Gatchina palace
In the Gatchina Palace, where, as an heir, Emperor Paul I permanently lived, 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 on the posts, blocking the viewer's access to it. It was known that this casket contains something that 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 removed from there only when the hundredth anniversary of the death of Paul I will be completed. Moreover, this must be done by the one who at that moment will occupy the imperial throne in Russia.
“To reveal to our descendant on the centenary day of my death” - such an inscription, hand-made by the hand of Paul I, as if it was on an envelope sealed with the personal seal of the emperor.
"Tower" office of Paul I in the Gatchina Palace
Predictions
Smiling affectionately, Emperor Paul kindly turned to the monk Abel with the question of how long ago he had taken monastic vows and in which monasteries he had been.
- Honest Father! - said the Emperor. - They talk about you, and I myself can see that the grace of God clearly rests on you. What do you say about my race, my reign and my destiny? What do you see with discerning eyes about my family in the darkness of centuries and about the Russian State? Name my successors on the Russian throne, predict their fate.
- Hey, Father-Tsar! - Abel shook his head. - Why are you forcing me to predict sorrow? Your kingdom will be short, and I see, a sinful, fierce end of yours. You will accept a martyr's death against Sophronius of Jerusalem from the unfaithful servants, in your bedchamber you will be strangled by the villains whom you warm on your royal bosom. On Holy Saturday they will bury you ... They, these villains, striving to justify their great sin of regicide, will proclaim you insane, they will vilify your good memory ... But the Russian people with their truthful soul will understand and appreciate you and will bear their sorrows to your tomb , for your intercession and the softening of the hearts of the unrighteous and cruel ...
- What awaits my successor, Tsarevich Alexander? - The Frenchman will burn Moscow with him, and he will take Paris from him and he will be called the 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 will inherit Emperor Alexander?
- Your son, Nikolai ...
- How? Alexandrane will have a son. Then Tsarevich Constantine ...
-> - Constantine will not want to reign, remembering your fate ... The beginning of the reign of your son Nicholas will begin with a Voltaire rebellion, and this will be a evil seed, a seed pernicious for Russia, if not the grace of God covering Russia. A hundred years after that, the house of the Most Holy Theotokos will become impoverished, the Russian State will turn into an abomination and desolation.
- After my son Nicholas, who will be on the Russian throne?
- Your grandson, Alexander II. The predestined Tsar-Liberator. He will fulfill your plans - he will free the peasants, and then he will beat the Turks and he will also give freedom to the Slavs from the yoke of the infidel ...
The Tsar-Liberator is inherited 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 restore peace and order.
- To whom will he pass on the royal heritage?
- 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 the Son of God once did. There will be war Great War world ... In the air, people, like birds, will fly, under water, like fish, they will swim, they will begin to destroy each other with a gray fetid smell. Treason will grow and multiply. On the eve of victory, the Tsar's throne will collapse. Blood and tears will fill the damp earth. A man with an ax will take power in madness, and a truly Egyptian execution will come ...
- My great-grandfather, Peter the Great, about the fate of my rivers the same as you. I honor everything that I have now predicted about my descendant Nicholas the Second, I will precede him, so that the Book of Fates will open before him, may the great-grandson know his way of the cross, among his passions and patience ...
Seal, reverend father, what you have spoken, set out 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 indestructible 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, having enclosed the presented Scripture of Abel in an envelope, he deigned to write on it with his own hand:
"Reveal to Our Descendant the centenary day of My death." On March 11, 1901, on the centenary of the Martyrdom of his sovereign great-great-grandfather, the blessed memory of the Emperor Pavel Petrovich, after the funeral liturgy in the Peter and Paul Cathedral at his tomb, Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich, accompanied by the Minister of the Imperial Court, Adjutant General Baron Frederiks and other persons arrive at the Gatchina Palace to fulfill the will of his deceased ancestor in Bose.
Paul I was killed on the night of March 11-12, 1801. Thus, the lot to open the mysterious chest fell to Emperor Nicholas II.
“On the morning of March 12, 1901,” recalled the chief chamberlain of the Empress Maria Goeringer (née Adelung, granddaughter of General Adelung, tutor of Emperor Alexander II), to Gatchina - to reveal an age-old secret. They prepared for this trip as for a holiday interesting walk promising to provide them with outstanding entertainment. They went merry, but returned thoughtful and sad, and they did not say anything about what they had found in that casket, not even me, with whom they had a habit of sharing their impressions. After this trip, I noticed that on occasion the sovereign began to remember 1918 as a fateful 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 ... People will fly in the air like birds, they will swim under water, like fish, they will begin to destroy each other with a gray fetid smell. On the eve of victory, the royal throne will collapse, a man with an ax will take power in madness. Or else there will be. The Angel of the Lord is pouring out new bowls of calamity so that people come into the mind. Two wars, one more bitter than the other, will be. New Batu in the West will raise his hand. The 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 dominates him. "
Crazy shot
Another episode is associated with this story, which, according to the testimony of contemporaries, took place on January 6, 1903 in the Jordan near the Winter Palace. During the salute from the guns from the Peter and Paul Fortress, one of them turned out to be loaded with buckshot. The grape shot hit the windows of the palace, and the sovereign and his retinue, who were 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 they gave him his name, he said sympathetically and with regret: “Oh, poor! How sorry I am for him. " The tsar understood that a severe punishment awaited the officer for the offense.
Nikolai was asked how the incident 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 least injury. It was a policeman by the name of ... Romanov!
As the elder of Optina Pustyn, Sergei Nilus, who narrated this episode, notes in his book On the Bank of God's River, “the charge that was aimed and intended by malicious intent to the royal Romanov, Romanov touched, but not the one at whom it was aimed: the times and deadlines did not come out - far it was still before 1918 ".
