commandant of the Shlisselburg fortress, Kolyubyakin, to send the prisoner Vasilyev to St. Petersburg.
The audience was long, but it took place face to face, and therefore there is no accurate evidence of the content of the conversation. Many argue that it was then that Abel, with his characteristic directness, named the date of the death of Paul himself and predicted the fate of the empire two hundred years in advance. At the same time, allegedly, the famous testament of Paul I appeared.
In some articles dedicated to the seer, his prediction to Paul I is given: “Your reign will be short. On Sophronius of Jerusalem (saint, the day of remembrance coincides with the day of the death of the emperor) in your bedchamber you will be strangled by the villains whom you warm on your royal chest. It is said in the Gospel: "The enemies of a man are his household." The last phrase is an allusion to the participation in the conspiracy of Paul's son, Alexander, the future emperor.
I think, based on subsequent events, it is unlikely that Abel predicted Paul's death, because the emperor showed sincere interest in him, caressed him, showed his disposition, and even issued on December 14, 1796, the highest rescript commanding Abel's deportation at his request to be tonsured monks. Then, instead of the name Adam, he takes the name Abel. So given prediction – clean water literature, not supported by any evidence of contemporaries. All other predictions of the prophetic monk are confirmed by interrogation protocols, testimonies of contemporaries.
artist Arkhip Kuindzhi
For some time the monk Abel lived in the Nevsky Lavra. In the capital, the prophet is bored, he goes to Valaam. Then, unexpectedly, the eternal recluse appears in Moscow, where he preaches and prophesies for money to everyone. Then, just as unexpectedly, he leaves back for Valaam. Once in a more familiar habitat, Abel immediately takes up the pen. He writes a new book in which he predicts ... the date of death of the emperor who caressed him. Like last time, he did not hide the prediction, introducing it to the monastery pastors, who, after reading it, got scared and sent the book to Metropolitan Ambrose of St. Petersburg. The Metropolitan's investigation concludes that the book "was written in secret and unknown, and nothing is clear to him." Metropolitan Ambrose himself, who did not master the decoding of the predictions of the prophetic monk, reported to the chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod: “Monk Abel, according to his note, written in the monastery by him, opened it to me. I am enclosing this discovery of his, written by him, for your consideration. From the conversation, I did not find anything worthy of attention, except for the insanity in the mind that opens in it, hypocrisy and stories about mysteries, from which the hermits even come to fear. However, God knows." Metropolitan forwards a terrible prediction to a secret chamber...
The book falls on the table of Paul I. The book contains a prophecy about the imminent violent death of Pavel Petrovich, about which the monk either wisely kept silent during a personal meeting, or he had not yet had a revelation. Even the exact date of the death of the emperor is indicated - supposedly his death will be a punishment for the unfulfilled promise to build a church and dedicate it to Archangel Michael, and the sovereign has as much left to live as there should be letters in the inscription above the gates of the Mikhailovsky Castle, which is being built instead of the promised church. The impressionable Pavel is furious and gives the order to put the soothsayer in a casemate. On May 12, 1800, Abel was imprisoned in the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress. But he did not sit there for long - the clouds around the crowned head of Paul were gathering. The holy fool Xenia of Petersburg, who, like Abel, predicted the death of Catherine II, prophesies throughout the city the same thing as Abel - the life span was given to Paul I in the number of years that coincides with the number of letters in the biblical inscription above the gate. The people poured to the castle in droves - to count the letters. There were forty-seven letters.
The vow broken by Paul I was again associated with mysticism and vision. Archangel Michael appeared to the sentry in the old Elizabethan-built Summer Palace and ordered that a new one be built on the site of the old palace, dedicated to him, the archangel. That's what the legends say. Abel, who foresaw all the secret phenomena, reproached Paul for the fact that the archangel Michael ordered to build not a castle, but a temple. Thus, Paul, having built the Mikhailovsky Castle, built a palace instead of a temple for himself. Although in the luxurious halls of the palace, biblical motifs seemed to come to life on tapestries embroidered with gold and silver. The magnificent parquet of Guarenghi shone with its graceful lines. Silence and solemnity reigned around the palace. The palace halls were filled with soft, dim light.
The appearance of his great-grandfather, Peter the Great, is also known to Paul, who twice repeated the legendary phrase: “Poor, poor Paul!” All predictions came true on the night of March 11-12, 1801. "Poor, poor Pavel" died of "apoplexy" inflicted on the temple with a golden snuffbox. The "Russian Hamlet" reigned for four years, four months and four days, not even reaching the age of forty-seven, he was born on September 20, 1754.
