Monk Abel. He is one of the most mysterious and paradoxical personalities in Russian history. How he managed to make his predictions remains largely a mystery today...
The Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedia tells about him as follows: “Abel is a monk-fortuneteller, 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 repeatedly imprisoned, 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.”
There is no need to argue with a reputable publication. Since it says that Abel predicted such and such (and he probably predicted it accurately, since he ended up in prison - people in Rus' have long disliked the truth) it means that he really had some kind of special gift.
How did he get it? What kind of person was he? Let's try to figure it out based on available historical sources.
At birth in the village of Akulovo, Tula province, he was named Vasily. His parents owned a plot of land, and it seemed that his son was destined for the share of a farmer. However, already from the age of ten, the boy thought more about how to run away from home, since “he had more attention to deity and divine fate” than the desire to dig in the ground.
However, his father was against it, and at the age of 17 they decided to settle him down, that is, they got him married. And although Vasily’s family soon had three sons, he lived little at home and increasingly “roamed around different cities.” Having learned to read and write at the same 17 years, and at the same time also to work as a carpenter, he began to go to different regions with artels of carpenters, visiting his homeland only in fits and starts during his nine-year wanderings.
While working as a carpenter at a shipyard in Kherson, he became seriously ill and made a promise to God that if he wanted to heal the worker, “he would go to work for him forever in honor and truth.” A miracle happened
Vasily recovered, returned to his place and worked for about another year before he decided that the time had come to fulfill his promise.
He went home and began to ask his father’s blessing for monastic obedience. However, his father was still categorically against it; his mother and wife supported him. But Vasily turned out to be a stubborn man and soon secretly fled from home, entering the Valaam monastery, and from there to the Valaam hermitage.
The most reliable source about this period of the life of the monk, who was named Abel upon tonsure, is the “Lives” published in 1875. However, much was deleted from them by censorship. And from what remains, one can guess that something out of the ordinary happened to Abel in the desert.
After that event, the newly minted monk acquired the gift of prediction. Voices began to appear to him and gave him unmistakable advice in certain situations in his life.
Monk Abel
In any case, when in March 1796 Abel was interrogated by the Secret Expedition, when asked when he first heard the “voice”, he answered, according to the “Life”, that “when he was in the Valaam desert, at one time he heard from the air there was a voice like the prophet Moses, the seer of God, and supposedly this was said to him: go and tell the northern queen Ekaterina Alekseevna the whole truth. Even I command you”...
This happened, as noted in the interrogation protocol, in March 1778. It also states that Abel further said that he was ascended to heaven, where he saw two books, the contents of which he later retold in his writings. In addition to the “voice of God,” visions also appeared to him. Based on what he saw and heard, he later made his predictions.
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In general, the prediction method was no different from the biblical one; This, however, was repeatedly pointed out by Abel himself.
The danger of heresy
Who is Hierodeacon Abel Semenov and how to find him? This query appears in the search bar, and it makes you feel somehow sad and uncomfortable.
Dear readers, if you are going to visit priest Abel Semenov, leave the idea. He is a schismatic and a heretic who condemns the actions of the Russian Orthodox Church and is banned from serving. It’s better to go to the nearest temple; the search for spiritual elders and priests ends sadly for those who long to meet them. The fact is that the enemy does not sleep, palming off such shepherds as Hieromonk Abel to naive people.
"Scary book"
Feeling his strength, Abel devotes the next nine years (note, again the same period as last time) to wandering. And everywhere he preaches the Word of God, and also prophesies.
Arriving on the Volga, he asked for refuge in Babayki, a place in the Kostroma province, where the monastery of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was located. Here Abel wrote the “wise and wise book” - the first of the “very strange” prophetic descriptions. In that book it was reported in what year and month, on what day and hour the queen would die. Moreover, all this was written about a year before the predicted events.
Having finished his work, Abel did not keep its contents secret, but showed his work to the monk Arkady. He regularly conveyed its contents to the ear of the Father Superior. Well, the latter, out of harm’s way, sent both the author and his book to a spiritual consistory.
From there, the materials of the investigation were sent to the Kostroma bishop, Bishop Pavel. And who knows, maybe Abel would have simply been quietly exiled far away from the eyes and ears of the world, but it was too late - the secret got out of control.
As General A.P. writes in his memoirs. Ermolov, who during the described period was in Kostroma, “one day while at the table of Governor Dump, Abel predicted the day and hour of the death of Empress Catherine”...
In general, rumors spread around the city, so Abel had to be sent “on vacation” to the local prison. But he did not stay there and was soon escorted to St. Petersburg, before the strict eye of the head of the Senate, General Samoilov. He saw unacceptable sedition in the book:
“How can we say out loud that the currently reigning empress will soon lose her life? This will also cause confusion and confusion."
The general did not hold back his noble anger and hit Abel in the face with all his might: “Who taught you to write such secrets and why did you start compiling such a book?!”
However, he was not embarrassed: “I was taught to write this book by the One who created Heaven and Earth and everything that is in them. The same one commanded me to keep all the secrets!”
Things were getting serious. However, the general got out of it. He decided to present Abel as a holy fool, but what is the demand for a madman?