Departure of the royal family from the Winter Palace
So what was there?
Of course, as soon as about 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 monk-seer Abel, who foresaw the sad fate of the royal dynasty.
Abel, and earlier the Tula serf peasant Vasily Vasiliev, lived in the Solovetsky monastery and was a monk of "high life, was perspicacious, and had a simple disposition." He first 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 the same as 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 imprisoned in the fortress. However, then they remembered him again. Emperor Alexander summoned him. And Abel predicted that the French would burn Moscow. And again he found himself in the fortress. However, when his prediction came true again, the king wanted to forgive him. They rushed to look for the seer, but they could not find it. Abel disappeared ... According to other sources, he died in captivity.
It is not hard to guess that, having learned from the opened envelope about Abel's prediction about the fatal year for the dynasty in 1918, the mystically inclined Nicholas II was sure that everything would be so. This, by the way, can explain many of his actions, including the decision to abdicate the throne, which was called "strange" and "illogical." The king was convinced that he could not change anything. He once told his prime minister Stolypin: “No, believe me, Pyotr Arkadyevich, I have more than a premonition, I have deep confidence in this: I am doomed to terrible trials but I will not receive my award here on earth ... ".
Is it still a myth?
V modern times the episode with the casket has undergone the most careful scrutiny of historians. Studying the kamer-fur-er magazines, historians have established that on the specified date (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 furnishings and descriptions of the Gatchina Palace. But the pedestal with the casket was not found. One old photo shows, however, a certain pedestal, but there is a vase on it, not a casket. There is also no cord that encloses it, described by the chief-camera-frau.
But how, then, to explain the story told by Maria Goeringer? After all, she was the empress's confidant, distinguished by a sharp mind, observation and good memory. Why would she come up with such a strange story with the casket? It'll probably stay forever historical riddle... As well as the incredible predictions of the seer monk Abel.
There remains only the fact 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 Pavel 1 on the square of the Gatchina Palace
Prophet in his Fatherland
Abel (Vasily Vasiliev)
03/18/1757, Akulovo village, Tula province - 11/29/1841,
Spaso-Evfimievsky monastery, church prison, Suzdal
"His life was spent in sorrows and strains, persecutions and troubles, in fortresses and in strong castles, in terrible courts and in difficult trials ..."
"The Life and Suffering of Father and Monk Abel", 1875.
"These my books are amazing and awesome, 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 fatherland, but only: "as you know, our Parnassus is Elabuga, and the Kastalsky brook is Kolyma." So the Russian Nostradamus had a hard time. But even among them, the monk Abel, who received the nickname "Prophetic", stands out for its 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 life story that way, the monk, as it were, equated himself with the saints. The first to dare to call his life description a life was the rebellious and frantic Archpriest Avvakum. But he deliberately went against church reforms and thereby opposed himself to 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-fortune-teller was a firm belief in their destiny, a willingness to follow the path determined from above to the end, accepting torment and hardship. Habakkuk - sending curses and thunderous anathemas to the tormentors, Abel - meekly and patiently. But neither one step, not a word, did not deviate from their prophecies. And for this you have to pay at all times. It is not by chance that this phrase “living and suffering” appeared. Abel's prophecies dealt with Russian history for a huge period of time - from the reign of the Great Catherine to Nicholas II. And possibly further. According to some statements - to the very end ...
But first things first. And to begin with, let's open the plump volume of the dictionary of biographies of Brockhaus and Efron: “Abel is a fortune-teller monk, born in 1757. The origin of the peasant. 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 repeatedly imprisoned, and in total he spent about 20 years in prison. By order of Emperor Nicholas I, Abel was imprisoned in the Spaso-Efimievsky Monastery, where he died in 1841. " This is what Abel wrote about himself in his Life, published in the Russian Starina magazine for 1875.
Empress Catherine II
artist Karl Khristinek
“This father Abel was born in northern countries, in the Moscow limits, in the Tula province, Alekseevskaya district, Solomenskaya volost, the village of Akulovo, in the summer from Adam seven thousand and two hundred sixty and five years (7265), and from God the Word in one thousand and seven hundred fifty and seven years (1757). Conception to him was both the basis 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, as well as to all men, March the seventh. Father Abel's life from God is supposed to be eighty and three years and four months; and then his flesh and spirit will be renewed, and his soul will be portrayed 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 by Julian calendar... According to the 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's son had enough work around the house, and therefore he began to learn to read and write late, at the age of 17, working as a carpenter in the waste industry in Kremenchug and Kherson. Although "by specialty" he was a horseman, but as he himself wrote: "you pay little attention to this." However, there is another reason for his constant long absences to work. Later he himself told about her during interrogations in the secret office: Vasily's parents married against his will to the girl Anastasia, therefore he tried not to live in the village. In his youth, he suffers a serious illness. During his illness, something happens to him: either there was 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, in his own words, he "was a simple man, without any learning, and looked gloomy."
count, chamberlain, obstalmeister
at the court of Emperor Paul I
The elderly parents did not want to let go of the breadwinner, 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 Petersburg, falls at the feet of his master - the real chamberlain Lev Naryshkin, who served at the court of the sovereign himself as an obstalmeister. With what words the fugitive peasant admonished his master, it is unknown, but he received his freedom, crossed himself and set off. The future fortuneteller walks across Russia and gets to the Valaam monastery. There he was tonsured with the name of Adam. After living in the monastery for a year, he "take a blessing from the abbot and leave for the wilderness." For several years he has lived alone, in the struggle with temptations. “Let the Lord God allow him great and great trials. Many dark spirits are attacking the nan. " And in March 1787 he had a vision: two angels lifted him up and said to him:
“Wake you the new Adam and the ancient father Dadamei, and write as you have seen; and tell me you have heard. But do not tell everyone and write not to everyone, but only to my chosen ones and only to my saints; those write, which can accommodate our words and our punishment. So say and write. And other such a lot of verb to him. "*
* Quote from the text "Life", magazine "Russian Starina", 1875, (approx.)