It is said that on the night of the murder, a huge flock of crows fell from the roof, resounding with terrifying cries from the surroundings of the castle. They say that this happens every year on the night of March 11-12.
The prophecy of the prophetic monk came true again (!) after ten months and ten days. After the death of Paul I, Abel was released, having been sent under strict supervision to the Solovetsky Monastery, forbidding him to leave it. But no one can forbid the prophetic monk from doing sorcery.
In the Orthodox publications of the 19th-21st centuries, one can find the biographies of the monk Abel (in the world, the peasant Vasily Vasiliev), who lived in the late 18th - early 19th centuries. In many of them, the monk Abel appears before us as a true Christian ascetic who had 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 venerable fathers. Some authors believe that his predictions were and continue to be important for the historical fate of Russia.
What do we really know about this person? Before trying to answer this question without considering the writings of those authors who wrote about Abel, based on various kinds of information about him, let's 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 contemporaries of Abel
These are brief memoirs of A.P. Yermolov, recorded from his words by some of his relatives, famous poet and the hero of the war of 1812 D. Davydov, the memoirs of the famous historian M. V. Tolstoy, “Notes” by 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 (Bryanchaninov).
2) Documents and their fragments
AND) An article titled “Soothsayer Abel. New authentic information about his fate”, published in the journal “Russian Archive” in 1878, is, according to an anonymous author, “an extract from” the archival “Case of the peasant Vasily Vasilyev, located 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 leaves.”
The article contains: 1) Extracts from the secret letter of the Governor-General Zaborovsky to the Prosecutor General Count A.N. Samoilov in connection with the arrest of the monk Abel dated February 19, 1796. 2) The protocol of the interrogation of Abel dated March 5, 1796 in the Secret Expedition. Investigator A. Makarov. 3) Judgment about the conclusion of Abel in the Shlisselburg fortress. 4) Rescript of 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 life path monk Abel, gives some information about him without reference to documents. The reliability of this information is problematic due to the fact that they are not always infallible. So, the author incorrectly indicates the year of the death of the monk Abel - 1841 (p. 365).
B) In another anonymous article “The Foreteller Monk Abel” in the journal “Russian Antiquity” for 1875, the following writings of the monk Abel were published: 1) “The Life and Suffering of the Father and Monk Abel” (with cuts containing “some mystical fabrications” (p. 415 –416)), written, according to the author of the article, apparently by himself. Note that the ownership of the authorship of the “Life” by Abel was not in doubt among a number of historians who wrote about Abel. 2) A fragment from the treatise “The Life and Life of Our Father Dadamius”, which is a variant of the presentation of the “Life” of the monk Abel. Dadamius is 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 doubts 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 at his disposal that belonged to Abel, where “on 28 pages there are various symbolic circles, figures with letters of the Slavic alphabet and counting, with a brief interpretation” . Two of this kind of symbolic tables from another similar notebook of 64 pages are published on S. 428-429, and Abel's interpretation of them is on S. 427 in a footnote.
The author also points to the treatises of Abel at his disposal: 1) “The Tale of the Being, which is the Being of God and the Divine”, 2) “Genesis book one”, 3) “Church needs of the monk Abel”, as well as 12 letters from Abel to the Countess P. A. Potemkina for 1815–1816 and Abel’s letter to V. F. Kovalev, manager of the factory of Countess P. A. Potemkina in Glushkovo. Excerpts from letters to Countess P. A. Potemkina are given.
AT) Another issue of the Russkaya Starina magazine publishes documents collected by N.P. Rozanov: 1) An exposition of the contents of the Consistory's reference to St. Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow on the monk Abel, dated 1823. 2) Order of St. Philaret on the appointment of the monk Abel in 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) Statement of the report on the escape of Abel from the Vysotsky Monastery and a statement of the content of other documents.
3) Publications of historians based on the analysis of documents
AND) M. N. Gernet’s book “The History of the Tsar’s Prison” (T. 1), which contains some information about Abel, taken from “The Case of the Peasant Vasily Vasiliev, 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 Savior-Euthymius 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 the prisoners of the Spaso-Evfimiev 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 Babaevsky 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 the 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 took the veil as a monk, 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 a 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, is sent to eternal imprisonment in the Shlisselburg fortress. From here Paul delivered him. From May 1800 to March 1801 he spent 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 prisoners to monks. 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, while his imprisonment was carried out at least twice by the highest command.