Just in case, he ordered the monk to be kept in the Secret Chancellery for the time being, and he himself reported the incident to the queen: so, so, so, what will be the orders?
She asked, “Who is Abel and where is he from?” And having received comprehensive information, she ordered the inconvenient monk to be sent to the Shlisselburg fortress for life imprisonment. Abel was brought here on March 9 (again “nine”!) 1796.
And he would have sat in cell No. 22, in strict isolation, for who knows how long, if in the second half of that year his prophecy had not been fulfilled. On November 5, the Empress was found unconscious on the floor of her rest, and the next day she died, in full accordance, as they say, with the record made by Abel a year before the events described.
What is the activity of a deceiver?
Hieromonk Abel Semenov, where he is now is unknown to anyone. We highly recommend that you do not start searching for the deceiver; Orthodox believers claim that he is in Chukotka, periodically flying to Diveevo in order to enrich himself. In Diveevo, despite the holiness of the place, there are many sects where they will tell everyone about the coming end of the world and indicate the timing. Such storytellers are not embarrassed by the fact that the Gospel clearly says: “No one knows about this day and hour except the Heavenly Father.”
Abel Semenov is one of such prophets. He shows naive people how to save themselves, asking them to donate some money, and the hieromonk will pray for a benefactor. Who would refuse a handsome priest who sincerely desires the salvation of his neighbor? The hand reaches for the wallet, good money ends up in Abel’s pocket, judging by the flights from Chukotka to Moscow. The ticket costs very decent money.
Prophecies to Paul
On the same day, the son of Catherine II, Emperor Paul I, ascended the throne (one might even say hastily ran up). Being, let’s say, not on very good terms with his mother, the new ruler immediately began to change everything.
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General Samoilov flew from his post, and Prince A.B. sat in his place. Kurakin. He immediately considered it his duty to convey to his master the news of who was the first to indicate the imminent death of the empress.
Paul ordered to find the author and bring him to him. Moreover, the newly-minted emperor received the monk in his personal chamber “with joy and fear” and even asked for his blessing. Having treated Abel as best he could, Paul I asked about his future plans. The monk replied that he would like to return to monastic studies.
After which Abel was released in peace. True, they say that at the very end of the conversation, Paul could not resist and asked about his own fate, but the monk answered evasively: they say, not everything is revealed to him...
Paul ordered Abel to be placed in the Nevsky Monastery so that if necessary, he would be nearby. However, the stubborn monk, having spent a year on the Neva, eventually went back to the Valaam Monastery, where he began again to write the second “very terrible book.”
The completed work was immediately taken to St. Petersburg, to the Metropolitan, who sent it to a secret chamber, and then to the Tsar... And in the end, Abel was imprisoned again, only now in the Peter and Paul Fortress. As follows from the report of General Makarov, on May 26, 1800, the monk “was brought in properly and put in a casemate in the ravelin.”
“He, it seems, is just wandering around, and his lies no longer mean anything,” the general further notes, “and meanwhile he thinks to lure something out with imaginary prophecies and dreams; restless disposition."
This is the point of view of a military man, who, apparently, had fairly strong nerves. But Pavel himself and his favorite A.P. Lopukhina, it seems, did not have such nerves. In any case, according to the testimony of the Secretary of the Minister of Foreign Affairs F.P. Lubyansky, having read Abel’s predictions, “she began to sob with trepidation, frightened and upset.” And Pavel himself looked very sad.
As we know from the further course of events, he had something to be sad about. On the night of March 11-12, 1801, he was killed by his entourage. Moreover, it remains unknown whether Abel precisely predicted this date of death to him. If it had been definitely indicated, would Paul really not have been wary?..
About the Patriarch
Hierodeacon Abel calls for abandoning the commemoration of the patriarch. He motivates this by the fact that His Holiness is deceiving the people, being in collusion with government leaders. They lead gullible Russians to destruction, trying to destroy their worldview and impose their principles. According to Abel, the government, headed by the patriarch, is controlled by the Jews. Most of the authorities come from Israel.
What does the patriarch have to do with this, how he can dominate secular power and where the Jews came from - history is silent.
Third prediction
In any case, one way or another, in March a palace coup took place and the eldest son of the deceased emperor ascended the throne.
Alexander I ordered the monk Abel to be released from the fortress and sent to the Solovetsky Monastery 10 months and 10 days after his imprisonment. Historians note that he spent exactly the same amount of time in the Shlisselburg fortress.
And again history repeats itself. Once free, Abel manages to write his third “terribly scary” book in a year and two months. This time it talks mainly about events that were supposed to happen 10 years later and concerned the fate not so much of the emperor as of the entire empire. In other words, the monk predicted “how Moscow will be taken and in what year.”
The book again reaches the emperor and he takes the now traditional move: “Monk Abel should be imprisoned immediately in the Solovetsky prison, and he will be there until then, when his prophecies will be so prophetic.”
Abel spends ten years in captivity. However, as soon as Moscow was taken by the French, the emperor remembered the disgraced monk and his prediction, ordering his release. A postscript was added to the letter: “If he was alive and well, he would come to us in St. Petersburg, we want to see him and talk to him about something.”