And on the night of November 1, 1787 ("... in the summer from Adam 7295") he had another "wonderful and delightful vision," which lasted "no less than thirty hours." The Lord told him about the secrets of the future, ordering him to convey these predictions to the people: "The Lord ... speak to him, telling him the secret and unknown, and what will happen to him and what will happen to the whole world." "And from that time, Father Abel began to cognize 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. This is how the prophetic monk Abel began the path of a prophet and foreteller. "He walked tacos in different monasteries and deserts for nine years," until he stopped at the Nikolo-Babayevsky 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 fortuneteller showed this book to the abbot in February 1796. And he went along with the book to Bishop Pavel of Kostroma and Galician, since the abbot decided that he had a higher rank and a higher forehead, let him figure it out.
The bishop read and tapped on the forehead with his staff. Of course, 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 copy it, but composed it from a vision; for, being in Balaam, he came to church for matins, just as the apostle Paul was caught up to heaven and there he saw two books and what he saw, he wrote the same ... ”.
The bishop was distorted by such sacrilege - wow, the gray-footed prophet, he was "caught up" to heaven, he compares himself to the prophet Paul! Not daring to simply destroy the book, which contained "various royal secrets", the bishop shouted at Abel: "This book was written by death!" But this did not bring the stubborn man to his senses. The bishop sighed, spat, swore in the heat of the moment, crossed himself, remembered the decree of October 19, 1762, which for such writings provided for the disarming of the monks and imprisonment. But the bishop's head immediately surfaced that “the water in the clouds is dark,” who knows, this prophet. Suddenly, he really knew something secret, yet he prophesied not to someone, to the empress herself. The Bishop of Kostroma and Galician did not like responsibility, therefore he fused the stubborn prophet from hand to hand to the governor.
governor, lieutenant general,
statesman
The governor, having familiarized himself with the book, did not invite the author to dinner, but kicked him in the face and put him in prison, from where the poor fellow under strict guard, so that he would not embarrass people on the way with unreasonable speeches and delusional predictions, was taken to St. Petersburg. There were people in Petersburg who were sincerely interested in his predictions. They served on the Secret Expedition and diligently recorded everything the monk said in the minutes of interrogations. During interrogations by the investigator Alexander Makarov, the simple-minded 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 date of his vision. He wanted and was afraid "to tell Her Majesty about this voice." And yet in the Babayevsky monastery he wrote down his visions.
If it were not for the royal family, most likely, the seer would have been whipped or rotted in remote 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 with the seer for a long time, inclining to believe that he was a holy fool. He talked with Abel "in high tones", hit him in the face, shouted at him: "How did you, the evil head, dare to write such words on an earthly god?" Abel stood his ground and just muttered, wiping his broken nose: "God taught me to make up secrets!"
After much hesitation, they decided to report the fortune teller 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 feel good with such news ?! At first, she wanted to execute the monk “for this boldness and violentness,” as required by law. But nevertheless, she decided to show generosity and by decree of March 17, 1796, “Her Imperial Majesty ... deigned to indicate Vasily Vasilyev ... to put him in the Shlisselburg fortress ... ".
Abel stayed in the damp Shlisselburg casemates for ten months and ten days. In the casemate, he learned the news that shocked Russia, which he had known for a long time: 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, after the change of power, officials also changed. The Prosecutor General of the Senate was also replaced, this post was taken by Prince Kurakin. Sorting out, first of all, highly classified papers, he came across a package sealed with the personal seal of the Prosecutor General Count Samoilov. Opening this package, Kurakin found in it in terrible handwriting written predictions, from which his hair stood on end. Most of all, he was struck by the fateful prediction about the death of the Empress that came true. The cunning and experienced courtier, Prince Kurakin, was well aware of Paul I's inclination to mysticism, therefore he presented the "book" of the prophet sitting in the casemate to the emperor. Much surprised by the prediction that came true, Paul, quick to make decisions, gave an order, and on December 12, 1796, who struck the imagination of the monarch, smelling of the mold of the Shlisselburg casemate, the fortuneteller appeared before the royal eyes ...
One of the first to meet Abel, left a written testimony about this, none other than A.P. Ermolov. Yes, yes, that same Ermolov, 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 had served three months on false libel 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 the memory of Yermolov, 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 at 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. On another occasion, Abel announced that he intended to talk to Pavel Petrovich, but was imprisoned for this insolence in the 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 towards mysticism and could not ignore the terrible prediction that came true with terrible accuracy. On December 12, Prince A. B. Kurakin announced to the commandant of the Shlisselburg fortress Kolyubyakin to send prisoner Vasilyev to St. Petersburg.
The audience was long, but it was held face to face, and therefore no precise evidence of the content of the conversation has been preserved. Many argue that it was then that Abel, with his characteristic frankness, named the date of Paul's own death and predicted the fate of the empire two hundred years ahead. At the same time, allegedly, the famous testament of Paul I appeared.
In some of the 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 emperor's death) in your bedchamber you will be strangled by the villains whom you warm on your royal chest. It is said more in the Gospel: "A man's enemies are his own household." The last phrase is a hint of participation in the conspiracy of Paul's son Alexander, the future emperor.
