Vasily Vasiliev was born on March 7, 1757, in Akulovo village, Aleksinsky district of the Tula (now Akulovo village, Aleksinsky district, Tula oblast, Russian Federation). He was the son of a peasant. Vasily Vasiliev was one of nine children.
In childhood and youth, Vasily Vasiliev worked as a carpenter in Kremenchug and Kherson. Having survived a serious illness in his youth, he decided to leave for the monastery. However, he did not receive the blessings of his parents.
In 1774 he married "against the will." After marriage "against the will" he learned to read and write and set off to wander. In the desert near the Valaam Monastery, he found, as it seemed to him, a gift to see the future. Later, according to his own "Life", Monk Abel predicted the time of the death of Catherine II, Paul I, the capture of Moscow by Napoleon. Prophecies ended sadly.
From 1796 Monk Abel spent in prisons for a total of more than 20 years. He wrote down his visions and thoughts in small notebooks, which "walk a lot in the world". Several of his works are a kind of transcriptions of biblical legends, accompanied by their own, usually "dark" interpretations were at the disposal of M.I. Semevsky who published excerpts from the Book of Genesis and Vasiliev’s autobiography The Life and Suffering of Father and Monk Abel. Included echoes and components of ancient Russian literature, "Life" at the same time fit into the rich tradition of manuscript literature that existed at the turn of the century with its interest in inexplicable coincidences of dates and events, various omens in the fate of eminent persons and states.
Vasiliev’s personality, embodied in his writings, is a type of "common mystic". He was a very distinctive figure of the 18-19th century. When he lived free, many representatives of the Russian intelligentsia (M.Ya. Mudrov, P.I. Strakhov) and nobles (including group P.A. Potemkin, Prince A.N. Golitsyn) were interested in his personality.