Documents related to the circumstances of Abel's first imprisonment in 1796 have been published in the most detail. Some materials of the case of 1796 that are important for us will be specially considered below. It is important to note that, according to historians, at that time there was not a single case of falsification of investigative materials by security agencies, similar to the known falsifications of the NKVD-KGB in the 20th century.
As for the 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. Here is what we know from the published documents in connection with the circumstances of these arrests.
Abel’s secondary conclusion in May 1800 followed the discovery in him, under scandalous circumstances, during his presence in the Valaam Monastery of a certain “book” and “leaf” written by himself (report of Metropolitan Ambrose of St. Petersburg to Prosecutor General Obolyaninov). After reading the contents of this leaflet, Obolyaninov followed the highest command (by Paul I) to imprison Abel in the Peter and Paul Fortress. As the anonymous author of the article writes in the Russian Archive, “Probably, Abel’s prediction about the death of Paul the First refers 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 about his conclusion this time in the 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 a monastic of this monastery. On the basis of 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 the third book with a foreshadowing of the capture of Moscow by the enemy, for which he was again imprisoned for many years in the Solovetsky Monastery.” Unfortunately, the anonymous author does not support this information with any documentary references.
Further, he writes that in 1812 Abel was extracted from the Solovetsky conclusion by the chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod, Prince Golitsyn. The release of Abel followed the order of Emperor Alexander I of November 17, 1812, after which, as this anonymous author writes, he begins to lead a wandering life, “lived in the Kursk province with the well-known rich man Nikanor Ivanovich Pereverzev, then 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 flees from it in 1826, lives again in the world, which was the reason for his forced imprisonment in the prison of the Spaso-Efimiev Monastery “for humility” by order of Nicholas I in the same year; here the monk Abel died in 1831 (on the problem related to the date of his death, see below).
If we summarize the available published documents as a whole, then among them there are no reliable data on 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. Yermolov we read: “Once at the table with the governor Lump, Abel predicted the day and hour of the death of Empress Catherine with extraordinary fidelity.” The memoirs of D. Davydov also talk about the exact prediction (of the day and hour!) of the death of Catherine II. Davydov's text repeats word for word the text of Yermolov'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 Babaevsky 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 Petersburg and imprisoned in the casemate of the Peter and Paul Fortress. The prediction came true soon." We find similar information about Abel’s prediction of the death of Catherine II and about his subsequent placement in the Peter and Paul Fortress in connection with this in the memoirs of L. N. Engelhardt, with the only difference that, according to Engelhardt, the arrest occurred after a personal meeting with the empress. Nevertheless, 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 the death of Catherine II, was planted in the Shlisselburg fortress, and not in the Peter and Paul fortress. This prediction itself, as it turns out 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 death of the empress, excluding each other in content.
2) Prediction about the death of Paul I. Second arrest
In Yermolov's stories we read: “Returning to Kostroma, Abel also predicted the day and hour of the death of Emperor Paul. Conscientious and noble police officer, Lieutenant Colonel Ustin Semenovich Yarlykov<…>hastened to inform Yermolov about this. Everything predicted by Abel literally came true. Literally, we read the same thing in the memoirs of D. Davydov. In Engelhardt’s memoirs we read: then he predicted to him how long his reign would last, the sovereign at the same moment ordered him to be again imprisoned in a fortress. The circumstances of Abel's second imprisonment were completely different, as we saw above in the analysis of documentary materials. In the memoirs of M.V. Tolstoy - “At dinner at 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, under Paul I, Abel was planted in the Peter and Paul Fortress and from there he went not to freedom with the same rights, but in conclusion to the Solovetsky Monastery, where he stayed for some more 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. Contradictions between the content of memories with each other and with documentary facts obvious.
3) Prediction about the war with Napoleon. Third arrest
“A few years later, Abel again made a prophecy about the entry of the 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, Freemasons 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 sovereign again ordered to put him in the fortress. After the expulsion of 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 to several monasteries, and other monasteries would be destroyed,” wrote St. Ignatius (Bryanchaninov). 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 in prison (see above). Again, in the memoirs of contemporaries we do not find a single direct evidence of the prediction and we find contradictions in the information given and inconsistency with the facts of the information given.
4) Prediction about the death of Alexander I, the uprising on Senate Square December 14, 1825 and the accession of Nicholas I
“He (Abel) applied for admission to the Serpukhov Vysotsky Monastery, where he entered on October 24, 1823. Soon, Abel's new prediction was spread around Moscow - about the imminent death of Alexander I, about the accession to the throne of Nikolai Pavlovich and about the riot on December 14th. This time the soothsayer was left without persecution. His last prophecy came true, like the previous ones, ”wrote M.V. Tolstoy. According to Engelhardt, “since 1820, no one has seen him (Abel) anymore, and it is not known where he went.” There is no mention of this prediction in the memoirs of Davydov and Yermolov. Again we see contradictions in the information and the absence of direct evidence.