I think, based on subsequent events, it is unlikely that Abel predicted his death to Paul, because the emperor showed a sincere interest in him, kindly showed his affection, and even published on December 14, 1796, the highest rescript, commanding Abel to be tonsured at his request as a monk. Then, instead of the name Adam, he takes the name Abel. So given prediction – pure 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. The prophet is bored in the capital, he goes to Balaam. Then, unexpectedly, the eternal recluse appears in Moscow, where he preaches and prophesies for money to everyone. Then, just as unexpectedly, he leaves back to 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. As in the last time, he did not hide the prediction, having acquainted the monastery pastors with it, who, after reading it, got scared and sent the book to St. Petersburg Metropolitan Ambrose. The investigation carried out by the Metropolitan gives the conclusion that the book "was written secret and unknown, and nothing is clear to him." Metropolitan Ambrose himself, who did not master the deciphering of the prophetic monk's predictions, 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 attaching his discovery, written by him, for your consideration. From the conversation, I did not find anything worthy of attention, except for the insanity in his mind, hypocrisy and stories about his secrets, from which the hermits even come to fear. However, God knows. " The Metropolitan forwards a terrible prediction to a secret chamber ...
The book lays down on the table to Pavel I. The book contains a prophecy about the imminent violent death of Pavel Petrovich, about which during a personal meeting the monk either prudently kept silent, or he had not yet received a revelation. The exact date of the emperor's death is even indicated - supposedly death to him will be a punishment for an unfulfilled promise to build a church and dedicate it to the archangel Michael, and the sovereign has as long as there are letters left in the inscription above the gates of the Mikhailovsky castle, which is being built instead of the promised church. The impressionable Paul is furious and gives the order to plant the soothsayer in the casemate. On May 12, 1800, Abel was imprisoned in the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress. But he will not sit there for long - the clouds are gathering around the crowned head of Paul. The holy fool Xenia of Petersburg, who predicted, like Abel, the death of Catherine II, prophesies throughout the city the same thing as Abel - the life span is released to Paul I in the number of years that coincides with the number of letters in the biblical inscription above the gate. The people were pouring towards the castle - 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 guard in the old Elizabethan Summer Palace and ordered to build a new archangel on the site of the old palace, dedicated to him. So the legends say. Abel, who foresaw all the secret appearances, reproached Paul for the fact that the Archangel Michael ordered to build not a castle, but a temple. Thus, Pavel, having built the Mikhailovsky Castle, erected a palace for himself instead of a temple. Although in the luxurious halls of the palace, it seemed, biblical motives came to life on tapestries embroidered with gold and silver. The magnificent parquet flooring 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 to Paul of his great-grandfather, Peter the Great, is also known, who twice repeated the legendary phrase: "Poor, poor Paul!" All predictions came true on the night of March 11-12, 1801. “Poor, poor Paul” died of “apoplectic stroke” inflicted on his temple with a gold 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.
On the night of the murder, a huge flock of crows is said to have fallen from the roof, screaming horror-filled screams from the surroundings of the castle. It is said that this happens every year on the night of March 11-12.
The prophecy of the prophetic monk came true again (!) Ten months and ten days later. After the death of Paul I, Abel was released, having been sent off under strict supervision to the Solovetsky Monastery, forbidden to leave it. But no one can forbid a prophetic monk to sorcery.
In Orthodox editions of the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries, one can find the biography of the monk Abel (in the world of the peasant Vasily Vasiliev), who lived in the late 18th and early 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 attribute him to ascetics of piety and even to the monastic fathers. Some authors believe that his predictions were and continue to be important for the historical fate of Russia.
What do we know for certain about this person? Before trying to answer this question, without considering the writings of those authors who wrote about Abel, relying 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 short memoirs of A.P. Ermolov, recorded from his words by a certain of his relative, 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 (Brianchaninov).
2) Documents and their fragments
A) An article titled “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 Vasiliev, 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 wrote. Started March 17th 1796, 67 sheets ”.
The article contains: 1) Extracts from the secret letter of Governor-General Zaborovsky to Prosecutor General Count A.N. Samoilov in connection with the arrest of monk Abel on February 19, 1796. 2) Protocol of Abel's interrogation of 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, setting out life path Monk Abel, some information about him is given without references to documents. The reliability of this information is problematic due to the fact that it is not always error-free. So, the author incorrectly indicates the year of death of the monk Abel - 1841 (p. 365).
B) In another anonymous article “The Predictor Monk Abel” in the journal “Russkaya Starina” for 1875, the following works 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 a number of historians who wrote about Abel did not raise doubts about the fact that the authorship of the “Life” was not due to Abel. 2) A fragment from the treatise "The Life and Life of our Father Dadamy", which is a version of the exposition of the "Life" of the monk Abel. Dadamy is the name with which Abel sometimes signed his letters. This new name (“Dadamey”), 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) Excerpt from the treatise of Abel “The Book of Genesis” - 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 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, which is the being of God and the Divine,” 2) “Genesis Book One,” 3) “The Church Requirements 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 Countess P. A. Potemkina's factory in Glushkov. Excerpts from letters to Countess P.A.Potyomkina are cited.
V) Another issue of the journal “Russkaya Starina” publishes documents collected by NP Rozanov: 1) An exposition of the contents of the Consistory's certificate to St. Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow about the monk Abel from 1823. 2) The order of St. Philaret on the appointment of the monk Abel to the Vysotsky monastery in Serpukhov from 6 October. 1823 3) Copies of Abel's letters to a certain Anna Tikhonovna and the spiritual father Dorimedont, 1826. 4) Statement of the report on the escape of Abel from the Vysotsky monastery and statement of the content of other documents.
3) Publications of historians based on the analysis of documents
A) The book of M. N. Gernett "The History of the Tsar's Prison" (T. 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 . № 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 for the first time published secret documents about the prisoners of the Savior-Euthymius Monastery in Suzdal.