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However, the rector of the Solovetsky Monastery, Archimandrite Hilarion, tried to prevent such a meeting. He was afraid that from Abel the emperor would learn about the outrages happening in the monastery - theft, abuse of prisoners, etc. And he sent an answer in which he indicated that “now Father Abel is sick, and he cannot be with you, except perhaps next year in the spring”...
Having become familiar with this news, Alexander I ordered the monk to be released on all four sides and “to be given a passport to all Russian cities and monasteries; at the same time, so that he is happy with everything, the dress and the money.”
And again the monk went through the cities and towns. He was in Tsar-Grad, and in Jerusalem, and in the Mount Athos. But he nevertheless returned from a foreign land to Russian soil, to the walls of the Spaso-Efimevsky Monastery, where he died at the age of 83.
Where did he come from?
One could refer to the fact that the Lord himself sent the hierodeacon to earth, but this is obviously false, blasphemous information.
The first book of this prophet was published in 2003. Over time, the popularity of Hierodeacon Abel Semenov increased on the Internet. On the well-known channel you can find numerous videos with his predictions, once you believe them, it seems that nothing good awaits us ahead. War, famine, mass chipping and the coming of the Antichrist.
Mysterious casket
According to some historians, the last 15 years spent within the walls of first the Vysotsky and then the Spaso-Efimevsky monasteries again look like another imprisonment. Why could he have received such a punishment?
Here you don’t have to be a special prophet to guess: the monk probably wrote another book. And in it he again predicted some troubles for the royal court.
However, there is another point of view: Abel had to pay once again for previously made predictions. In any case, in the early 30s in the West, in exile, the historical legend “The Prophetic Monk” was published, written by the monarchist, participant in the First World War P.N. Shabelsky-Bork, who took part in the attempt to liberate the family of Tsar Nicholas II from Bolshevik captivity.
This attempt, as we know, failed. And, probably, as an excuse, Shabelsky-Bork, under the pseudonym Kiribeevich, published a book in which he pursued such a line. The attempt at liberation, they say, was doomed to failure, since the fate of Nicholas II and his family was destined from above. In any case, Paul I was already aware of the death of the royal family. And he learned this sad news, of course, from a conversation with the monk-prophet Abel.
The contents of the conversation were recorded and sealed in an envelope, on which Paul deigned to write with his own hand: “To be revealed to Our Descendant on the hundredth anniversary of My death.” The envelope was placed in a casket, sealed with the imperial seal.
This casket stood for many decades in a special hall of the Gatchina Palace, until on March 12, 1901, Emperor Nicholas II had the lot to open it. That morning, eyewitnesses say, the Emperor and Empress were very animated; they were preparing for the trip to Gatchina as if it were just another entertainment. However, they returned to the palace, thoughtful and sad, and did not tell anyone about what was found in the casket.
However, what I read apparently sank deeply into my soul, since the writer S.A. Nilus, for example, describes the following incident: “On January 6, 1903, at the Winter Palace, during a gun salute from the Peter and Paul Fortress, one of the guns turned out to be loaded with grapeshot, and part of it hit the gazebo where the clergy and the sovereign himself were located.
The calmness with which the sovereign reacted to the incident was so amazing that it attracted the attention of the retinue around him. He, as they say, didn’t even raise an eyebrow... “Until the 18th year, I’m not afraid of anything,” the king remarked.”
However, was this behavior only a consequence of what was read in the Gatchina casket? As you know, many other prophets revolved around the royal couple. For example, it is known that the tragic death of the royal family was also prophesied by the clairvoyant Martha, as well as by Father John of Kronstadt.
And the predictions of Grigory Rasputin?
About the TIN
When people began to receive Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), there were some reservations about this in the church community. The believers were divided into two camps: the first did not see anything wrong in the piece of paper with the number, the second were horrified and denounced their rivals, appealing to their reason. The TIN, according to the second group, is from the Antichrist; accepting the number is strictly prohibited.
Doubts were dispelled by Father John Krestyankin, as written above. But there are still people fighting with the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), the same Avel Semenov.
Leaving for the Valaam Monastery
Monk Abel was born into a peasant family who lived on the estate of landowner D.L.
Naryshkin in March 1757, in the village of Akulovka, Aleksinsky district, Tula province. His name was Adam then. Until the age of 17, he was an ordinary person. At the age of 17, he had a desire to travel and study; in two years he mastered the craft of a carpenter and set off to travel. He began his journey from the south, then went west, visited the east and settled for some time in Kherson, where he built ships at a shipyard. In Kherson, he became seriously ill and made a vow to God that if he left him alive, he would serve him until the end of his days. Having recovered, he worked as a shipbuilder for another year, and when it was nine years since the start of his wanderings, he went home.
Monk Abel took secret tonsure at the Valaam Monastery
Arriving home, he asked his parents to give him a blessing to become a monk, but they refused, then he secretly took monastic vows in the Valaam monastery, and then from there he ended up in the Valaam hermitage. It was from this moment that the life of monk Abel took a completely different turn.