5) Prediction about the years of the reign of Nicholas I
“Abel was in Moscow during the accession to the throne of Nicholas; he then announced about him: “The serpent will live for thirty years,” wrote D. Davydov. Other writers of memoirs 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 soon<…>Abel answered her: "You will not 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 for the fact that on one of her estates the peasants were out of obedience, outraged by the cruelty of the steward, and the countess was forbidden to come to the coronation, ”wrote M. V. Tolstoy.
Finally, in the “Notes” of IP Sakharov, it is only indicated that Abel wrote down his “visions on small notebooks, of which there are a lot of walking around the world.”
Thus, among the memoirs of contemporaries, we do not find a single direct evidence of Abel's predictions. The inconsistency of the information given by Abel's contemporaries, and vice versa - they repeat each other word for word and the inconsistency of the information 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 those in power. All of them, except for the last two, were published during crisis situations in the history of Russia: 1796 - the end of the reign of Catherine II; 1800 - the 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 the Senate Square. The question is - what should such prophecies, sounded on the eve of dramatic events, contribute to appeasement in the state or sowing discord?
As we have seen from the memoirs of contemporaries and from published documents, little is reliably known about the predictions of the monk Abel and, in general, about his personality. Nevertheless, on the basis of the most detailed published materials of the case of the Secret Expedition of 1796, his writings and some other materials, one can get a fairly accurate idea of \u200b\u200bthe personality of this person.
4. True face
I'm not a thief or a spy, I'm actually a spirit.
V. Vysotsky
I am the vice-chairman Pound. I have always sat. I was imprisoned under Alexander II “The Liberator”, under Alexander III “Peacemaker”, under Nicholas II “Bloody”… I take cheap: one hundred and twenty rubles a month in freedom and two hundred in prison. One hundred percent increase in harm.
I. Ilf and E. Petrov
The materials of the memoirs testify mainly in favor of 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 paint a different picture.
1 . Devilish beauty. Abel, according to his statements, received his revelations “from above” by hearing voices or seeing visions. What kind of character were they? At the first arrest during interrogation in the Secret Expedition on May 5, 1796, Abel expressed doubts about the divinity of their nature and at the end of the interrogation 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 him, his acceptance of the said “revelation” on faith and the prophetic predictions that he made on its basis and disseminated were, on his part, at least a manifestation of frivolity. However, for the authenticity and divinity of at least one of his "revelations" during the interrogation, he stood a mountain (see below).
However, in the “Life of the Monk Abel”, written by Abel himself, apparently much later, the attitude to the revelations in connection with which he first came under investigation, again changes to the opposite - it is argued that he wrote the 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, spoke about the charming nature of the “revelations” to Abel: their secret visions, from which hermits even come to fear. But God knows.”
As is known from Orthodox-ascetic literature, uncontrolled, uncritical acceptance of demonic visions and voices on faith, and even simple contacts with them, often end in insanity for the ascetic. The memorandum of Metropolitan Ambrose, quoted above, also speaks of the insanity of Abel. The abnormal behavior of Abel in the Peter and Paul Prison is indicated by the report of 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 insanity. Let's cite just a few.
1 ) A fragment from the “Life of Dadamius” is nothing more than a presentation of his biography, since the new name Dadamey, according to Abel, was given to him by a “spirit”, who also called him “the second Adam”. The presence of fantastic delusions of grandeur intertwined with heretical distortions of faith is evident. “He (Dadamy) is in all the firmaments and in all the heavens, in all the stars and in all the heights, rejoicing in the very being and reigning in them, ruling and dominating in them”<…>after that he “will reign for a thousand years”, and then “there will be one flock throughout the whole earth and one shepherd in them, then the dead will rise” ”.