As for the unpublished documents, let us point out, in addition to “The case of the peasant Vasily Vasiliev, who was in the Kostroma province in the Babaevsky monastery”, and extracts from the “Book of Genesis” by Abel (Central State Archives of the October Revolution. F. 48. Unit 13).
2. Arrests and predictions. Documentary data
Not much is known from published documents about the life of the monk Abel. According to the study 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 monastic vows and made a pilgrimage to Constantinople. He was not only literate, but also the writer of mystical religious manuscripts. During interrogation, he showed 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 the “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 he was freed by Paul. 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 a prisoner to a monk. " Finally, Nicholas I "imprisoned Abel in the Spaso-Efimievsky Monastery." Thus, according to the data cited by Gernet, Abel was imprisoned at least three times, while his imprisonment was committed at least twice by the highest command.
The most detailed published documents are related to the circumstances of the first imprisonment of Abel in 1796. Some of the materials of the 1796 case, which are important for us, will be specially considered below. It is important to note that, according to historians, at this time not a single case of falsification of investigative materials by the security agencies, similar to the well-known falsifications of the NKVD-KGB in the twentieth century, is known.
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 second imprisonment in May 1800 followed as a result of the discovery under scandalous circumstances during his presence in the Valaam Monastery of a certain “book” and “leaflet” written by him (report of Metropolitan Ambrose of St. Petersburg to Prosecutor General Obolyaninov). After getting acquainted with the contents of this leaflet, the Obolyaninovs were followed by the highest order (from Paul I) about the imprisonment of Abel in the Peter and Paul Fortress. As the anonymous author of the article in the "Russian Archive" writes - "It is likely that Abel's prediction about the death of Paul the First belongs 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 imprisonment 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 the 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 into the wild, Abel wrote a third book with the 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 links.
He further writes that in 1812 Abel was extracted from the Solovetsky confinement by the chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod, Prince Golitsyn. The release of Abel followed as a result of the order of Emperor Alexander I of November 17, 1812, after which, as this anonymous author writes, he begins to lead a wandering life, “he lived in the Kursk province with the famous 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 escapes 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 (about the problem related to the date of his death, see below).
Summing up the published documents as a whole, there is no reliable data among them about the predictions of Abel, which came true. This kind of information, however, could be withdrawn during publication for censorship in the 19th century.
3. Predictions and arrests. Memories of contemporaries
The memoirs of contemporaries give us the following picture of the life and predictions of the monk Abel.
1) Prediction of 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 at the Governor Lump's, Abel predicted the day and hour of the death of Empress Catherine with extraordinary fidelity." In the memoirs of D. Davydov, it is also said 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 Nicholas 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 to 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 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. Nevertheless, we do not find any direct evidence of this prediction in the memoirs of our contemporaries. As we will find out further, 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 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 of the death of Paul I. Second arrest
In the stories of Ermolov we read: “Returning to Kostroma, Abel also predicted the day and hour of the death of the Emperor Paul. Conscientious and noble police officer, lieutenant colonel Ustin Semenovich Yarlykov<…>hastened to inform Ermolov about it. Everything Abel predicted literally came true. " Literally the same is read in D. Davydov's memoirs. In Engelhardt's memoirs, we read: “After the death of the Empress (Catherine), the emperor ordered, freeing him, to present to him; then he predicted to him how long his reign would last, the sovereign at the same moment ordered him to be imprisoned in the fortress again ”. The circumstances of Abel's second conclusion were completely different, as we saw above when analyzing 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, Abel was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress under Paul I and from there he went not to freedom with his previous rights, but 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 recollections of the circumstances of the second arrest. The contradictions of the content of memories with each other and with documentary facts obvious.
3) Prediction of the war with Napoleon. Third arrest
“A few years later, Abel again prophesied 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 the Quakers, Illuminati, Freemasons and other mystical persons, ”wrote M. V. Tolstoy. LN 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 to put him 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 prediction, and we find contradictions in the information provided and inconsistency with the facts of the information provided.
4) Prediction of the death of Alexander I, the uprising on Senate Square December 14, 1825 and the accession of Nicholas I
“He (Abel) submitted an application for admission to the Serpukhov Vysotsky monastery, where he entered on October 24, 1823. Soon, a new prediction of Abel was announced in Moscow - about the imminent death of Alexander I, about the accession to the throne of Nikolai Pavlovich and about the revolt on December 14. This time, the soothsayer was left without pursuit. 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 Ermolov. Again we see contradictions in the information and the lack 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 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 AP Kamenskaya asked him; will the coronation be 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 Tsar for the fact that in one of her estates the peasants were 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 walks 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, on the contrary, the repetition of 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 the memoirs, only one, the last, had nothing to do with the fate of the ruling 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 - 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 the prophecies that sounded on the eve of the dramatic events supposed to contribute to - the pacification in the state or the sowing of confusion?
As we saw from the memoirs of contemporaries and from published documents, little is reliably known about the predictions of the monk Abel and about his personality in general. And nevertheless, on the basis of the most thoroughly published materials of 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 person.
4. True face
I'm not a thief or a spy, I'm actually a spirit.
V. Vysotsky
I am the vice-chairman of Pound. I've always sat. I sat under Alexander the Second “Liberator”, under Alexander the Third “Peacemaker”, under Nicholas the Second “Bloody” ... I take inexpensively: one hundred and twenty rubles a month free and two hundred - in prison. One hundred percent increase in 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 pleaser of God. However, his own writings and some documents speak of a different picture.
1 ... Devilish charm. 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 on 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 his words, his acceptance of the mentioned "revelation" and the prophetic predictions that he made on its basis and spread, was on his part at least a manifestation of frivolity. However, for the authenticity and divinity of at least one of his “revelations” during interrogation, he stood up high (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 stated 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, also spoke about the charming nature of the "revelations" to Abel: their secrets, from which the hermits even come to fear. However, God knows ”.
As is known from the Orthodox ascetic literature, uncontrolled, uncritical acceptance of demonic visions and voices on faith, and even just contacts with them, often end in mental harm for the ascetic. The above-cited memo of Metropolitan Ambrose also speaks of the insanity of Abel. Abel's abnormal behavior in the Peter and Paul prison is indicated by the report of the collegiate adviser Alexander Makarov to the 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. Here are just a few.
1 ) A fragment from the "Life of Dadamy" is nothing more than an exposition 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 delirium of grandeur intertwined with heretical distortions of faith is evident. “He (Dadamy) is in all firmaments and in all heavens, in all stars and in all heights, in his very being in them rejoicing and reigning, reigning and dominating in them”<…>after that he “will reign for a thousand years”, and then “across all the earth the flock is one and the shepherd in them is one, then the dead will be resurrected”.
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 (“The Book of Genesis”):
“In the beginning, firmaments and firmaments, worlds and worlds, powers and powers, kingdoms and states were created, and then passing through everything: both doing this and thinking for nine years that exist and two to ten and one spiritual. In present years, think over everything and arrange everything, but in spiritual years create everything and confirm everything.<…>Then create man both higher than man and higher in all the world of man; and the number of all created people is very much the number of all worlds: create the God-man in your own image and after your likeness. Create their husband and wife, put their name: Gog and Magog, Adam and Eve; Gog and Adam are husbands: but 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; gogov land and all its kind all old America and all new america... Adam's land and all his kind, all Asia and all Europe and all of Africa - this is the land<…>Gog and Magog himself lived on the earth for all the years of his life for four hundred and two years and four months, then he died and was buried by then. All of them had children one hundred and twenty and two, male and female; and they lived on the land of their entire life, as it was said above for twelve thousand years: their life is simple in the likeness of cattle and beasts. A natural law was given to them, all creation is according to conscience: but only this kind will be enlightened at the end of the century by faith and piety. Then the whole race of the Gogs and the entire race of the Adams will die. And other eyelids and other genera will rise, and they will live like this always and incessantly, and there will be no end to it, it is like that. 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 the correspondence between Abel and Countess Potemkina and other letters, we do not find anything like this in his letters. It is possible that we are dealing with letters written in a state of remission of processes called in psychiatry a fur coat, or recurrent schizophrenia... For these forms of disorders, the alternation of light intervals and periods of a rather gross exacerbation of symptoms is typical. With a recurrent form in light gaps, 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 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 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. Here are some examples.
1 ) In both versions of his autobiography - in the Life and Suffering of Father and Monk Abel and in the text of Life and Life of our Father Dadamy, written by him, there is an exact indication that Abel-Dadamy should live 83 years and 4 months. In the studies of historians M.N. Gernet and A.S. Prugavin, who analyzed archival data about the prisoners of the Savior-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 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 showed that the following details of the reign of Emperor Paul I, which he was ordered to bring to the attention of the Empress, were revealed to him “with a voice, like the God-seer Moses,” which he seems to have brought in and into his prophetic book, the content of which he disseminated: “When her (Catherine II) Pavel Petrovich's son reigns, then the whole Turkish land, and the Sultan himself, and all the Greeks will be subdued under his feet, and they will be his tributaries; and the second, tell her, when this is subdued and their false faith is destroyed, then there will be one faith and one shepherd throughout the whole earth, so it is written in the Holy Scriptures<…>Then go and the people boldly Pavel Petrovich and his two youths, Alexander and Konstantin, that under them the whole earth will be conquered ”. The purpose of writing the book was to convey the content of this "prophecy" to the empress and heir. The contradictions in its content historical events that occurred later are self-evident.
4 ) During interrogation on the Secret Expedition on March 5, 1796, it was found out that Abel had predicted in writing that “against nude (Catherine II) the son (Paul I) would rise”. The attempts of the person under investigation to prove that he wrote one thing, but had in mind something else, did not lead to anything, the "prophet" ended up in the Shlisselburg fortress, and the "prophecy" was not fulfilled.
5 ) In the minutes of the same interrogation in 1796, Abel's prophecy is indicated, 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) reigns, Ekaterina Alekseevna, our most merciful Empress for 40 years: for this is how God revealed to me." Meanwhile, the years of her reign 1762-1796 are well known - that is, only 34 years of her reign.
Thus, we see signs of a situation that was punishable by death in Old Testament times. A prophet who dares to speak in My name that which I did not command him to speak, and who will speak in the name of other gods, put such a prophet to death. And if you say in your heart: "How do we know the word that the Lord did not speak?" If the prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, but that word will not come true and will not be fulfilled, then the Lord did not speak this word, but the prophet spoke this out of his insolence, do not be afraid of him(Deut 18: 20-22).
3 ... Heresy. According to the report on Abel by Lieutenant General Zaborovsky to Count A. N. Samoilov on February 19, 1796, “he was interrogated, but without great success, except for a dark testimony about a certain Jew, Theodore Cricova, whom Abel recognized as the Messiah and whom he saw in Orel ”. During the interrogation, carried out somewhat earlier by the Right Reverend Paul, Bishop of Kostroma and Galich, Abel called himself “the forerunner of Gogov”. Bishop Paul also testified about Abel's faith in the coming of the Messiah expected by the Jews in the person of a certain Jew Theodore Crickov, and about his journey to meet with Crickov in the city of Oryol. Bishop Paul qualified Abel's views as heresy.
Thus, in general, Abel's attitude to Christianity is before us as indefinite, and some connection between his views and Judaism becomes almost obvious. At that time, as we know, the masons were the conductors and disseminators of quasi-Jewish ideas. Note that among the creations, composed by Abel, there was a table of "Planets of human life" - judging by the name, one can assume that the studies of astrology were not alien to him. Some similarities between the views of Abel and the views of the Freemasons are also indicated in an article about him in the Russian Biographical Dictionary.