2 ) We see a sad picture of a 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, firmaments and firmaments, worlds and worlds, powers and powers, kingdoms and states, and then everything else was created: and doing tacos and meditating nine years of existence and two to ten and one spiritual. In the present years, think all and arrange everything, but in the spiritual years create everything and confirm everything<…>Then create man and higher than man and higher in every world of man; and the number of all created people is the same as the number of all the worlds: create the God-man in your own image and likeness. Create their husband and wife, give them a name: Gog and Magog, Adam and Eve; Gog and Adam are husbands, 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 before Adam lived on earth for three thousand and six hundred years; gogh's land and all his generation all old America and all new america. Adam's land and all his kind all Asia and all Europe and all Africa - this is the land<…>Gog and Magog himself lived on the earth for all the years of his belly, four hundred and two years and four months, then he died and was buried quickly. They all had a hundred and twenty and two children, male and female; and they lived on the earth all their life, as it was said above twelve thousand years: their life is simple in the likeness of cattle and beasts. The law was given to them natural, all creatures according to conscience: but only this kind will be enlightened at the end of the age by faith and piety. Then the whole race of the Gogs and the whole race of the Adams will die. And other ages and other generations will arise, and they will always and unceasingly live like this, and there will be no end to it, it’s like that. Amen". Note that, according to modern psychopathology, such texts 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 coat, or recurrent schizophrenia. For these forms of disorders, the alternation of light intervals and periods of a rather roughly pronounced exacerbation of symptoms is typical. With a recurrent form in light intervals, a person suffering from this form of mental disorder can behave like an absolutely healthy person.
It seems that a less likely, although not excluded, explanation for the above-described features of the thinking of the monk Abel, reflected in his writings, may be an attempt to purposefully create an image of himself as a seer-holy 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 prophecy. We have reliable evidence in favor of the fact 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 Father and Monk Abel” and in the text “Life and Life of Our Father Dadamius”, written by himself, there is an exact indication that Abel-Dadamy should live 83 years and 4 months. In the studies of the historians M. N. Gernet and A. S. Prugavin, who analyzed archival data on the prisoners of the Savior and Euthymius Suzdal Monastery, the exact date of Abel's death indicated in the documents of the monastery is 1831. Abel's date of birth is 1757. Thus, he lived for 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 of March 5, 1796, Abel testified that the following details of the reign of Emperor Paul I, which he was ordered to bring to the attention of the empress and which he seems to have introduced and in his prophetic book, the contents of which he distributed: “When her son (Catherine II) Pavel Petrovich reigns, then the whole Turkish land will be subdued under his feet, and the sultan himself, and all the Greeks, and they will be his tributaries; and 2nd, tell her, when this will be subdued and their false faith will be destroyed, then there will be one faith and one shepherd throughout the earth, as it is written in Holy Scripture<…>Therefore, go boldly to 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 content of this "prophecy" to the empress and heir. Contradictions in its content 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 “the son (Paul I) will rise against the nude (Catherine II). Attempts by the defendant to prove that he wrote one thing, but meant another, did not lead to anything, the “prophet” ended up in the Shlisselburg fortress, and the “prophecy” was not fulfilled.
5 ) The protocols of the same interrogation in 1796 indicate the prophecy of Abel, the content of which was received by him “from above”; on the Divinity of this "revelation" he especially insisted even in the face of the formidable investigator of the Secret Expedition. We quote Abel: “His mother (Paul I) reigns, Ekaterina Alekseevna, our most merciful Empress for 40 years: for so God has revealed to me.” Meanwhile, the years of her reign 1762-1796 are well known - 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. A prophet who dares to speak in My name what I have not commanded him to say, and who will speak 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 the 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 spoke this in his boldness - do not be afraid of him(Deut 18:20-22).
3 . Heresy. According to a report about Abel by Lieutenant General Zaborovsky to Count A.N. Samoilov dated February 19, 1796, “an interrogation was made to him, but without great success, except for a dark testimony about a certain Jew Theodore Krikov, whom Abel recognized as the Messiah and whom he saw in Orla". During the interrogation, carried out somewhat earlier by His Grace Paul, Bishop of Kostroma and Galich, Abel called himself “the forerunner of Gogov”. Bishop Paul also testified to Abel's faith in the coming of the Messiah expected by the Jews in the person of a certain Jew Theodore Krikov and his journey to meet with Krikov in the city of Orel. Abel's views were qualified by Bishop Paul as heresy.
Thus, on the whole, Abel's attitude towards Christianity is before us as indefinite, and some connection of his views with Judaism becomes almost obvious. Masons were known to be the conductors and distributors of quasi-Jewish ideas at that time. Note that among the creations composed by Abel, there was a table of “Planets of human life” - judging by the name, it can be assumed that astrology was not alien to him. Some similarity between the views of Abel and the views of the Masons is also indicated in an article about him in the Russian Biographical Dictionary.
Obviously, his comments on the Old Testament history of the origin of mankind have a heretical character. Obviously gross damage to the dogma of original sin. Abel's eschatological prophecies also diverge from Orthodox tradition- there are chiliastic ideas in different versions. The views of the monk Abel on the origin of the human race and the future fate of mankind are reminiscent of some Talmudic traditions.