His comments on the Old Testament history of the origin of mankind are obviously heretical in nature. Obviously, a gross damage to the dogma of original sin. The eschatological prophecies of Abel 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 resemble some Talmudic legends.
4 ... Anti-government orientation of predictions. The predictions of the monk Abel, which had wide publicity, according to the memoirs of contemporaries (see above), sounded quite rarely, while referring almost exclusively to upcoming events in the political life of the state. At the same time, the temporary the first connection between the appearance of these prophecies and crisis situations in the history of Russia. The anti-government nature of his predictions, which could have served 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 (“against nude (Catherine II) the son (Paul I) will rise”) and a prediction about the future prosperity and triumph of Orthodoxy under Paul I (see . above). During interrogation on 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 (“pad III emperor from his wife ”), set forth in the“ book ”of Abel, which he was distributing.
According to the memoirs of D. Davydov, in 1826 he calls Nicholas I the word “serpent”. All this suggests that Abel could have been used by interested persons to create certain moods in society - whether he “prophesied” himself or deliberately spread rumors about his “prophecies” before the events or after the fact.
It was this politically oriented nature of his predictions that worried the authorities. For example, during the interrogation on March 5, 1796, and even after the verdict was pronounced, everything related to the aforementioned provocative prediction of Abel was again discussed in detail and the question of Abel's connections with other persons was repeatedly raised. The active work on the part of the Freemasons 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 Masons in all political crises, during which and in connection with which Abel's predictions were spread.
Original taken from 1613 v
Original taken from dmitri_obi c 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 !!!
Concerning the icon bequeathed by Paul I together with the message "To my descendant, on the day of Job the Long-suffering born, to open on the hundredth anniversary of my death." She was not destroyed. The Bolsheviks, not knowing the prophecies and not attaching special importance to it, sold it to a private collection. So she changed hands 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 seer Abel's cell attendant, the icon painter Lazar, in March 1796, 8 months before the death of Catherine II. The prophecies are placed in the margin of the icon. The icon was painted by order of the Empress. After that, Abel, together with the icon painter, was exiled to the Petrokrepost, which is on Ladoga.
Top inscription: "The Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos"
On the left: "In the summer of 5035, your child was seated on the throne, the greater the creation of years 4 and 4 months and days 4 years."
Below: "5263 ascending to the throne and the one who was born, blessed by war, is terribly terrifying. In the year 6019, the end of this corruptible and especially sinful sinful world came to an end. Amen."
Right: "During the feast of the Holy Icons, this came before the gift of the saints like a king, twice his name, until the gift of the saints."
Part of this prophecy even during the life of Catherine II about the time of the reign of her son Pavel Petrovich came true day after day: 4 years, 4 months and four days.
The chronology is given from the year 5035. If you subtract 1796 - when Paul I ascended the throne, the difference in years is 3239 years.
Therefore, the lower prophecy about the coming to the throne of the Tsar blessed by war is terribly terrifying: 5263 - 3239 = 2024.
A little explanation. Dates are written in a strange way, now they do not write that way. 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 of the icon for printing >>>
This icon was painted by the icon painter Lazarus 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 open 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 on these icons.
1. Why are the words of predictions written on the icon of the Nativity of the Virgin? At the bottom of the icon it is written that the future King will appear on the day of the feast of Christmas Holy Mother of God, i.e. September 21st. It also says: the war is terribly terrifying.
2. Concerning the icon bequeathed by Paul I together with the message "To my descendant, on the day of Job the Long-suffering born, to open on the hundredth anniversary of my death." She was not destroyed. The Bolsheviks, not knowing the prophecies and not attaching special importance to it, sold it to a private collection. So she changed hands three times until the last collector died in 2005 in Moscow.
They robbed him, and tried to take him abroad through the St. Petersburg customs. They were caught, the icons were confiscated, they called an antique store (corner of Liteiny and Vladimirskaya in St. Petersburg) and invited the owner to come with an expert to customs. There was also an expert on their part - they agreed on acceptable prices.
The date of writing this icon was determined - the end of the 18th century. But regarding the cost of it - they shrugged their shoulders. In their opinion, it was a fantasy icon. (The rich used to allow themselves then such a luxury). They put it up for sale at a bargain price - no one wanted to buy it. It was then that they remembered the Tsar's Chapel. 
Photo of the icon for printing >>>
The old icon, painted in 1798 according to the testimony of the monk Abel, depicts Nicholas II - 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, across the fields - the life of our Tsar and the history of the monarchy in Russia. Prophet Abel foresaw everything. 
It’s a bad shot, 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 monarchy. It was they who, already on the third day after the ill-conceived action of the Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich (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 overwhelmingly Masonic. According to the charter, they were supposed to proclaim the health resort to the Coming King from the reigning clan, "His name is Thou, Lord, weigh."
Russia was then 70% peasant. There was no radio or television, the peasants had no time for newspapers, so they received all the news from the priests. Then on March 5 (18) (it was 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, that it was necessary to pray for a pious Provisional Government. The priests busily explained to everyone that the Tsar was weak, bloody, brought Russia to war, now it is coming new life without exploiters (taken from the memoirs of the parishioners of the Pskov province).
Blzh. Pasha of Sarov and St. Seraphim of Sarov bequeathed to Nicholas II to step down from the throne himself. This is the very thing depicted in the icon 119 years before this sad event. At the bottom there is an inscription: "Betrayal".
2) Royal Family is in captivity in Tobolsk (or in Yekaterinburg).
3) They shoot him. The assassination of the Tsar by the same forces. Below you can see the inscription: "Shot with family."
4) And the last is the grave. At the bottom there is an inscription: "buried in an unknown place." The place was really well hidden. And now many sing about "false powers" with sweet rapture, 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.).
On the left is the third from above: at the field tents, as they were at that time, a defeated warrior lies. This is a lost World War I.
On the right third from the top: more like the "Way of the Cross" of the Royal Family.
And the most remarkable, on the right, the second from the top: the Horseman on horseback in royal robes - the Coming Victorious Tsar.
________________________________________ _____________________________
For obvious reasons, the "reformed" names have been retained. (correctly - Jesus, Nikola, etc.)
I do not agree on everything about "self-descent" from the Throne.
The rest is extremely important.
It is customary to treat state secrets with care. They are kept in secret underground bunkers, depositories of impregnable Swiss banks, in sealed underwater tunnels ... In general, away from idle glances. The accidental discovery of secrets can be a lot of hassle. Up to the destruction of the state itself.
The Gatchina Palace of the Romanovs could hardly be attributed to the 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. 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 imposition of the personal seal of Emperor Paul I and with his own handwritten inscription: "Open our descendant on the hundredth day of my death", and, like people brought up, they humbly awaited 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. Arrived inspired, in 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 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 their 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, it is not at all a royal place - a toilet.
- “In the days of the great Catherine in the Solovetsky Monastery there lived a monk of high life. His name was Abel. He was perspicacious, and had a simple disposition, and because it opened up to his spiritual eye, he announced publicly, not caring about the consequences. The hour came and he began to prophesy: say, such and such a time will pass, and the Tsarina will die, and he even indicated by what death. No matter how far Solovki were from St. Petersburg, the word of Abel soon reached the Secret Chancellery. Request to the abbot, and the abbot, without thinking twice, Abel - to the sleigh and to St. Petersburg; - and in St. Petersburg the conversation is short: they took and put the prophet in the fortress ... "
This is 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, did not change. After the prediction of Abel, as they say, came into force - Catherine the Great died on that day and in the same place - the monk was amnestied by Paul I.
The emperor wished to meet with the elder and hear new predictions 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 tonsure. It was there, during the second tonsure, that he received the name Abel.
But the prophet did not sit in the capital monastery. A year after talking with Pavel, he appears in Moscow, where for money he gives predictions to local aristocrats and wealthy merchants. After earning some money, the monk goes to the Valaam monastery. But Abel does not live peacefully there either: he again takes up his 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 whole monastery will learn about the content of the "centurias" of 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 the indignation of the peace of mind of his Majesty."
Immediately after the death of Paul I, Abel is released from prison again. Alexander I is already becoming the liberator of the prophetic monk. The new emperor cautiously 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 comes 1812, the Russian army surrenders Moscow to the French, and White Stone, as the monk predicted, almost burns to the ground. Impressed Alexander I orders: “To release Abel from the Solovetsky Monastery, to give him a passport to 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 settles in the Trinity-Sergeeva Lavra. For a while, it behaves quietly, until, after the accession of Nicholas I, it breaks through again. The new emperor did not like to stand on ceremony, therefore, "for humility", he sent the monk to prison 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, sinful, fierce end of yours. You will accept a martyr's death against Sophronius of Jerusalem from the unfaithful servants, in your bedchamber you will be strangled by the villains whom you warm on your royal bosom. V Good Saturday they will bury you ... They, these villains, striving to justify their great sin of regicide, will proclaim you insane, they will revile your good memory ... intercession and softening of the hearts of the unrighteous and cruel. The number of your years is like the counting of a beech. "
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 to the past autocrats, then Pavel would certainly be one of the outsiders.
About Alexander I
“The Frenchman will burn Moscow with Him, but He will take Paris from him and be called the Blessed. But the secret grief will become unbearable to Him, and the crown of the Royal Feat of service to the Royal will seem heavy to Him He will replace 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 above the Russian land the star of the great saint of God. It burns, flares up. This ascetic will fulfill the whole destiny of Aleksandrov ... ".
According to legend, Alexander I did not die in Taganrog, but turned into the elder Fyodor Kuzmich and went to wander around Russia.
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 harmful seed for Russia. If not the grace of God covering Russia, then ... About a hundred years after that, 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 the Second, destined Tsar-Liberator. Your plan will be fulfilled - he will free the peasants, and then he will beat the Turks and give the Slavs freedom from the yoke of the infidel. The Jews will not forgive him for great deeds, they will start hunting for him, kill him in the middle of a clear day, in the capital loyal to the hands of the renegade. Like you, he will seal the feat of his service with the royal blood ... "
About Alexander III
“The Tsar-Liberator is inherited 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. "
About Nicholas II
“Nicholas the Second - a holy tsar, Job like a long-suffering one. He will have the mind of Christ, patience and dove-like purity. Scripture testifies to him: Psalms 90, 10 and 20 revealed to me his whole destiny. He will replace the royal crown with a wreath of thorns, he will be betrayed by his people, as the Son of God once did. The Redeemer will, will redeem his people - like a bloodless sacrifice. There will be war, a great war, world war. In the air, people, like birds, will fly, under water, like fish, they will swim, they will begin to destroy each other with a gray fetid smell. 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 he himself will weep afterwards. There will truly be an Egyptian execution. "
On 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, sword, invasion of foreigners and the enemy is the inner power of godlessness, the Jew will scourge the Russian land with a scorpion, rob its shrines, close the churches of God, execute the best people Russians. This is God's permission, the Lord's wrath for Russia's renunciation of her Anointed One. And then there will still be! The Angel of the Lord is pouring out new bowls of calamity so that people come into the mind. Two wars, one more bitter than the other, will be. New Batu In the West will raise his hand. The 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 dominates him. "