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 rare, and at the same time they related almost exclusively to future events in the political life of the state. At the same time, the temporary th connection of the appearance of these prophecies with 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 evident. In 1796 or somewhat earlier, he published in samizdat in the form of a prophecy a direct political provocation against Catherine II (“on the nude (Catherine II) the son (Paul I) will rise”) and a prediction about the coming prosperity and triumph of Orthodoxy under Paul I (see . higher). During interrogation in the Secret Expedition on March 5, 1796, the seditious version of the fall of Peter III as a result of a conspiracy by Catherine II was discussed, as it was then believed. III Emperor from his wife”), set out in the “book” of Abel, which he distributed.
According to the memoirs of D. Davydov, in 1826 he calls Nicholas I the word “serpent”. All this suggests that Abel could be used by interested parties to create certain moods in society - whether he “prophesied” himself or purposefully spread rumors about his “prophecies” before the events or after the fact.
It was this politically oriented nature of his predictions that greatly worried the authorities. For example, during the interrogation on March 5, 1796, and even after the verdict was passed, everything related to the aforementioned provocative prediction of Abel was again discussed in detail and the question of Abel's connections with other people was repeatedly raised. The vigorous activity on the part of the Masons at that time to influence Paul I and their stake 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 spread.
Original taken from 1613 in
Original taken from dmitri_obi in the Prophetic icons of the prophetic ABEL. Icon of St. Tsar Nicholas, written 70 years before his birth!!!
Prophetic icons of the prophetic ABEL. Icon of St. Tsar Nicholas, written 70 years before his birth!!!
Regarding the icon, bequeathed by Paul I along with the message "To my descendant, on the day of Job the Long-suffering born, open on the hundredth anniversary of my death." She was not destroyed. The Bolsheviks, not knowing the prophecies and not attaching much importance to it, sold it to a private collection. So she passed from hand to hand three times until the last collector died in 2005 in Moscow.
These are two prophetic icons painted at the end of the 18th century according to the predictions of the righteous Abel the Seer.
This icon was painted by the cell-attendant of the seer Abel, the icon painter Lazarus, in March 1796, 8 months before the death of Catherine II. The prophecies are placed on the margins of the icon. The icon was painted by order of the Empress. After that, Abel, together with the icon painter, was exiled to Petrokrepost, on Ladoga.
Inscription on top: "Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary"
On the left: "In the summer of 5035, your child will rise on the throne, more grandly going on in the summer of 4 and 4 months and days of 4 years."
Below: "5263, the imache, blessed in war, is more terrible, ascending the throne.
On the right: "In the days of the feast of the Holy Icon, this came to the gift of the saints, like a king, twice his name, to the gift of the saints."
Part of this prophecy during the life of Catherine II about the reign of her son Pavel Petrovich came true to the day: 4 years, 4 months and four days.
The chronology is given from 5035. If we subtract 1796 - when Paul I ascended the throne, the difference in years is 3239 years.
Consequently, the lower prophecy about the coming to the throne of the Tsar blessed in war is more terrible: 5263 - 3239 = 2024.
A little explanation. The dates are written in a strange way, they don’t write like that now. It is possible and so - and so to decipher. Their interpretation is therefore difficult. Either 214 years ago there were different rules for writing dates, or Abel deliberately did not want to reveal the prophecies, especially the end of the world: Jesus Christ Himself did not reveal this hour, saying that only His Father knows about it. 
Photo icons for printing >>>
This icon was painted by the icon painter Lazar at the request of Paul I according to the prophecy of the Seer Abel about the Last Orthodox Tsar.
The message of Paul I read: "To my descendant Nicholas, who was born on the day of Job the Long-suffering, to be opened on the hundredth anniversary of my death."
Attached to the message was this icon, painted in May 1798, 70 years before the birth of Nicholas II.
Explanations for these icons.
1. Why are the words of predictions written specifically on the icon of the Nativity of the Virgin? At the bottom of the icon it is written that the future Tsar will appear on the day of the Christmas holiday Holy Mother of God, i.e. September 21. It is also written there: in the war it is very terrible.
2. Concerning the icon bequeathed by Paul I along with the message "To my descendant, born on the day of Job the Long-suffering, to open on the hundredth anniversary of my death." She was not destroyed. The Bolsheviks, not knowing the prophecies and not attaching much importance to it, sold it to a private collection. So she passed from hand to hand three times until the last collector died in 2005 in Moscow.
He was robbed, and through the St. Petersburg customs they tried to take him abroad. They were caught, the icons were confiscated, they called an antique shop (corner of Liteiny and Vladimirskaya in St. Petersburg) and suggested that the owner come with an expert to customs. There was also an expert on their part - they agreed on acceptable prices.
The term for writing this icon was determined - the end of the 18th century. But regarding its cost - shrugged. In their opinion, it was a fantasy icon. (The rich used to allow themselves such a luxury then). Put up for sale at a bargain price - no one wanted to buy it. It was then that they remembered the Royal Chapel. 
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On the ancient icon, painted in 1798 according to the testimony of the monk Abel, Nicholas II is depicted - an absolute copy of any of his portraits, above his head - the inscription: "Great Martyr Nicholas". The icon was painted 70 years before the birth of our Tsar. The icon is prophetic, in the fields - the life of our Tsar and the history of the monarchy in Russia. The prophet Abel foresaw everything. 
Although a bad picture, but you can see:
Bottom left to right:
1). The king gives the crown to the PRIEST. This is a prophecy that it was the clergy at the beginning of the twentieth century who were to blame for the fall of the monarchical system. It was they who, on the third day after the ill-considered action of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich (he gave everything to the discretion of the legislative assembly, which was never convened) began at the liturgy instead of "God save the Tsar", proclaim "God save the pious Provisional Government", everything entirely Masonic. According to the charter, they were supposed to proclaim a health resort to the Coming King from the reigning family, "his name is Thou, O Lord, weigh."
Russia then was 70% peasant. There was no radio and television, the peasants had no time for newspapers, so they received all the news from the priests. Then on March 5 (18) (went Great Lent and everyone gathered in the church), the people were shocked by the news that the Tsar was no longer there, there was no monarchy either, that they had to pray for the pious Provisional Government. The priests busily explained to everyone that the Tsar was weak, bloody, brought Russia to war, now comes new life without exploiters (taken from the memoirs of the parishioners of the Pskov province).
Blzh. Pasha Sarovskaya and Rev. Seraphim of Sarov bequeathed to Nicholas II himself to step down from the throne. This is what is depicted on the icon 119 years before this sad event. Below the inscription: "Betrayal."
2) Royal Family is imprisoned in Tobolsk (or Yekaterinburg).
3) He is shot. The assassination of the Tsar by the same forces. Below you can see the inscription: "Shot with family."
4) And the last - the grave. Below is the inscription: "Buried in an unknown place." The place was really well hidden. And now many with sweet ecstasy sing about "false relics", trampling on common sense.
Above: either events related to the youthful years of Tsar Nicholas, or it shows the life of Tsarevich Alexy (birth, illness, etc.).
From the left, third from the top: near the field tents, as they were at that time, lies a defeated warrior. This is the lost First World War.
On the right, third from the top: more like the "Way of the Cross" of the Royal Family.
And the most remarkable thing, second from the top on the right: The Rider on a horse in royal clothes - the Coming Tsar-Conqueror.
________________________________________ _____________________________
For obvious reasons, the "reformed" names are kept. (correct - Jesus, Nikola, etc.)
I do not agree with everything about "self-descent" from the Throne.
The rest is extremely important.
It is customary to treat state secrets with care. They are stored in secret underground bunkers, depositories of impregnable Swiss banks, in hermetic underwater tunnels... In general, away from idle looks. The accidental discovery of secrets can cause a lot of trouble. Until the destruction of the state itself.
The Gatchina Palace of the Romanovs could hardly be attributed to well-protected, "regime" structures. However, here, in one of the halls, a rather voluminous casket rested, 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. Around it, on four columns, on rings, a thick red silk cord was stretched, blocking access to it. Of course, this was hardly a serious obstacle for a curious person. However, everyone knew that the casket contained an envelope with the imposition of the personal seal of Emperor Paul I and with his own inscription: “To open our descendant on the centennial day of my death,” and, like educated people, humbly waited for the date.
Pavel 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. Arrived inspired, good mood. The tsar left the Gatchina Palace in a completely different frame of mind. True, Nikolai did not tell anyone about the contents of the casket.
People who speak the truth in the eyes of the rulers are not loved in any state. They are either liquidated, or “conserved” 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 with indication exact day death, and besides, not at all a 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 far-sighted, and his disposition was distinguished by the simplest, and because what was revealed to his spiritual eye, he announced publicly, not caring about the consequences. The hour came and he began to prophesy: they say, such and such a time will pass, and the Queen will die, and even indicated by what death. No matter how far the Solovki were from St. Petersburg, Abel's word soon reached the Secret Chancellery. A request to the abbot, and the abbot, without thinking twice, Abel - in a sleigh and in St. Petersburg; - and in St. Petersburg the conversation is short: they took it and put the prophet in the fortress ... "
That's what the prophets do 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, this has not changed. After the prediction of Abel, 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 it all, ordered the elder to give a prediction in writing; so a sealed envelope appeared in the Gatchina Palace ... Abel was released in peace to the Nevsky Monastery, for a new vows as a monk. It was there, at the second tonsure, that he received the name Abel.
But the prophet did not sit in the capital's monastery. Already a year after the 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 will learn about the content of the “centuries” of Russian Nostradamus.
Some time later, 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 is again released from prison. Alexander I is already becoming the liberator of the prophetic monk. The new emperor warily sends the monk 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 the imagination of Abel in the Solovetsky prison.
But then the year 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: “Let Abel out of the Solovetsky Monastery, give him a passport in all Russian cities and monasteries, to provide money and clothing.
Once free, Abel decided not to annoy the royal family anymore, but went on a trip to the Holy places: he visited Athos, Jerusalem, Constantinople. Then he settled in the Trinity-Sergeeva 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 humility”, he sent the monk to imprisonment in the Suzdal Spaso-Efimov Monastery, where in 1841 Abel presented 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 your sinful, fierce end. On Sophronius of Jerusalem from unfaithful servants you will accept a martyr's death, in your bedchamber you will be strangled by the villains whom you warm on your royal chest. AT Good Saturday they will bury you ... These villains, trying to justify their great sin of regicide, will proclaim 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 of the hearts of the unrighteous and cruel. The number of your years is like a beech count.
The prediction that the Russian people will appreciate Paul I has not yet come true. If today we were to conduct a survey on the attitude of Russians to past autocrats, then Pavel would certainly be one of the outsiders.
About Alexander I
“The Frenchman will burn Moscow under Him, and He will take Paris from him and call him Blessed. But secret grief will become unbearable to Him, and the royal crown will seem heavy to Him. He will be righteous in the sight of God: he will be a white monk in the world. I saw above the Russian land the star of the great saint of God. It burns, it flares up. This ascetic will transform the whole fate of Alexandrov ... ".
According to legend, Alexander I did not die in Taganrog, but turned into the elder Fyodor Kuzmich and went wandering around Rus'.
About Nicholas I
“The beginning of the reign of your son Nicholas will begin with a fight, with a Voltairian rebellion. This will be an evil seed, a destructive seed for Russia. If it were not for the grace of God that covers Russia, then ... About a hundred years later, the House of the Most Holy Theotokos will become impoverished, the Russian State will turn into an abomination of desolation.
About Alexander II
“Your grandson, Alexander II, was destined by the Tsar-Liberator. Your plan will be fulfilled - the peasants will be freed, and then the Turks will be beaten and the Slavs will also be given freedom from the yoke of the infidel. The Jews will not forgive him for his great deeds, they will start hunting for him, they will kill him in the middle of a clear day, in the capital of a loyal subject with renegade hands. Like you, he will seal the feat of his service with royal blood ... "
About Alexander III
“The Tsar-Liberator is succeeded by the Tsar-Peacemaker, his son, and your great-grandson, Alexander the Third. Glorious will be his reign. He will lay siege to the accursed sedition, he will bring peace and order.
About Nicholas II
“To Nicholas II - the holy king, like Job the long-suffering. 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 once the Son of God. There will be a redeemer, he will redeem his people with himself - like a bloodless sacrifice. There will be a war, a great war, a world war. Through the air, people, like birds, will fly, under water, like fish, they will swim, they will begin to exterminate each other with a fetid gray. On the eve of victory, the royal throne will collapse. Change 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 peasant with an ax will take power in madness, but he himself will cry afterward. The plague of Egypt will indeed come."
About the new turmoil in Russia
“Blood and tears will water the damp earth. Bloody rivers will flow. Brother will rise up against brother. And packs: fire, a sword, an invasion of foreigners and an enemy, the godless internal power, the Jew will scourge the Russian land like a scorpion, rob its shrines, close the churches of God, execute the best people Russians. This is the permission of God, the wrath of the Lord for the denial of Russia from her God-anointed. And whether there will be! The Angel of the Lord is pouring out new bowls of calamity so that people come to their senses. Two wars, one more bitter than the other. The new Batu in the West will raise his hand. People between fire and flame. But it will not be destroyed from the face of the earth, as if the prayer of the tortured king is sufficient for him.
